site.btaBucharest Municipal Council Okays over EUR 1.65 Mln for Bulgarian Landmark Restoration

Bucharest Municipal Council decided Wednesday to extend funds for the restoration of the Solakov Inn, a historical landmark related to the Bulgarian community in the city, Agerpress reported.

The project in question is aimed at securing, preserving and protecting a historical landmark in downtown Bucharest to the total value of RON 8.2 million (EUR 1.651,3 million) over a period of 16 months.

Conservation works will commence as soon as possible. The Solaca Inn is listed as a historical monument by the Municipality of Bucharest and is in an advanced state of decay. The structure is considered unsafe given that it is in Class 1 seismic risk.

Precisely a year ago, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan assured that they had the green light to commence work on the Solakov Inn. Work on the salvation of the building would commence soon and the issues with alienation and its financial aspects had been resolved.

The inn was named after the Solakoglu brothers from the Danubian city of Svishtov. Initially built as a pasta factory in 1859, it gradually became a haven for Bulgarian revolutionary immigrants in Romania. The Solakov Inn housed the press where the great Bulgarian National Revival figure Lyuben Karavelov published the newspapers "Freedom" and "Independence", as well as the "Knowledge" journal. There, too, poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev and national hero Vassil Levski spent the harsh winter of 1868, as was later described by Botev.

The glory of those times, which preceded Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule, is attested by a memorial slab to Karavelov on the building's facade placed there by the Bulgarian embassy in Bucharest.

The 100-room building was nearly destroyed in the World War II bombings and then nationalized in 1948. Until the end of the 1980s it was used to house low-income people and gradually fell into disrepair, to the point that it was threatened to be demolished and remained in that poor state long years despite its statute as a monument of culture (since 1997). The then Bulgarian ambassador in Bucharest, Peter Danailov, began negotiations with Romanian authorities for the inn to be restored and become a Bulgarian cultural centre.

In 2003, descendants of the Solakoglu brothers succeeded in regaining their property, but it was in terrible condition. Restoring it required a considerable investment which they failed to provide.