Author of some of the most beautiful and significant buildings in Sofia, which define its appearance, Naum Torbov is among the most influential Bulgarian architects of the first half of the 20th century. Due to his proverbial modesty, however, little is known about him, and his name remains almost unknown, and was even twice misspelled on his memorial plaque in the Central Sofia Halls, one of his iconic works. “According to my father and my aunt, he was an extremely modest person. That is why so little can be found about him either from old newspapers or magazines or from coverage of public events. It was not even mentioned during events at the City Casino, where the elite and intellectuals of Sofia gathered. He didn’t like to be in the spotlight, not even the spotlight in the casino he designed,” says his great-granddaughter Alexandra Nedeva.
Maria PETKOVA
Torbov is a supporter of the national romantic trend in architecture and is the author of over 100 public, industrial and residential buildings in Sofia, Oryahovo, Silistra, Botevgrad, Dupnitsa, Mezdra. Among the most famous in the capital are the City Casino, later rebuilt into the Sofia City Art Gallery, the destroyed Odeon cinema-theater on Tsar Simeon Street, the Hentovi houses at 135 Knyaz Boris I Street and the Stanishevi houses, later the Main Mufti’s Office, at 27 Bratya Miladinovi Street, the Carpenter’s Building at 71 Hristo Botev Boulevard, the Income Building of Dimitar Kostov at 36 Alabin Street.
Read more about one of the most significant Bulgarian architects on the art site bgart.bg
