Bulgarian Capital Town Hall Grabs Historic Sofia Building

Domestic | March 14, 2011, Monday // 13:26| views

The building of the Ministry of Agriculture in Sofia. Photo by IASAS.bg

The Sofia Municipality will move into the building that has been occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture for almost seven decades, it was announced Monday.

The formal decision will be taken by the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, and will involve the two institutions swapping their buildings, with the Ministry of Agriculture moving in the old town offices on Moskovska Street in downtown Sofia.

The intention is also to move some of the Ministry's agencies away from the city center, as well as to other cities different from Sofia.

"The building of the Ministry of Agriculture is the finest in Sofia, and that's where the city's mayor should be sitting," commented Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov.

He also did not hide that his desire to do the buildings swap dates back from the days he was Sofia Mayor 2005-2009. At that time however he did not have the authority to order the move.

Borisov's successor as mayor, Yordanka Fandakova, is a fellow center-right GERB party member and is facing municipal elections in the fall of 2011.

The building of the Ministry of Agriculture is among the most beautiful and stately in Bulgaria's capital.

The idea for it was launched in 1912, when the Sofia Regional Court commissioned a new building on land granted to it by Sofia Municipality.

The land, now located on Hristo Botev Blvd near Makedonia Sq., had been previously occupied by old Christian and Jewish graveyards.

Due to the First World War, work on the project did not start until 1920 however, with the building being finished in 1927.

The building was designed by Bulgarian architects Nikola Lazarov and Iliya Popov.

After housing the Sofia Regional Court, the building was also home to the National Audit Office. Ever since the regime turnover in 1944, it was home to the various incarnations of the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture.