Sofia court printing house

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The Sofia Court Printing House ( Bulgarian Придворна печатница ), later the Sofia State Printing House , was founded in 1879 by the brothers Jiří Prošek and Theodor Prošek in the Bulgarian capital Sofia . Both came from the Czech Republic and had settled in Sofia as entrepreneurs. In literature references the Sofia court printing house is sometimes also cited as Sofia court printing house or court book printing house .

history

The Prošek brothers' printing house was the first printing house in Sofia. All newspapers for Sofia were printed there, as well as the magazine of the "Bulgarian Literary Society" (bulg. "Българско книжовно дружество" ), today's Bulgarian Academy of Sciences .

As early as May 31, 1880, Prime Minister Petko Karawelow had proposed that the 1881 budget include a loan for the creation of a state printing plant in Sofia for the first time.

The first steam engines for the operation of the court printing house were imported from abroad in autumn 1880. Since Sofia had no connection to the railroad until 1887, the machines were transported to Sofia the then usual route: first on the Danube by steamship to the Bulgarian city of Lom on the Danube and then on ox carts to Sofia (162 km south of Sofia). The road from Lom to Sofia was not paved, it led across the Balkan Mountains and was difficult to pass in autumn.

The steam engine in the former mosque was the first steam engine in Bulgaria, it had an output of 5 hp and powered the three high-speed presses of the court printing house. The printing house was officially opened on January 25th (according to other sources on January 15th) 1881, in the presence of Prince Alexander I von Battenberg and his entire Council of Ministers. The printing company started with 30 employees and in 1912 it was already a large state-owned company with over 500 workers.

Originally, the print shop was called printing of the brothers Prošek (bulg. Печатница на братия Прошекъ / Petschatniza na Bratja Proschek ), from 1887 also the people printing the brothers Prošek (bulg. Народна печатница на братия Прошекъ / Narodna petschatniza na Bratja Proschek ). It was not until 1899 that it was referred to as the court printing house of the Prošek brothers ( Bulgar . Придворна печатница Братия Прошекови / Pridworna pachatniza Bratja Proschekowi).

The printing house was the court printing house of the Princely Court in the Principality of Bulgaria . The "Staatszeitung" (Bulgarian "Държавен вестник" ) has also been printed there since its first edition, as have forms for the royal court, ministries and all state authorities.

Jiří Prošek's daughter Maria married Iwan Kadela, who was later appointed head of the print shop.

The printing plant was initially located in the building of the former Great Mosque of Sofia , the offices in the main building, and the printing machines in two temporary outbuildings. One of the outbuildings was built on the west facade facing today's Lege Street, the other on the opposite facade facing Knjaginja Clementine Boulevard (now Atanas Burow Square). These buildings existed until 1887.

The State Printing Office then moved into its own new building on 19 February street (bulg. Улица 19 февруари ), which was built by architect Friedrich Schwanberg from 1882 to 1883 , directly on Alexander Nevsky Square. The printing house was called the State Printing House (Bulgarian Държавна печатница / Darschawna hechatnitsa). When Sofia was bombed in 1943, the printing plant was destroyed by fire. The building was rebuilt in 1981 by the architect Nikola Nikolow (1924–1996), albeit with a few differences from the original, and today houses the National Gallery of Foreign Art (Bulgarian Национална галерия за чуждестранно изкуство ).

The theater moved into the now vacant former Great Mosque of Sofia. From 1892 the building housed the National Archaeological Museum .

From September 15, 1905, the magazine “Demokrat”, the organ of the Radical Democratic Party, was printed here.

Lewa banknotes were not printed in the court printing house. In 1885 the law on the reform of the Bulgarian State Bank was enacted, which, in addition to the coins already used, also ordered the printing of banknotes. However, Bulgaria had this printed abroad.

The new printing house immediately northwest of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was huge. The building had only just been erected when the Vasil Levski monument was inaugurated in the immediate vicinity in 1896.

Under communist rule from 1944 onwards, the Polygraphic Combine "Dimitar Blagoev" ( Bulgar . Полиграфически комбинат "Димитър Благоев" / Poligrafitscheski People's Combine) " Dimitar Blagoev " was in the Leningradsko People's Republic of Bulgaria at that time, " Dimitar Blagoev ".

Banknote printing

In the absence of a currency of its own, the first state budget of the Principality of Bulgaria from 1879 to 1880 was drawn up in French francs . The first national budget in 1879 was 153,980 Swiss francs, 52,885 of which were for city lighting. Before that, when Bulgaria was still part of the Ottoman Empire, gold coins (Sultani = Altun ) and silver coins ( Asper , Akçe ; later also Kuruş and Para ) were the official currency, and numerous foreign coins were also in circulation in the Ottoman Empire.

On June 4, 1880, the Coin Act was passed in the Principality of Bulgaria and the lev with the subunit stotinki was created as a currency unit. At first only coins were minted. The first Leva banknotes after the liberation of Bulgaria were printed in Russia in 1885 and each one was personally signed by the then chairman of the Bulgarian State Bank and the cashier of the Bulgarian State Bank. Later the banknotes were printed in Germany and Great Britain.

The 1922 banknotes (1924 according to other sources) were then printed in the US, although the offer was the most expensive. It supposedly offered the best quality paper and ink. These banknotes were popularly called Amerikanka (American woman). From 1924 onwards, Leva banknotes were printed for the first time in Bulgaria in the state printing plant. Under the rule of the communists (1944 to 1989), the Leva banknotes were printed in the Soviet Union. Since the Bulgarian State Bank's printing works opened in 1997, Leva banknotes have been printed in Bulgaria again.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grigor Doytchinov, Christo Ganchev: Austrian Architects in Bulgaria 1878 - 1918. Publisher Böhlau, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-205-99343-8 ; Page 190

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Coordinates: 42 ° 41 ′ 47 "  N , 23 ° 20 ′ 3"  E