National Palace of Culture (Sofia)
The National Palace of Culture ( Bulgarian Национален дворец на културата / Nazionalen dworez na kulturata; usually only short: НДК / NDK) is a congress and concert center in the city center of the Bulgarian capital Sofia . With its halls and conference rooms, it is the national cultural center of Bulgaria for conferences, as well as for cultural events such as exhibitions, concerts, opera and ballet performances and other events.
The Kulturpalast is the largest congress center in Southeast Europe . The groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 25, 1978. The third and final phase of construction of the Palace of Culture was completed at the end of 1985.
The Palace of Culture bore the official name "People's Palace of Culture ' Lyudmila Schiwkowa '" until 1990
The construction of the NDK was part of an initiative to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Bulgaria in 1981, with which the founding of the Bulgarian state in 681 should be celebrated in a splendid way. Bulgaria was founded in 679, but it was recognized as an independent state by the Byzantine Empire in 681.
The main building was designed by an architects' collective led by the architect Aleksandar Barow . The design for the area around the building comes from a collective led by the architect Atanas Agura. The main planner for the park surrounding the Palace of Culture was the engineer Valentin Atanasova. The NDK housed a large number of event rooms. Of the total of 13 halls, the largest hall ("Hall 1"; Bulgarian "Зала 1" / "Sala edno") has 3380 seats.
The building has a built-up area of 18,300 m² and a total area of 123,000 m², which extends over eight floors and an additional three underground levels. The enclosed space is 576,800 m³.
history
The initiative for the creation of a large cultural center in Sofia came from the Sofia party leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) in the 1970s , which, as a parallel structure for the state administration, was responsible for all matters of public life.
The first explorations and preliminary drafts were made in 1975. At that time, in this central area of Sofia, which had been destroyed by the bombing of Sofia , there were old barracks, a coal station, dozens of unsightly, hastily erected buildings and dozen hectares of wasteland. The Sofia City Committee of the BKP and the Sofia City Council decided that a modern building complex should be built at this point - as the part of the immediate southern city center that faces the Vitosha Mountains .
Originally the area was intended for an opera theater. An international competition was announced in which Bulgarian and foreign architects took part. The chairman of the jury was the then Minister of Culture Pawel Matew (Павел Матев; 1924–2006) - the Bulgarian Minister of Culture was officially called "Chairman of the 'Committee for Culture'". However, no winner was announced for the competition and the competition was subsequently discontinued.
After lively discussions, it was concluded that the place is best suited for a future multifunctional center for cultural events. Until then, this function was fulfilled by the “Universiada” (Bulgarian спортната зала “Универсиада”) sports palace . The planning took place in the architectural office of the architect Aleksandar Barow and the engineer Bogdan Atanassow, in cooperation with the Sofia chief architect Vladimir Romensky and the minister for construction Stefan Stajnow, as well as together with the advisor for the building construction Prof. Milcho Brajnow.
The architect Atanas Agura and the architect Valentin Atanasova were responsible for the design of the surrounding areas and the park. The engineering planning office “Sofprojekt”, headed by Chedomir Pavlov, was responsible for the underground construction planning, the Sofia metro line , the underground lines and the future Balgaria Boulevard .
There was already a general plan for the future Sofia metro, which also included the metro lines under this area.
Therefore, the entire area was dug very deep underground in order to prepare it for the metro.
In addition to an underground boulevard with a tram line, parking lots with over 1000 spaces, shops and other underground areas, the shell for two metro stations and the future metro route from the boulevard Patriarch Evtimi to the Losenez district was completed.
A planning group traveled to the best and largest congress centers in Europe and America in order to evaluate the experiences there and to consult with leading Bulgarian and foreign specialists and to secure their support.
On December 27, 1977 the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BKP approved the proposal for the construction of a cultural complex, whereupon the first work began, although no finished project was available.
In the autumn of 1979 there were personnel changes in the construction management, which led to a slowdown in construction. The resistance against the NDK grew stronger and Todor Schiwkow , who was initially enthusiastic about the construction of the NDK, gave the instruction that the opening of the NDK should not take place until 10 years later.
Georgi Jordanow (from 1971 to 1979 first secretary of the Sofia City Committee of the BKP) reported: "I asked Lyudmila Zhivkova to dissuade her father from his decision, but she did not succeed." After much discussion, Todor Zhivkov agreed to view the building. In March 1980 he convinced himself that the most complicated part of the construction work had been completed and that only remaining work had to be carried out on the property, which could be completed within a year. He then approved the work to continue. Grigor Stoitschkow, the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, was appointed head of the construction team. For the completion of the infrastructure also conscripts were called in. The work continued for almost 24 hours a day.
Hall 1 and the adjoining part were completed in March 1981. The other partial objects were finished by October 20, 1981, in honor of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state.
The Palace of Culture was built in just under three years. The 12th party congress of the BKP took place there before its final completion. The building was inaugurated on March 31, 1981, in celebration of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state.
To participate in the financing of the construction, the Sofia people worked for one day free of charge and thus earned 30 million leva . The construction cost a total of 270 million leva.
With a lack of construction workers, thousands of construction workers from Cyprus, Yugoslavia and Vietnam worked on the construction.
In 2005 the Kulturpalast received the award “Best congress center in the world” from the International Association of Congress Centers.
On March 31, 2011, the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Palace of Culture was celebrated.
Building
The building has an octagonal floor plan. The supporting structure of the NDK is made of steel. It was designed by a collective of the University of Architecture and Building (today University of Architecture, Building and Geodesy (Sofia) ; bulg. Университет по архитектура, строителство и геодезия), which was headed by Prof. Milcho Brajannow and Prof. Milcho Brajannow and Prof.
335,000 m³ of concrete were built in the NDK and 1.7 million tons of earth were moved and removed. The metal structure in the Palace of Culture weighs approx. 10,000 tons, which corresponds roughly to the metal structure of the Eiffel Tower (the pure steel structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons).
The building is 51 m high. The total outside area is 9000 m²
The large work of art above the main entrance of the NDK, the symbol of the Palace of Culture, comes from the sculptor Georgi Tschapkanow and depicts a stylized sun. This is modeled on the ceiling decorations (wood carving) in old Bulgarian houses. The symbol is made of bronze and has a diameter of approximately 7 meters. From the concave hemisphere, rays from ears of cereal that are 2.60 and 1.80 meters long go in all directions.
Surname
When it opened, the Palace of Culture, which is only briefly referred to as "NDK" in everyday life, was officially named "People's Palace of Culture" (Bulgarian "Народен дворец на културата" / Naroden dworez na kulturata). After the death of Lyudmila Schiwkow in July 1981, the Minister of Culture and daughter of the long-time head of state Todor Schiwkow , the Palace of Culture was named: "People's Palace of Culture 'Lyudmila Schiwkowa'"
In 1990 the Palace of Culture was renamed the "National Palace of Culture" (Bulgar. "Национален дворец на културата" / Nazionalen dworez na kulturata).
Metro station
On August 31, 2012 the metro station "National Palace of Culture" ("Национален дворец на културата") opened. It is located in the immediate vicinity of the Palace of Culture and belongs to line 2 (blue) of the Sofia Metro .
Web links
Coordinates: 42 ° 41 ′ 5 ″ N , 23 ° 19 ′ 8 ″ E