Doctors Memorial, War memorial in Oborishte, Bulgaria.
The Doctors Memorial is a truncated four-sided pyramid of large white stone blocks topped by a granite sarcophagus, standing in Sofia's Doktorska Gradina. Its four faces bear the names of 531 Russian medical personnel who died in the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War, with the battle sites Pleven, Plovdiv, Mechka and Shipka Peak inscribed on the sides. It was built in 1882–1884 by the Italian stonemason Luigi Farabosco to a design by architect Antoni Tomishko, using sandstone from the village of Tashkesen and granite.
Built between 1882 and 1884, the memorial honours the 531 doctors and medical orderlies who died in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, most of them serving with the Russian Red Cross. The design is attributed to the Czech-born architect A. I. Tomashek, while the Russian source credits Antonio Tomishko with construction by the Italian Luigi Farabosco. Sandstone from the village of Tashkesen and granite were used.
The name "Doctors' Monument" comes from those it honours: doctors, pharmacists, feldshers, nurses and orderlies who died in Bulgaria during the 1877–1878 war. Each year in late February, before 3 March, the Bulgarian Red Cross holds a ceremony here with military honours; clergy of the Russian embassy church serve a memorial service, and Bulgarian officials and ambassadors of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Finland and Romania attend.
The memorial sits within a public park that is easy to reach on foot from central Sofia. Visitors should note that access to all parts of the site may have some limitations depending on mobility needs.
The monument originally carried eight bronze wreaths, about 80 cm across, fixed vertically in pairs at the ends of each wall of the pedestal. They were torn off and stolen in the 1990s; replacement wreaths cast and installed later were also stolen.
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