Sarmadzhiev House, Neo-Baroque ambassador's residence in Sredets District, Sofia, Bulgaria
The Sarmadzhiev House is a two-story Neo-Baroque building on the corner of Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard and Krakra Street, between the Sofia University rectorate and Eagles' Bridge. Designed by Friedrich Grünanger, it has a flat-roofed turret, a tin-covered wooden mansard roof, and a richly decorated facade with Vienna Secession, Rococo and Mediterranean Renaissance influences. A stained-glass antechamber leads to a lobby with a French fireplace and a bust of Atatürk.
Architect Friedrich Grünanger designed the house in 1903 for lawyer Haralampi Sarmadzhiev as a distinguished residence. It transferred to Ottoman Empire ownership in 1916 and has remained connected to Turkish representation in Sofia ever since.
The lobby holds a bust of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who worked in the house as Ottoman military attaché in 1913–15. His former office has been kept and fitted out as a small Atatürk museum, but it is not accessible to the public.
The house is the residence of the Turkish ambassador to Bulgaria and has been a cultural monument of national importance since 1998. It is not open to visitors, and Atatürk's preserved office inside is likewise closed to the public. The exterior can be seen from the street on the corner of Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard and Krakra Street, between the Sofia University rectorate and Eagles' Bridge.
Ten years after completing this house, Grünanger replicated the architectural design for Villa Hedwig in Salzburg. This repetition reveals how successful and popular the Neo-baroque style was among European clients of that era.
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