History of the railway station in Varna

History

The railway station in Varna is one of the first stations in Bulgaria. Nowadays the building is declared a local cultural property. It was build based on the project for the railway station in Burgas so the 2 have the same project with slight differences - topic of my graduation work.
Construction started in 1907 and finished in 1925. It's a key station in the country with routes to Sofia, Ruse, Pleven, Karnobat, Shumen and was also part of the Orient Express route.

The plan is in the form of  "L" letter leaving space for future expansion (in the "П" form). The building occupies area of 2100 sq.m. Its form is made of two parallelepipeds with same height. The two main entrances facing the city are highlighted with higher volumes. Very distinctive in height is the clock tower - a city landmark visible from the sea.

Original plan of the project of the station in Burgas (archive)

TIMELINE:

• 1866 26 oct - the first railway line Varna-Ruse
• 1866 7 nov - opened the first station in Varna (the Old station) - the building still exists today

• 1907 - started the construction of the station in Varna by architects Kiril Marichkov and Nikola Kostov
• 1908 - started the construction of the station in Burgas
• 1925 - openning of the station in Varna
• 1929 - installed the clock mechanism. Finished the building of the station in Burgas
• 2005 - finished restoration and repair works in the Varna station

architect Kiril Marichkov

Two architects designed the railway station in Varna - arch. Kiril Marichkov and arch. Nikola Kostov. They first made the project for the station in Burgas but changed it for the construction of the building in Varna. In the end the first built of the 2 stations was the one in Varna - started in 1907 and finished 1925.



About the architect - Kiril Marichkov / Kiro Marichkov

born in Kalofer in 1875 he graduated in Karlsruhe and later on became one of the leading architects in Sofia designing in the style Secession (article here).

Timeline:

- 1875 born in Kalofer
- 1903 - design project for the station in Burgas, project for urban plan of Sofia city-center.
- 1904 - competition for the public space around Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia (2nd place)
- 1907 - started the construction of the station in Varna
- 1908 - started the construction of the station in Burgas
- 1909 - started architectural studio together with arch. Fingov
- 1912 - house of G. Lazarov - Denkoglu 19 str. - himself declares it's his best work
- 1917-1920 - design of Hotel "Imperial", Sofia (more here)
- 1919 - birth of his son Kiril Marichkov
- 1922 - died in Sofia

- 1925 - openning of the station in Varna
- 1929 - installed the clock mechanism. Finished the building of the station in Burgas
- 2005 - finished restoration and repair works in the Varna station

Other buildings: schools, houses, public buildings.