“The work continued until late autumn”: the Construction of the Monument of Freedom based on materials from the Archive of Architect Atanas Donkov

Authors:

Pages: 501-517

Abstract:

The article presents the construction process of the Freedom mon ument, erected in the second half of the 20s of the 20th century on Mount Saint Nicholas – Stara Planina Mountain. Little-known documents from the personal archive of architect Atanas Donkov – author of the monument – are involved in the study. Two of these documents have been published in full-text form – the contract between the Committee for the construction of the monument and the authors and the separation protocol on the rights to the financial income between the architect Atanas Donkov and the sculptor Alexander Andreev – author of the bronze figure of the lion placed on the monument. The main stages of the construction are revealed in the context of the uniqueness of the facility and the technological difficulties of its cre ation. Processes related to logistics, procurement of materials, provision of workers, investor control, etc. are described too. The leading thesis of the article is that regardless of the objective and subjective obstacles and the delay, the construction of the Freedom monument is a serious achievement of the engineering and technical development of Bulgaria in the interwar period. It is also indicative of the consolidation of society around the ideals of national self-determination and political independence.

Keywords:

Freedom monument; construction; architect Atanas Donkov; architect Gencho Skordev.

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