We know about the functions of the leading institutions in Bulgaria and how important they are for us, but have we paid attention to the personalities whose names bear the streets on which the Bulgarian Parliament, Council of Ministers, Presidency, and even the Constitutional Court are located?
If not, BGNES decided to introduce you more deeply to the personalities behind these names and we even allowed ourselves to make a comparison with other capitals, the majority of which are European, after all, the European Union is our family, isn't it?
The building of the National Assembly, located on "Bul. Tsar Osvoboditel", was one of the first public buildings built in the post-liberation period, and by the end of 1884, the building was completed. The project was assigned to the Viennese architect of Slavic origin - Konstantin Jovanovic, who studied in Austria and Switzerland and designed the building of the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade.
Our National Assembly is located on Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd., which is the nickname of Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov, Emperor of Russia, Tsar of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland (1855-1891). Alexander II is known for the reforms he carried out in Russian society, seeking to break the conservative principles on which the rule of his father Nicholas I was based. The abolition of serfdom earned Alexander II his nickname "Tsar Liberator". He pays particular attention to the Eastern question and, in particular, to the strengthening of Russian influence in the Balkans. This is the reason why the emperor decided on another war with the Ottoman Empire /1877-1878/, whose war became a war of liberation for Bulgaria.
Our country has another building in which the laws for Bulgaria have been forged recently, and this is the former Party House, located on Knyaz Alexander Dondukov Blvd. In the immediate vicinity are the buildings of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers, forming the so-called "triangle of power", and when a foreigner launches a navigation to find this triangle, it lists the name of the Russian officer Prince Alexander Dondukov. He was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war in 1877-1878. and in the creation of the Principality of Bulgaria. During his stay in our lands, he actively supported the national movement of the Bulgarian people against the decisions of the Berlin Congress, assisted in preventing the introduction of Ottoman garrisons in Eastern Rumelia, as well as participated in the work of the Constituent Assembly and the adoption of the Tarnovo Constitution (1879), which was our basic law until 1947.
With these Russian names, we can't help but jump to Moscow to see where their institutions are located and whether they have followed our example to name their streets after prominent - for example, Bulgarian, rulers. Several important structures for state power are located in the historical complex of the Moscow Kremlin - the State Duma and the Council of the Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as the residence of the President. Okhotniy Ryad and Bolshaya Dimitrovka streets are also home to some of these important institutions, but none of them bear the name of a prominent Russian (or foreign) ruler.
In our neighbor Romania, the institutions do not bear the name of a ruler specific to the state - the parliament, also called the "House of the People", is located on "Izvor" street.
Let's see how things are in Vienna. The Austrian Parliament building was designed by Theophilus von Hansen and is located on Dr. Karl Renner-Ring'. Karl Renner is an Austrian politician and lawyer from the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often called the "Father of the Republic" because he led the first government of the German Republic-Austria and the First Austrian Republic in 1919 and 1920, and was again instrumental in establishing the current Second Republic after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. becoming its first president after World War II.
Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is the seat of many international organizations - and especially the main institutions of the EU - the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament. The European Parliament building is located at 60 Wiertz Street, which bears the name of Antoine Wiertz - a famous Belgian artist and sculptor. During his lifetime he enjoyed the support of the Belgian state, which in exchange for the paintings helped him build his studio/home in Brussels (now the Wiertz Museum), where the artist worked on his art and writings as a hermit.
Austria and Belgium pay a well-deserved tribute to their statesmen and artists by naming the central streets of their capitals after them. In Bulgaria, this is missing - the names of Russian statesmen still shine in the center of our capital, and we do not find this reciprocally in Muscovite Russia. /BGNES
