National Palace of Culture
The National Palace of Culture ( Bulgarian Национален дворец на културата / Nazionalen Dworez na kulturata, usually only briefly: НДК / NDK ) is a congress and concert center in the center of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. He is with its halls and conference rooms, the national cultural center of Bulgaria for conferences, as well as for cultural events such as exhibitions, concerts, opera and ballet performances and other events.
The Palace of Culture is the largest convention center in Southeastern Europe. The first sod was turned on 25 May 1978. The third and final construction phase in the construction of the Palace of Culture was completed in late 1985.
The Palace of Culture was until 1990 the official name of " People's Palace of Culture, Lyudmila Schiwkowa ' "
The construction of the NDK was part of an initiative to commit the 1300 Years of Bulgaria in 1981, with the foundation of the Bulgarian State 681 grand should be committed. The founding of Bulgaria was probably already 679, the recognition as an independent state on the part of the Byzantine Empire was but 681
The design of the main building was designed by an architect collective under the direction of the architect Aleksandar Barow. The design for the environment it comes from building a collective under the direction of architect Atanas Agura. The main planner for the park surrounding the Palace of Culture, was the engineer Valentina Atanassowa. The NDK was home to a large number of function rooms. Of the total of 13 rooms of the largest hall has ( " Room 1 "; Bulg " Зала 1" / " Sala edno " ) over 3380 courses.
The building has a covered area of 18,300 m² and a total area of 123,000 m² on eight floors and also three underground levels extending. The enclosed space is 576 800 m³.
History
The initiative for the creation of a large cultural center in Sofia went out in the 1970s by Sofia party leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party ( BCP ), which was almost as a parallel structure of the State Administration with responsibility for all aspects of public life.
The first preliminary soundings and there were in 1975. Those days were in this central area of Sofia, which had been destroyed by the bombing of Sofia, old barracks, a coal station, dozens of unsightly, hastily constructed buildings and dozens of hectares of fallow land. The Sofia City Committee of the BKP and the Sofia City Council decided that at this point a modern building complex is to be built - as part of the immediate south of the city center, which is located towards the Vitosha Mountain.
Originally the area was intended for an opera theater. It was announced an international competition, which was attended by Bulgarian and foreign architects. Chairman of the jury was the then Minister of Culture Pavel Mateew ( Павел Матев; 1924-2006 ) - the Bulgarian Minister of Culture was wearing the official term "Chairman of the, Committee for Culture. '" However, no winner for the contest was announced and the contest was set for it.
After lively discussions, it came to the opinion that the place is best suited for a future multi-functional center for cultural events. This function fulfilled by then the Sports Palace " Universiada " ( Bulg спортната зала " Универсиада "). The planning took place in the architectural firm of the architect Aleksandar Barow and engineer Bogdan Atanassov, in cooperation with the Sofia chief architect Vladimir Romenski and the Minister of Construction Stefan Stajnow, and together with the consultant for the building construction Prof. Miltscho Brajnow.
The architect Atanas Agura and the architect Valentina Atanassowa were responsible for the design of the surrounding land and the park. The engineering design office " Sofprojekt " under the direction of Tschedomir Pavlov was responsible for the underground construction planning, the metro line of the Sofia metro, the underground lines and the future Boulevard Balgaria.
For the future Sofia Metro, there was even then a general plan that included the Metro lines below this surface.
Therefore, the entire area was underground dug very deep in order to prepare them for the Metro.
Apart from a subterranean Boulevard with tram, parking with over 1000 spaces, shops and other underground areas, and the shell of two metro stations and for future metro route from Boulevard Patriarch Ewtimi was completed by the district Losenez.
A planning group toured the best and largest convention centers in Europe and America to evaluate the experiences there and to secure with leading Bulgarian and foreign specialists to advise and support.
On December 27, 1977, the Politburo of the CC of the BCP has approved the proposal for the construction of a cultural complex that was then started with the first work, although not yet existing finished project.
In the fall of 1979, there were personnel changes in the site management that led to the slowing down of the Bautempos. Opposition to the NDK was Todor Zhivkov and more, who had initially enthusiastic about the construction of the NDK, gave the instruction that the opening of the NDK is to take place until 10 years later.
Georgi Yordanov ( 1971-1979 first secretary of the Sofia Stadtkomites of BKP ) reported: " I asked Lyudmila Schiwkowa dissuade her father from his decision, what you did not succeed. " After many discussions, Todor Zhivkov declared agrees to inspect the building. In March 1980, he became convinced that the most complicated part of the construction work was completed and only remaining tasks were run on the object yet, which could be completed within a year. He then approved the continuation of the work. Grigor Stoichkov, the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, has been appointed head of the Baustabes. For the completion of the infrastructure also conscripts were used. The work continued for almost 24 hours a day.
The hall 1 and the adjacent part was completed in March 1981. The other sub- objects were finished by October 20, 1981 in honor of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state.
The Palace of Culture was built in just three years. Even before its final completion of the 12th Congress of the BCP took place there. The building was inaugurated on March 31, 1981 for the 1300 anniversary of the Bulgarian state.
For participation in the financing of the construction of the Sofia have worked a day free of charge and worked so 30 million leva. The building cost a total of 270 million leva.
Lacking in its building construction workers, construction workers from thousands Cyprus, Yugoslavia and Vietnam worked in construction.
2005 was the Palace of Culture of the International Organization of Congress Centres ( International Association of Congress Centres ) the award " Best Congress Centre of the World " (best congress center in the world ).
On 31 March 2011 the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Culture Palace was committed.
Building
The building has an octagonal floor plan. The supporting structure of the NDK is made of steel. It was created by a collective of School of Architecture and Building Construction ( now the University of Architecture, Civil and Geodesy ( Sofia); Bulg Университет по архитектура, строителство и геодезия ) designed, which was led by Prof. Miltscho Brajnow and Prof. Bogdan Atanassow.
It in NDK 335,000 m³ of concrete were used and moved 1.7 million tonnes earth and removed. The metal construction in the Palace of Culture and weighs approximately 10,000 tonnes, which is about the metal structure of the Eiffel Tower ( the pure steel structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7300 tons).
The building is 51 m high. The entire outer surface of 9000 m²
The large artwork above the main entrance of the NDK, the symbol of the Palace of Culture, comes from the sculptor Georgi Tschapkanow and represents a stylized sun This is the ceiling decorations (wood carving ) modeled in old Bulgarian houses. The symbol is made from bronze, and ht a diameter of about 7 meters. From the konkaen hemisphere from going in all directions Radiation from ears of corn, which are 2.60 and 1.80 meters long.
Name
In its opening was the Palace of Culture, which is referred to in everyday life only briefly as " NDK ", the official name of " People's Palace of Culture " ( Bulg " Народен дворец на културата " / Naroden Dworez na kulturata ). After the death of Lyudmila Zhivkov in July 1981, the Minister of Culture and daughter of longtime head of state Todor Zhivkov, the Palace of Culture was her name: " People's Palace of Culture, Lyudmila Schiwkowa ' "
In 1990, the Palace of Culture was in " National Palace of Culture " ( Bulg " Национален дворец на културата " / Nazionalen Dworez na kulturata ) renamed.
Metro station
On 31 August 2012, the metro station " National Palace of Culture " was ( " Национален дворец на културата " ) opens. It is located in the immediate vicinity of the Palace of Culture and belongs to Line 2 ( blue) of the Sofia metro.