“This is the story of the House with the Green Veil. I started calling it that because it is all wrapped in a green net, behind which, however, the silhouette of a crooked building, empty, uninhabited, without windows, is clearly visible. Richly decorated with geometric and plant elements in the Art Nouveau style.

The building was built in 1912. The history of construction is also shrouded in mystery. According to the passport of the house, it was built for the home of two brothers; one was a doctor, so the first floor had a separate entrance for patients. According to other information, the house belongs to the entrepreneur – builder M. Slaveev. “M” and “S” are the initials preserved on the bay window to this day. However, another is the story of one of its old inhabitants, told by her grandmother – the house was built for two brothers, Cossacks, who before leaving for Russia sold it in rough construction to the Slaveevs. After finishing the house, they immediately started renting it out.

In 1948 the building became state property and tenants continued to be accommodated in it. The house is on three floors, has two stairs – the main one is stone and the secondary one is wooden. At present, it has been declared an architectural monument of local significance, with a letter from 1976.

After 1948, the house became the property of “Sofa Housing  Fund”. First an officer from the city of Tran came with his two sisters. They were given one room. Then, around 1952, another officer was housed, this time by the police. He decided that he had to renovate the house. He was located on the first floor and wanted to make a separate entrance from the bathroom, which was spacious. He stated that he did not need a bathtub because it was a bourgeois acquisition and cut the pipes in the bathroom on his own, thus destroying the remaining bathtubs upstairs.

Gradually the transformation of the house began – the house had to be modernized. M. tells how in the early 1960s she asked her mother why they stayed with these silk wallpapers, there were others in the other houses. So they decided to make repairs – they removed the silk wallpaper, and painted biblical stories and flowers appeared on the walls below. Then the oil stoves appeared and they said they had to be practical – they destroyed the huge fireplaces that went a meter into the rooms. And so, little by little, the house changed from the inside, together with its occupants, until 1989, when the Slaveevs’ heirs regained the house. They evicted all the tenants and began making new plans.

Since 1992, project proposals for the reconstruction of the house have been submitted to the regional  municipality and the National Institute for Cultural Heritage. Since then, it has been the first project to upgrade the building to seven floors so that the cornices of the neighboring buildings are aligned with the elevation. In 2001, a new project was submitted to adapt the building, this time for hotel needs, with only internal reconstructions envisaged. The last project is from 2006 – for upgrading to nine floors, preserving the southern facade, and upstairs glazed. The architect says he offers a historical contrast between “glass” and “flesh” to emphasize the merits of the cultural monument.

In 2006, following complaints from residents of neighboring condominiums, the municipality issued an order “in view of the requirements of security, cleanliness and health and aesthetics”, which obliges the owner of the house to immediately secure the three-storey building. How? With a green veil! “/ Author: Nevena Germanova,”Fading Sofia” /