From time to time the Municipality of Sofia launches a contest for a monument to Sofia’s longest serving mayor, Ivan Ivanov. However it has turned out that creating a token in memory of a foremost patriot who fought in wars for the Fatherland, and worked wonders to make a backward city civilized is as challenging as the effort to dismantle a monument in Sofia to an occupier, the Soviet Army.

Ivan Ivanov was the son of a colonel who died in the Second Balkan War (1913) and a descendant of legendary 19 c. voivode Hadji Dimitar on his mother's line. Coming from a family of National Revival leaders Ivanov born in the city of Sliven in 1891 he had patriotism running in his veins. When the Balkan wars broke out he abandoned his studies in Munich where he was reading hydro-engineering and enrolled as a volunteer in the army. He also fought in the First World War. Returning to his homeland he was inspired to help modernize the capital Sofia and in 1928 joined the team committed to the big waterway.

“Ivan Ivanovtogether with his colleagues from the water supply department was thinking a hundred years ahead on how Sofia would be supplied with drinking water and dreamt of a water main coming from Rila Mountain with clean mountain water”, said Prof. Vili Lilkov who has submitted a motion for creating a monument to the celebrated Sofia mayor. “The Rila Water Main is a colossal engineering facility for the construction of which Ivanov played a decisive role. As a result, the government of Kimon Georgiev appointed him Sofia Mayor in 1934. Had it not been for a far-sighted professional like Ivan Ivanov, today Sofia would have experienced a serious problem with water supply – water would have been of much poorer quality and much dearer too.”

After he took over as Sofia Mayor, Ivan Ivanovfinished the building of the Sofia University Rectorate, built the Palace of Justice, the ministries of defense and of the interior, Bulgaria Concert Hall, the National and the City libraries, the Musical Theater, the Central Telephone Office, Maria Louisa pool etc. It is a little known fact that he redeemed the unfavorable concession for the city's electricity supply from the Belgian concessionaire and thus stopped the growth of the price of electricity. He managed to put an end to the chaos caused by the refugee crowds coming from Bulgaria’s lost ethnic territories, literally conquering hundreds of hectares to build their wooden sheds. With the law and regulations for the development of the capital city he introduced a new urbanization plan in the spirit of modern European cities.

And then, 9^th of September 1944 came and the new regime embarked on repressions against the country’s elite.

“Ivan Ivanovwas accused of being a Germany’s agent and a fascist because he had studied in Munich”, Prof. Vili Lilkov recalls. “The so-called People’s Court insisted on life imprisonment but failed to provide evidence and his sentence was cut to 15 years in prison. He spent one year at the Pirin mine in the village of Brezhani and was then sent to work for the construction of the water supply system of Varna.”

When however problems started with the construction of Beli Iskar Dam and the communist government asked the Soviet Union for support, the Soviet officials replied – “you have a top expert, take him out of prison and he will make the dam”. So, Ivan Ivanov worked on the Beli Iskar problems and on Iskar Dam too, from prison. How very sad: every morning two militiamen took him from the cell to the office, and brought him back to jail at night. When Iskar Dam was launched however it became obvious that the merit was entirely his, and he was finally rehabilitated. Under the communist logic though, he was not worthy enough to attend the official unveiling of his own creation.

Recently the municipality has announced a new contest for designing a monument to the legendary mayor of Sofia, although good projects have been submitted at the previous ones as well, according to Prof. Vili Lilkov. For sure one day Ivan Ivanov's bronze figure will welcome Sofia residents at the entrance of the Vasil Levski stadium metro station – the point where the Rila water first gushed out.

English Daniela Konstantinova

Photos: archive