Photo: h-museum-gabrovo.bg

In the years after its liberation from the Ottoman Rule in 1878 Bulgaria invited many acclaimed European architectures and industrialists to help that country recover quickly. Austrian and Czech architects and industrialists contributed a lot to the establishment of the new Bulgarian industry and the new look of the Bulgarian cities. The factory for manufacture of fine woolen fabrics opened in the town of Gabrovo (Central North Bulgaria) by the Bulgarian industrialist Ivan Hadzhiberov is a good example of the excellent cooperation between Bulgarian and Czech industrialists. The Czech citizen Anton Horenik was employed as senior technician in that Bulgarian factory. Due to the assistance of Anton Horenik the first and only orchestrion in Bulgaria was delivered to Ivan Hadzhiberov’s home from Prague.

The Orchestrion is a large automatic music instrument which looks like a cupboard. It is designed to sound like an orchestra or a band, Rosen Yosifov who works as a curator of the Regional Historical Museum in Gabrovo told Radio Bulgaria. It contains strings, pipes and keys operated by means of a music roll. This music instrument was used in prestigious music salons in Central and Southwest Europe, but as far as we know there is only one orchestrion in Bulgaria. The music instrument was shipped to Ivan Hadzhiberov’s estate which was situated in the industrial area of Gabrovo. As far as I know there are only two orhcestrions in the Balkans and the second one is kept at the Polytechnical Museum in Belgrade.

Ivan Hadzhiberov used to make various experiments and invented different types of items. That is why he decided to study in detail this music instrument. Although it was played by pneumatic mechanism or a spring, the Bulgarian industrialist managed to play it with electric motor in 1906. It is interesting to note that this orhcestrion impressed King Ferdinand himself who visited the estate of his friend Ivan Hadzhiberov on September 22, 1908. King Ferdinand was very surprised to hear his favorite music pieces by an instrument powered by an electric motor, because electric music was not known in any European city at that time.

The curator of the Regional Historical Museum in Gabrovo admits that the exponent needs serious restoration and currently it cannot play music, although the interest in this orchestrion is huge. Unfortunately, nobody in Bulgaria is able to bring this music instrument back to life and restore its previous brilliant look. Mr Yosifov hopes that such a person can be found in Prague where the orchestrion was manufactured. Some EUR 10,000 to 15,000 is necessary for the full restoration of this music instrument. The Regional Historical Museum in Gabrovo will launch a donation campaign in order to collect the necessary financing.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov