This year marks the 160^th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous donors and benefactors of the city of Plovdiv - industrialist Dimitar Petrov Kudoglu. Born in 1862 in the region of Xanthi in northeastern Greece, he inherited the family tobacco trade and became one of the wealthiest merchants in Plovdiv.

This allowed him to make a number of donations. By a decision of the National Assembly, the tobacco warehouses he owned were donated to the city, with the explicit will that their rents be used to support a new medical institution.

For the new medical facility the industrialist bought the Tsar Simeon Hotel and in 1927 opened a dispensary for the treatment of tuberculosis and childhood diseases. By 1944, before the foundation and the medical institution were liquidated, the funds donated by him to the House of Charity and Public Health, which bears his name, reached 41 million levs.

The anniversary of the birth of Dimitar Kudoglu, whose exact date is August 21, 1862, prompted Bulgarian society to talks again about the work and legacy of this great Bulgarian.

At the suggestion of ​​the heirs of the industrialist and the Municipality of Plovdiv, a decision was made to restore a monument to Kudoglu existing until 1949 in Plovdiv’s Tsar Simeon garden park. The heirs are expected to finance the development of the project, and after its coordination with the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage, to proceed with its implementation.

You can learn more details about the establishment of the medical institution, as well as about the unfortunate fate that befell the architectural complex in the heart of Plovdiv, from the publication "Part of Plovdiv’s culture reduced to ashes" from the archives of Radio Bulgaria.

Compiled by Yoan Kolev