Ivan Vazov National Theater

The Ivan Vazov National Theatre is Bulgaria’s national theatre, as well as the country’s oldest and most authoritative theatre and one of Sofia’s most prominent buildings. It’s in the heart of the city, with a front that faces the City Garden.

A postcard from before 1926 featuring some of the theater’s finest performers. Bulgarian Archives State Agency is the source of this information.

It was founded in 1904 by artists from the Salza I Smyah company and was originally known as the National Theatre, although it was also known as Krastyu Sarafov from 1952 and 1962 before being named after the great writer Ivan Vazov. When the theater originally opened, Vazov’s play The Outcasts was the first to be staged there. The theatre’s Neoclassical structure was completed in 1906 and inaugurated on January 3, 1907. It was built by prominent Viennese theatre architects Hermann Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner. A fire in 1923 during an anniversary celebration severely destroyed the structure, but it was restored in 1929 by German architect Martin Dülfer.

In 1925, as part of the National Theatre, a theatrical school was formed. The bombing of Sofia during WWII caused significant damage to the structure, but it was rebuilt in 1945. In 1971–1975, further renovation took place, and in 2006, a €100,000 repair effort was completed.

With three stages, a permanent theatre company, and a strong repertoire of ten or more premieres every season, the National Theatre is now the most prominent and emblematic Bulgarian theatrical institution.

The National Theatre now contains a large auditorium with seating for 780 people and sophisticated stage equipment, as well as a chamber hall with seating for 120 people and a stage on the fourth floor with seating for 90 people.

On the obverse of the Bulgarian 50 levs banknotes printed between 1999 and 2006, the building’s front is shown.

History of “Ivan Vazov” National Theater

The “Ivan Vazov” National Theatre is Bulgaria’s oldest and most authoritative theater, with a long and illustrious history, deeply rooted in its traditions, and a dominating and versatile presence in today’s modernity. The theater has a diverse repertoire of modern and classical plays that appeal to a wide spectrum of viewers.

The National Theatre has a lengthy and illustrious history spanning more than a century. As the center of Bulgaria’s cultural life, the venue commemorates the victories of the country’s best directors and performers on its stage, as well as the contributions of national poets and writers throughout the years.

It’s no surprise that the National Theatre is named after Bulgaria’s renowned national writer and poet Ivan Vazov (1850–1921), whose historical dramas, tragedies, and sparkling comedies helped to construct and grow Bulgaria’s premier company’s vast and extensive repertoire. Ivan Vazov was not only a dedicated author, but he was also a dedicated theatregoer. He had a permanent reserved seat in the second row of the front stalls until the end of his life, which has been retained to this day and inscribed with a memorial plaque reading “Ivan Vazov’s seat.”

The National Theatre was completed in 1906, and the inauguration ceremony took place on January 3, 1907. It was planned by the well-known early twentieth-century architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer to become one of Sofia’s most imposing and representative structures in the Art Nouveau style, which was fashionable at the time. Rudolf Fuchs, a Vienna-based artist, painted the auditorium’s ceiling and walls, which seats 848 people.

During a concert in early 1923, a fire broke out in the theatre, devouring the stage, a portion of the audience, and the cloakroom. The National Theatre’s group relocated to Svoboden Teatur and toured the nation extensively.

The building reopened in 1929 after a renovation by German architect Martin Dülfer. It had been completely renovated, and the stage had been outfitted with cutting-edge technological equipment that only two or three other theatres in Europe had at the time. The auditorium had a capacity of 1,236 people.

Part of the auditorium, as well as several adjacent rooms and the whole south wing down to the stage itself, were destroyed in the air attack on Sofia on January 10, 1944. The troupe was evacuated to Pirdop, a tiny mountain village, and returned to Sofia later that year, performing at the Balkan Playhouse until the National Theatre was rebuilt in 1949.