Kamen Petkov

Kamen Petkov was born in 1863 in the small village Beloptichene (today Ruzhintsi). He was the son of Petko Simeonov. ^{[citation needed]} After completing high school in Vratsa, he served in the military service and then worked for several years as a teacher.

He had a desire to study in the Academy of Arts. At that time, scholarships for this school not leave because it was thought^[who?] that Bulgaria needed more builders, engineers and architects. In 1892, Petkov went to study architecture as a government scholar at the Polytechnic of Karlsruhe, Germany, where he graduated in 1896. After graduation, he returned to Bulgaria and began working in Vratsa and later Sofia where, together with the artist Alexander Bozhilov and others, took part in the Circle "Bulgaria".

In 1898 he moved to Plovdiv and worked there until his death on February 17, 1945.

Petkov designed and built more than 800 buildings in Plovdiv alone. Most of them still shape the specific architecture of the city centre. Ten buildings can be seen along the Main Street alone, beginning with the powerful impact of the Bulgarian Bank (1898), and followed by smaller buildings influenced by the Vienna Secession architects. Their façades are decorated with fluted pilasters crowned with composite capitals; arched windows articulated by decorative columns, and curvilinear ornaments. Plant-inspired motifs, such as blossoming small trees, ornamental garlands, and festoons of flowers, demonstrate a strong Art Nouveau influence.^[1]

In the French girls college, 1915 and boys college, 1932 respectively, however, he opted for a drastic geometric design. The contrasting frames of the shallow-arched windows and the dark highly stylized stucco pilasters create a strong graphic effect.

The four- and six-floor high tobacco warehouses are among Petkov's largest works. The mansard above the main cornice is supported by massive consoles. Fluted risers articulate the large volumes into proportionate shapes. The design is an excellent mature integration of the functional and aesthetic aspects of a building for the industry.

In his early seventies, Petkov won a competition organised by the Vatican among Bulgarian and Italian architects for the reconstruction and building of several Catholic churches in the region of Plovdiv which had been severely damaged in an earthquake in 1928. Thus he came to design the frontal part and the interior of the largest Catholic cathedral in the Balkan peninsula. His design resembles Italian neoclassicism; the main façade is lined with six pairs of columns, while two cornices form the base of the frontón, which is flanked by the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul and decorated with stylised floral forms.

Of the Catholic churches built by Petkov around Plovdiv, the ones in the villages of Gen. Nikolaevo and Sekirovo are the largest, each with a capacity of 2000 people. Both are designed as three-nave basilicas with two bell towers and a frontón in between. The façades are decorated with columns and pilasters, plastic cornices and stucco ornaments.

After Petkov arrived in Plovdiv, he befriended fellow architects Joseph Schnitter and M. Pernigoni, with whom he designed several buildings. Andronikos and arch. A. Torniov that leaving the city wrote in the local newspaper that "... is calm, because here he will be replaced by Arch. Kamen Petkov ... ".

In 1903, Petkov married Radka Georgieva Popova, the daughter of socialite Georgi Popov, an associate of Vasil Levski and member of its revolutionary committee. Petkov had four children, two daughters and two sons, with Popova. One of his sons, George K. Petkov (1917–1991) became an architect working in the Plovdiv area; George's son Kamen Petkov (1950–1993) and grandson Georgi Petkov (1973 -) themselves became architects.

Petkov's work also includes the houses of Orozov and Shipkov in Kazanlak (later used for the Town Council), the house of Dr. T. Vitanov in Vidin (subsequently used for the Youth House), and the Bulgarian National Bank in Burgas. Several houses that Petkov designed have been destroyed – Samokovlieva house was demolished during the construction of a tunnel under Nebet, house Kalchev, replacing the Party House and many others – one torn down for new construction, others collapsed the time.

Petkov's buildings are distinct and form part of the architectural appearance of Plovdiv's city centre, creating an 'architectural skeleton' after the Liberation.

By the time Arch. K. Petkov begins work, the walls of the buildings were always massive – foundations and cellar of stonework and up bearing brick walls. Inter-floor structures are almost always wooden beams or iron beams profile "double T" filled with flat brick arches (Prussian vault). The roofs are always wooden, covered with tiles (very rarely sheet). This method of performance is underlying one-man design – the architect was the sole author of the building and has solved all architectural and structural issues including trending calculations. With the advent of reinforced concrete in construction after 1930 calculations begin to make an engineer-constructor.

Here appears the question of details – doors, windows, mostly plaster and stucco, which abound in architectural sculpture of the Arch. Kamen Petkov. Often it was impossible in advance all the details to be drawn – it happened on the construction site, by hand drawings and instructions of the designer with some experience of the contractor, as the architect had the obligation and the right to require several samples to select it Find the best and appropriate.

Also a big role in the construction played and craftsmen, contractors details – plasterers, carpenters and blacksmiths that the architect himself has selected and who knew his tastes and requirements and could only a sketch to understand the thought and desire of the author. They fulfilled with craft experience, without him having to produce countless drawings. For example, the project for the building of Jewish charity, "Shalom alaikum" is located on one single sheet, size 60/80 cm, but in comparison with the project executed building differences were not detected. What could not be shown in the drawing was explained very thorough and clarified during the author's supervision. However, the building is not poor in details. Similar is the case with the project for a residential building on E. Kondodimo the main street No.9. Beautiful facade with its exquisite wrought iron railings not mapped detail. The same applies to the building on the street. "R. Daskalov "5 whose details drapery decorative pilasters, hand-painted by the artist in the area. 1:1 for many years were kept in his home.

The system of sole design (only architect) divides the year into two periods – in winter designs and draws, and in summer guided construction.