Books from the personal library of the former mayor of Sofia Eng. Ivan Ivanov were donated today to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Vice-President Prof. Emanuel Moutafov received the valuable editions at a meeting with the relative of Eng. Ivanov, Assoc. Prof. Snezha Rakova. The books are dedicated to art and among them are: “Bulgarian ktetors. Mount Athos” (Български ктитори. Света гора) by Mikhail Kovachev with a dedication to the Sofia city governor as well as first editions of “Old Bulgarian Painting” (Старобългарската живопис) by Nikola Mavrodinov, “Old Bulgarian Art. The Art of the First Bulgarian Kingdom” (Старобългарското изкуство. Изкуството на първото българско царство), “The National Shrine” (Народната светиня) by Asen Kermekchiev, etc.
Eng. Ivan Ivanov was a corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as a gifted hydraulic engineer. After his conviction by the People’s Court in 1945, he was expelled from BAS, and in 1996 the Academy rehabilitated him and restored his membership posthumously. Eng. Ivanov donated his collection of hydrotechnical literature and the drawings of the Rila aqueduct to BAS in 1964. The second longest serving mayor of Sofia was the designer of the Beli Iskar dam; during his time the Vitosha Nature Park was decisively improved; the horizontal path from the village of Zheleznitsa to Knyazhevo was named after him. In addition to the construction of landmark buildings in European Sofia such as the Court of Justice, the National Bank and the Library, public baths, two open-air swimming pools, 15 new schools, neighbourhoods with family workers’ housing, kitchens for the poor were built to improve the living conditions of the citizens of Sofia during his governance. More documents, records, drawings, and collections related to the legacy of one of the capital’s most deserving “owners” are to be donated to the Academy’s Archives which will be described and become the subject of a number of historical studies in the future.
