National Assembly main building, Sofia, October 2016 02

The National Assembly Building is used by the Bulgarian parliament for parliamentary debates. The main building has been proclaimed a monument of culture for its historic significance. Situated in downtown

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, it was designed in

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

style by Konstantin Jovanović, a Serbian-Bulgarian architect who received his education in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and Switzerland and whose other works include the

Parliament of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The as ...

building. It was constructed between 1884 and 1886 by Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Liebe, a young builder from

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

who was only 22 years old when construction began. The building was originally painted in an off-white hue, but since the latter part of the 20th century has been white. The building is depicted on the reverse of the Bulgarian 20

leva Leva may refer to: * Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian currency * ''Leva'' (grasshopper), a genus of insects * Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies o ...

banknote, issued in 1999 and 2007. BASA-45K-1-18-19-National-Assembly-Sofia-WW2

Due to insufficient space in the main building at Parliament Square, some administrative offices of the National Assembly are now housed in the former headquarters (Партийния дом, ''Partiyniya dom'', "the

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featur ...

House") of the

Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...

, located at the Largo. There has been a proposal that the entire National Assembly be permanently moved to the former

headquarters building, with its inner courtyard being converted into an interior space for the plenary chamber, which happened in 2020. In September 2020, parliament moved to the former BCP Party House. After the April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election, the National Assembly moved again to the old Parliament House because the new opposition led-majority ( ITN,

Democratic Bulgaria Democratic Bulgaria ( bg, Демократична България, ДБ, ''Demokratichna Balgariya, DB'') is an electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties – Yes, Bulgaria!, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria and The Green ...

, ISMV) viewed the Party House building as a symbol of Bulgaria's communist past.

References

{{coord, 42.6944, N, 23.3328, E, source:wikidata, display=title Government buildings completed in 1886 Buildings and structures in Sofia Legislative buildings in Europe