Architect Georgi Stoilov at his home in Sofia.
Photographed by Dobrin Kashavelov for Списание 8 (Magazine 8) , 2019.
A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ARCHITECT GEORGI STOILOV
Georgi Vladimirov Stoilov was born on 3rd April 1929 in Kondofrey, Bulgaria—a village in Pernik province, located roughly 60km from Sofia.
During WWII, Stoilov was one of Bulgaria’s youngest anti-fascist partisans, serving with the Radomir Partisan Detachment at the age of 15. He joined the Labor Youth Union in 1944, becoming a full member of the Bulgarian Communist Party by 1949.
In 1954, Stoilov went to study at the Moscow Architectural Institute and took a job the same year with the engineering firm Glavproekt. Later, in 1965, he would spend a year in Paris developing a specialism in urban planning
“The courier of the legendary guerrilla commander Slavcho Transky, ‘Goshko’ from Kondofrey.” Sketched by Boris Angelushev for Заря (Dawn), 1944.
Left: Georgi Stoilov, centre, pictured with partisan officers in 1944.
*photograph credits unknown*
Right: The courier of the legendary guerrilla commander Slavcho Transky, ‘Goshko’ from Kondofrey.
Sketched by Boris Angelushev for Заря (Dawn), 1944.
Hotel Rila, Sofia (1961).
Photographed by Stefan Spassov, 2019.
One of Stoilov’s early projects was the design for Hotel Rila in Sofia (1961), which was followed by various other state and leisure buildings throughout Bulgaria, including: the International Youth Camp at Druzhba near Varna (1961); the Bulgarian Communist Party Headquarters and People’s District Council in Pernik (1962); the building of the Bulgarian National Radio (1971), and many others. In addition to his work in Bulgaria, other projects by Georgi Stoilov include plans for a residential complex in Dubna, Russia; Bulgarian embassy buildings for Kabul, Afghanistan and Havana, Cuba; and a commercial project for Astana, Kazakhstan.0
The architect is also responsible for designing some of the most striking memorial complexes in Bulgaria. He created the Monument to the Dead in the Fatherland War at Dobrich (1964), the Arch of Liberty in the Beklemeto Pass (1980) and the Pantheon to the Heroes in the Serbo-Bulgarian War at Gurgulyat (1985).
The Buzludzha Memorial House remains his most famous design.
Monument to the Dead in the Great Patriotic War, Dobrich (1964).
Photographed by Darmon Richter, 2015.
Arch of Liberty, Beklemeto Pass (1980).
Photographed by Darmon Richter, 2014.
Architect Georgi Stoilov at his home in Sofia.
Photographed by Dobrin Kashavelov for Списание 8 (Magazine 8), 2019.
GEORGI STOILOV: HONOURS LIST
Honorary Professor of Tbilisi Technical University, Georgia (1984)
Visiting Professor of US New York University (1985)
Honorary Professor of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico (1985)
Academician of the French Academy of Architecture (1985)
Honorary Member of the Union of USSR Architects (1986)
Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects (1986)
Honorary Member of the Federation of Mexico Architects (1986)
Honorary Member of the Union of Spanish Architects (1986)
Honorary Professor of Buenos Aires University, Argentina (1986)
Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Canadian Architects (1987)
Honorary Member of the Union of Architects of the former Czechoslovakia (1987)
Academician of the International Academy of Architecture (1987)
Honoris Causa Doctor of Moscow Institute of Architecture, Russia (2001)
Academician of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering (2001)
Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts (2001)
Academician of the Ukraine Academy of Architecture (2002)
President of the International Academy of Architecture
sources:
- Granitski, Ivan (ed.) (2018) Georgi Stoilov: With a Vision for the Future, Zahariy Stoyanov Publishing House
- Stoilov, Georgi (2015) Personal interview with Richard Fawcus, translation by Mihail Kondov, 7 August 2015
- Yuroukov, Ilya (ed.) (1991) Georgi Stoilov & Partners (architectural monograph), Arterigere