Kamen Petkov
Kamen Petkov | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1863 |
| Died | 1945 |
| Nationality | Bulgarian 1863-1945 |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | [| Орден за Гражданска Заслуга (Order for Citizen Merit)] (1938) |
| Buildings | Cathedral of St Louis, Plovdiv Bulgarian National Bank Building, Plovdiv (1989-1900) French Girls' College, Plovdiv (1915) Tobacco Warehouses, Plovdiv (1925-1932) Catholic Church, Gen. Nikolaevo, Plovdiv (1931) |
Kamen Petkov was a Bulgarian architect based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Career
Arch. Kamen Petkov (1863, the region of Belogradchik, north-west of Sofia - 1945, Plovdiv) graduated from the Technical University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany in 1896. Back in Bulgaria he worked for a short spell in Sofia where he collaborated, together with the painter Alexander Bozhinov, in the “Balgaran” group. In 1898 he established his practice in Plovdiv and worked there for 47 years till his death in 1945.
He designed and built more than 800 buildings in Plovdiv alone. Most of them still shape the specific architecture of the city centre. Ten exquisite buildings can be seen along the Main Street alone, beginning with the powerful impact of the Bulgarian Bank (1898), and followed by smaller elegant buildings very much influenced by the Vienna Secession architects. Their facades are lavishly decorated with fluted pilasters crowned with composite capitals; arched windows articulated by decorative columns, curvilinear ornaments and many other elegant details. Plant-inspired motifs such as blossoming small trees, ornamental garlands, festoons of flowers, etc, disclose a strong Art Nouveau influence.
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 tabaco warehouses are among Petkov's biggest 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 Kamen 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. This time he draws on the Italian neoclassicism. The main facade is very elaborate with six pairs of columns articulating the ground floor and four pairs above them emphasise the main entrance. 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 Kamen Petkov around Plovdiv, the ones in the villages of Gen.Nikolaevo and Sekirovo are the largest with capacity for 2000 people. Both are designed as three-nave basilicas with two bell towers and a frontón in between. The facades are elaborately decorated with columns and pilasters, plastic cornices and stucco ornaments.
During his long creative life Kamen Petkov left numerous lovingly designed buildings in a Bulgarian strain of the Art Nouveau movement which renders evident the ample extent and diversity of this ground-breaking phenomenon.