Monument to Sofia’s legendary mayor Ivan Ivanov is a step closer to reality

After a 15-year saga, the Sofia Municipal Council has approved a proposal to erect a monument to engineer Ivan Ivanov, Sofia's legendary mayor in the period 1934-1944. The monument is expected to be installed by the end of this year or sometime next year, near Vasil Levski Stadium metro station.

The location is symbolic, as it was here that water from the Rila water pipeline, a project engineered by Ivan Ivanov, first gushed forth 100 years ago.

Ivan Ivanov – the mayor who made Sofia a modern city

“Ivan Ivanov was thinking a century ahead about how Sofia would be supplied with water. He dared to dream of a pipeline bringing water from the Rila Mountains and supplying the city with clean mountain water. The Rila water pipeline is a major engineering feat, in whose construction he played a leading role. This was also the reason why Kimon Georgiev’s government appointed him mayor in 1934. Had our predecessors not thought so far ahead, Sofia would be facing a serious water problem today. Its water would be of much poorer quality and considerably more expensive,” Prof. Vili Lilkov told Radio Bulgaria.

He is the municipal councillor from the Blue Sofia coalition who submitted the proposal to erect the monument to the capital’s former mayor.

Ivan Ivanov built Iskar Dam from his prison cell after a sentence by the so-called People’s Court

The necessary funding has already been secured, and the moulds based on the clay model are ready. The next steps are to cast the monument at a foundry and complete the finishing work.

Engineer Ivan Ivanov’s tenure as mayor of Sofia is widely known as the “Golden Decade of Sofia”, thanks to the large-scale infrastructure and urban development projects carried out during his term. These included paving the city’s streets, modernising parks and constructing a number of landmark administrative and cultural buildings.

Edited by Diana Tsankova

English editor: R. Petkova