Stoyan Bachvarov Dramatic Theatre

Worth a detour

The large theatre on Nezavisimost Square is the building most people photograph without knowing what it is. Work started in March 1912 and finished in June 1932, to a design by Nikola Lazarov completed by others after him; the drama company dates from 1921 and shares the house with Varna's opera. There are no tours and everything is in Bulgarian, so for most visitors this is a façade rather than an evening.

Story

Background

Twenty years is a long build, and the reason is the obvious one: the Balkan wars, the First World War and the wreckage after it. Lazarov's design was carried through to completion by Dabko Dabkov and Zhelyazko Bogdanov. The result anchors the main square and, together with the opera it houses, makes the corner of Varna where the city's cultural life is officially located.

The company was founded in 1921 as the municipal professional theatre and now plays a normal autumn-to-spring season across a main auditorium and two smaller stages. The box office inside keeps long hours, including Sunday afternoons, which is unusual and useful. In July and August much of Varna's programme moves outdoors to the summer theatre in the Sea Garden, and the building itself goes quiet.

If you do not read Bulgarian, the honest advice is to look at it from the square, note the date on it, and spend the evening at the summer theatre instead, where an opera or a concert costs less than most things on the seafront and needs no language at all.