About the bath
In style the building has the elements of classical architecture, with its prominent pediment and semicircular entrance decorated with pilasters, but through the influence of the modernism that was then arriving in Bulgaria. In 1933 the bath stopped being purely for hygiene and became part of a medical complex, or more precisely a health centre. The building was later declared a cultural monument of local importance because of its high architectural value. For more than fifty years the “Ovcha Kupel” bath was an important central part of life in the neighbourhood. It was open to the public until the end of the 1980s, when the balneotherapy centre stopped working. The building was then closed for renovation and never reopened. Its restoration began in 2023, but once again a dual purpose is planned for the building – a thermal centre and a Centre of Excellence for research. Funding of BGN 3,319,912 has been secured as a grant from the operational programme “Science and Education for Smart Growth”, as well as BGN 4,460,000 from Sofia Municipality's budget for 2022–23.
Photos 20
Photos: Bulgarian Association for Thermal Heritage. All rights belong to their authors.
More information
The water and its healing properties
Balneological assessment
- Built
- 1928
- Architect
- Georgi Ovcharov, architect
- Ownership
- Sofia Municipality
- Thermal Heritage register no.
- 13
- Information updated
- 19.04.2024
The bath's page at the Bulgarian Association for Thermal Heritage ↗