House with the Strawberries

The House with the Strawberries in Sofia stands out for its deep red facade and the weathered, ornate wood carvings that frame its windows. Built in the late nineteen twenties for the banker Dimitar Ivanov, the mansion earned its name from the wild strawberry bushes that once covered the garden. Ivanov hired architect Georgi Fingov to blend Viennese Secession style with local decorative traditions. For years, the house sat empty and decaying, slowly becoming a symbol of architectural loss until its recent, painstaking restoration.