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The recently completed St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, includes a 12-ton metal dome, the first of his kind to be included in the new construction of a basilica in that country. Picture: HMC Construction
In Bulgaria, Nikulden is an important winter holiday that every December 6 remembers St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, master of the underwater world and patron saint of sailors and fishermen.
Plovdiv, located in the southern part of Bulgaria, is the second largest city of this country, and the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Plovdiv has recently been ranked among the top three destinations of the continent, and in 2019 will be Europe's designated capital of culture.
History, religion, and culture converge at St. Nicholas the Wonderworker temple in Plovdiv, a recently completed basilica that represents the first time in Bulgaria that a temple construction included raising a single-nave metal dome.
Hristo Hristov, project manager for HMC, a construction company that financed this project and was its general contractor and mechanical engineer, tells BD+C that the 213.6-cm (2,299-sf) building required a complex steel structure that would be flexible enough to withstand earthquake conditions, to which this part of the world is susceptible. Stahl, on the other hand, is significantly lighter than building materials that have typically been used for temple construction in Bulgaria, he states.
Hristov adds that the building's flooring was produced from four different kinds of granite.
A 22-meter-high temple is topped with a metal dome, made at HMC's factory, that is 5.5 meters high, 10.7 meters in diameter, and weighs 12 tons.
The history of this project, whose start and completion span from December 2010 through May 2015, “lies in a coincidence,” explains Hristov. HMC's owner, Kiril Vasilev, was on a business trip in the Ukrainian city of Nikolaev, where he happened upon, and subsequently became fascinated by, the temple of St. Nicholas there. “From that moment, mr. Vasilev felt a strong urge to create a reproduction” in Plovdiv, says Hristov.
based on a proposal from the Metropolitan Bishop of Provdiv Nikolay, the temple was designed and constructed 2.5 times larger than the original.
The temple is designed in the traditional Russian style, with a pale yellow facade and white decorations. The primary dome is blue with golden stars, and is surrounded by smaller golden domes.
Six bells were cast for the temple, ranging in size from 30 to 200 kilograms (66 to 441 pounds).
Nästa templet är en 24-meter-högsaetturm som var en del av denne konstruktionsprojekt. Two-meter-high, gold-plated crosses on the tops of the tower and domes were made in the workshop of Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a historic Orthodox Christian monastery in Ukraine.
Arkont-A was the architect and structural, electrical, and plumbing engineer on the temple and tower project.
The Leaders Who Build initiative was held for the eleventh time. The students had the opportunity to get acquainted with Kiril Vassilev, owner of “HMC” AD. The meeting lasted two hours, in which Mr. Vassilev answered all the questions addressed to him. He told about the numerous projects in which he participated, about his losses and successes. Also gave useful advice to those wishing to start their own business.
Telling about his first years as a trader, he shared that it is important that everything is well thought out and calculated. He also revealed what he believes is the most valuable quality for success — “Ambition is the most important! It drives us to grow, it drives the economy forward!” He explained that when a person is ambitious to achieve his goal, he does not give up easily. He constantly enriches his knowledge, does not stop working, sometimes even goes beyond his own capabilities and finally achieves success.
Kiril Vassilev called on future architects and engineers to think like marketers. To look at each of their projects as a product that needs to be sold, and to grasp the smallest detail — “The product must always be saleable — then it is useful!”
“Business, like life, is sinusoidal. Happiness too.” Kiril Vassilev explained that just as happy and not so happy moments alternate in life, so in business there are achievements and losses. If we consider them as a sine wave, then the smaller the amplitudes, the more often there are moments of joys and, accordingly, shorter failures.
The owner of “HMC” AD advised the students to strive for the standard that is in Europe and not to make comparisons with the past. He wished them with hard work, knowledge and ambition to complete each of their undertakings!
Project №BG16RFOP002-2.077-1293
On 27/01/2021 “HMC” AD entered into the implementation of a grant agreement №BG16RFOP002-2.077-1293-C01 “Support for medium-sized enterprises to overcome the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The main objective of the project is to provide operating capital for Bulgarian medium-sized enterprises to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The results are related to achieving a positive effect to overcome the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and job stability, to continue the activity of the enterprise for at least three months after the completion of the project, as well as to maintain employment from the levels before receiving the support (in case of incurring personnel costs under the procedure).
Project №BG16RFOP002-6.002-0786
On 16.09.2022 “HMC” AD entered into the implementation of the contract for grant №BG16RFOP002-6.002-0786-C01 “Recovery of SMEs by Improving Energy Efficiency”.
The main objective of the project is to provide focused support to Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises to recover from the economic consequences of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by improving their energy efficiency.
The results are related to improving the energy efficiency of SMEs and helping to overcome the economic consequences of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing competitiveness and lowering the energy intensity of the manufacturing enterprise and the economy as a whole.
“HMC” AD has signed a grant agreement No. BG-RRP-3.005-6565-SO1/24.07.2023 for a project called “Solutions in the field of information and communication technologies and cybersecurity in small and medium-sized enterprises”.
The approved project is funded under the Economic Transformation Program under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union — NextGeneration EU, under the procedure BG-RRP-3.005 - “Solutions in the field of information and communication technologies and cybersecurity in small and medium-sized enterprises”.
The objective of the procedure is to contribute to accelerating the transition to digitalisation of the economy by providing grants for the deployment of information and communication technologies and solutions ensuring an increase in the level of digitalisation of SMEs.
Total value of the project: 20 000 BGN - grant
Project implementation period: 12 months
Start of the project: 24.07.2023