User:Wikislav/Damyan Ivanov

Damyan Ivanov Nenov is a Bulgarian doctor, the initiator of the balneological resort business in Bulgaria.

Biography
Dr. Damyan Ivanov was born in the village of Balyuvitsa, Berkovitsa, on July 14, 1874. He graduated in medicine in Graz in 1900. After returning to Bulgaria, he was a regimental doctor in Vidin, and later in 1908, a senior resident in Aleksandrovska hospital in Sofia. [1] He is most known for initiating the balneological resort Varshets and its mineral baths.

From June 16, 1896, the Varshets mineral baths became state property and the revenues went to the state treasury. In 1910 the construction of the Spa was completed and on July 10, 1910, it was put into operation. For first full-time doctor was appointed Dr. Damyan Ivanov. Thus he became the first bathing doctor in the country. Under his leadership the spa was furnished, improvement measures were carried out, a pine forest was reforested on an area of about 800 decares. The first staff of the mineral baths in 1910 consisted of 3 people - a director, a host-cashier and a driver. In 1911 there were 5, in 1918 – 7. [2]

During the Balkan War (1912) Dayan Ivanov is a sanitary captain at army headquarters. After the end of the war he again held the position of director of the bathhouse in Varshets. His wife Wilhelmina from Vienna is constant supporter of the European development of the resort business in Bulgaria. After the end of the First World War from 1918 he was again the director of the bathhouse. In 1922, when the construction of a resting home in Varshets was completed, he became its manager and at the same time chief physician of the Civil Service Insurance Company. [3]

Dr. Ivanov is the initiator of the construction of the "Sunny Garden" around the bathhouse of the Varshets resort. One of the most attractive sights of the city, the Sunny Garden merges with the Pine Park, which with its area of 800 decares is the second largest artificially planted park in Bulgaria after the Borisova Garden in Sofia.

Damyan Ivanov was actively involved in the social development of the doctor community in Bulgaria. He held many speeches, wrote articles and held positions in the government.

Damyan Ivanov died on July 15, 1959, recognized as one of the initiators of the balneological resort business.

A street in Varshets bears his name, and a statue of him is placed in the park.