Begun in 1895 on land bought for 180,000 gold leva, designed in neo-renaissance style by the Czech architect Antonín Kolář and finished in 1907 by Nikola Lazarov, the building stands at the crossing of Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard and Rakovski Street in Sofia. Its concert hall, at the centre of the plan and worked in baroque decoration, holds 450 seats; Chaliapin, Hristina Morfova and Nikolai Ghiaurov have sung in it. Concerts, exhibitions, ceremonies and assemblies share the house, which also keeps the central army library.