Hristo Berberov (1875 – 1948) was born on October 23, 1875 in the city of Elena, Ottoman Empire as the last member of a family of eight. After completing his primary education in his hometown, he continued his studies at the Veliko Tarnovo State Boys’ High School “St. Cyril” – there he was taught drawing and calligraphy by Otto Horeishi. Aided by a state scholarship, Berberov went to Italy to continue his education at the Royal Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, where he was taught by Pier Celestino Gilardi, Giacomo Grosso and Andrea Tavernier. In 1898, he graduated and returned to Bulgaria, where he entered the Plovdiv Boys’ High School “Alexander I”. Later he moved and taught in Sofia, and in the period 1912 – 1920 he was a professor of perspective at the Art-Industrial School. In 1921, he was presented to H.V. Tsar Boris for the Order of St. Alexander with a knight’s cross and diploma on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Art Academy. He died on January 29, 1948 in Sofia.
