The Sarmadzhiev House lies on the corner of Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard and Krakra Street,[1] between the Sofia University rectorate and Eagles' Bridge.

After studying and practicing law in Bucharest and graduating from the Sorbonne in Paris, Sarmadzhiev settled in the Principality of Bulgaria in 1891 and married Elena, with whom he had four sons and a daughter.

Sarmadzhiev served as a legal advisor and general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and subsequently as a diplomat in Belgrade and Vienna between 1895 and 1902.

In 1902, he returned to Bulgaria to start his own private legal practice and commissioned the house to Friedrich Grünanger.

[2][1] Grünanger was at the time a leading architect in Bulgaria, having worked on the Royal Palace in Sofia and other prominent assignments.

[2][1] During some of his time as Ottoman military attaché in Sofia in 1913–15, the future founder of secular and republican Turkey and first Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk worked in the Sarmadzhiev House.