Planning Capital Cities

Sofia before World War II: urban design as a cultural implication

In the period until 1897, there is an ambiguity concerning the authors of the

next cadastral and regulation plans for Sofia. This can be attributed to the

pure archive documentations and the imprecise interpretations in the sources.

The Department of Cadastre and Regulation at the Municipality appoints in

1888 Johann Bartel as chief topographer to elaborate a new cadastral map. He

equips the team with a number of Austrian technicians.^33 It isn’t clear if a result

is reported in 1891, but a year later, in 1892, a new regulation plan is prepared,

not coming into effect. The remark in some sources, that the author of the plan

is unknown is questionable, because in this period the head of the department

is Nikola Nachev and the department is occupied by the above mentioned

Austrians. A lot of the ideas in the regulation plan are suggesting that it is a

work of experts, who are familiar with the Central European urban design. The

regulation plan from 1892 is an unfinished work that shows a richness of ideas,

which surprise even today. The basic decisions of the first regulation plan are

developed continuously with great capability. The ring road is designed as an

ensemble of characteristic public places and gardens, representative buildings,

monuments and bridges located along.

In the Bulgarian sources there are once again some absurdities concerning the

contribution of the Austrian experts to a regulation plan from 1897. The same

year’s cadastre map in the scale 1:5.000 is attributed definitely to Wilhelm Bartel.

Fig. 6
The cadastral map of Bartel,

1897. (Museum of Sofia)