Hristo Ganchev, Grigor Doytchinov
The cadastre shows that the basic decisions from previous plans are already
realised. The ring road and Sofia’s centre are completed. The orthogonal street
grid is executed, but it is interesting to see the chaotic configuration of some
inherited buildings inside the newly organised orthogonal blocks.^34 Thanks to
the efforts of the team of Austrians, today we are able to understand the speed
of urban change in the end of the nineteenth century. The cadastre is therefore
an important and reliable source.^35 But the fact, that in the same year a new
regulation plan including the surrounding agricultural belt is elaborated in
1:10.000, remains unnoticed. The content of this plan is by all means the work
of Bartel, despite of the fact that the plan is signed by other people.^36 The plan
foresees the trace of a secondary, outer ring road, which realisation puts to an
end a phase of urbanism, very important for the future capital’s development.
At the end of the nineteenth century the construction of the Central Railway
Station in the north and some new quarters expend the city’s territory to 7.3
sq. km. The urbanized territory coincides in 1900 with the present day urban
core.^37
Fig. 7
The regulation plan, 1897.
(Museum of Sofia)