Planning Capital Cities

Designing Sofia’s city core in the context of the changing ideological paradigm 1945-1989

than the public green space around, especially if the space is as large as the

Southern Park. The third problem of the location is that the National Opera will

be seen by both entering and leaving the park. It means the building cannot

have an entrance and a back side.^31

The first awarded project of the Yugoslav architect I. Strauss reacts with an

original solution on the contradictive circumstances: He divides the building

into two volumes and creates a kind of propylaea to the park, defined between

the two building entrances. It is a wasted chance for the capital that the project

is not followed up. It is a sign of provinciality and belayed patriotism of the

decision making politicians to cancel the idea of the opera building, because

the first prize isn’t given to a Bulgarian architect.^32 A new object is defined

for the location - the National Palace of Culture, realized in the jubilee-year

1981.^33 Its concept is based unfortunately on the concept contributions not
being awarded from the jury of the international competition for the opera
building: The palace entrance faces the city center in the north and turns
its back to the mountain and the park in the south. The building volume is
positioned in the middle of the space, dominating over the park entrance and
defining obviously a representative axes.^34 The design for the National Palace of
Culture gives expression of a correction in the political main stream spirit and
is closely linked to the missing innovations in the architectural scene in Bulgaria
in the period. At the end of the 1970s it could easily been observed that the

Fig. 11
The concept for the urban image
from the 1970s: The meaning
of the mountain Vitosha for
the urban identity is the reason
to orientate the urban core
development to the south and
to reborn the pre-war idea of
the Southern Park. (Mollov)