Designing Sofia’s city core in the context of the changing ideological paradigm 1945-1989
1 It is the core of the territory named Historic Centre in the sense of the terminology of the
National Institute of Preservation of the Monuments of Culture and Main City Centre or
Old Town in the sense of the terminology of Sofia’s post-war urbanism. The last two terms
cover naturally much larger areas.
2 The settlement is reorganised and fortified as a roman colonial city during the rain of
Marcus Ulpius Trajanus (98-117) replacing a former Thracian settlement. The hot mineral
water spring is included into the city limits. The city is redesigned by Marcus Aurelius and
his son Commodus in 176-177. Flavius Marcianus Augustus (450-457) and Leo I (457-
474) develop Ulpia Serdica as the capital of the province of Dacia ripensis. Serdica is for
a period the residence city of the Christian Emperor Constantinus. Confer: Балабанов,
П./С. Бояджиев/Н. Тулешков: Крепостно строителство по българските земи. АРХ&АРТ
София 2000 (Balabanov. P./S. Bojadjiev/N. Tuleshkov: Fortifications on the Bulgarian
lands, ARH&ART Sofia 2000).
3 Дойчинов, Г./Х. Ганчев: Старите градски части на София и подходът към тях,
НИПК София 1989 (Doytchinov, G./H. Ganchev: The old parts of Sofia and the approach
to them, NIPK Sofia 1989).
4 The putsch on the 9th September 1944 and the assumption of the power by the National
Front, the establishing of the Republic 1946 after a public opinion poll, the Nationalization
1947 etc.clear that the crack between the intention for a “complex and harmonious
milieu” and the reality is not bridgeable. Though the everyday life is determined
more and more by informal behavioural and organisational patterns,^42 the
urbanism frees hardly from the disastrous involvement with the political system
and the centralistic idea. Valuable potentials for the change or even adaptation
to the changed circumstances for the discipline stay on this way disregarded.
It is the political and territorial watershed in 1989 that once again creates a
totally new situation. The end of the socialism greatly diminishes the influence
of the public authorities and the public itself on urban developers. The change
marks the start of a new phase in Sofia’s urbanism.