Hannes Swoboda
Each of these capitals has its peculiarities and its own atmospheres. My first
visits to all three cities took place after the political changes 1989. Perhaps
in their “chaotic”, contradictory and sometimes neglected ambiance they
were and maybe they still are expressing a special amalgam of backwardness
and modernity, bourgeois and proletarian forms of life and housing. These
characteristics and structures are closer situated to each other than in any
other cities of Western Europe. It will be an enormous task to transfer and
to link the inherited backwardness to the present and to promote modern
structures without destruction of valuable ingredients of the past. A high
degree of sensitivity will be necessary to manage this transformation.
Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia could be a different kind of “smart cities”, where
modern technologies should not substitute, but complement the long historic
development with all its benefits but also wounds and scars.
I want to thank all the authors and editors, in particular Grigor Doytchinov,
for their engagement. They present in their contributions an overview of
the historical development as a basis for reflections about the past and the
future, which each one of the capital cities must define and implement as a
sophisticated and innovative continuation of the past.