Treasures of the origins
The city of Provadia-Solnitsata would be the oldest "city" of Europe. Remains of houses, sanctuaries, bastions and walls dating from the5th millennium BC have been found there. But the most famous witness of the Bulgarian prehistory is the necropolis of Varna whose tombs date from the 4th millennium BC. The numerous gold jewels that were found there are the oldest examples of goldsmithing in the world. Caves and megalithic sites enrich this prehistoric heritage. The cave of Bacho Kirvo is a real labyrinth of four floors of galleries and corridors from which emerge long pieces carved in the stone. Another key site, that of Beglik Tash with its carved megaliths, its cave and its stone sun clock. This site bears the mark of the Thracians who left in Bulgaria among the most beautiful witnesses of their civilization. To discover them, go to the Valley of the Kings. In the Antiquity, the king was considered as son of the Earth and, at his death, he had to return in his bosom, from where these artificial mounds (tumulus) set up above the tombs. There are thousands of them in the valley, but the most beautiful are without doubt the Kazanlak tomb and the Sveshtari tomb. The first one impresses with its rounded burial chamber surmounted by a dome, its coffered ceiling and its paintings. The second has an incredible decorative wealth: polychrome caryatids, wall paintings and silhouettes in high relief. The Greeks established many settlements on the shores of the Black Sea, such as Nessebar and especially Sozopol. There you can discover thermal baths, fortresses and temples testifying to the wealth of the city. Do not miss the site of Messarity, on the heights, where the remains of an extraordinary agricultural complex are located. A builder's impulse that can be found among the Romans who unified the Balkan peninsula, particularly through the construction of communication routes criss-crossing the territories, the cities prospering at the crossroads of these new roads. Rome created the via Militaris which linked Belgrade to Constantinople, passing through Plovdiv and Sofia. Along the Danube, they also set up a limes or fortified line. This last one is composed of castrae or fortified camps built in height and near a water point, organized around a forum and protected by a wall. Many cities were built on these fortified camps, like the current Razgrad, formerly called Abritus. Plovdiv, as for it, contains some superb Roman buildings, symbols of pragmatism and power, like its theater, its stadium and especially its thermal baths decorated with sculpted columns.
Byzantine Empire and Bulgarian Kingdoms
From the 4th century, Bulgaria came under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) in which Christianity developed. The Byzantine architecture gives pride of place to brick, vaults and domes, as well as to mosaics and decorative frescoes. The first religious buildings follow a basilical plan, with a vast rectangular space divided into three naves by columns, then gradually the churches turn to a Greek cross plan. The most beautiful examples of this Byzantine architecture are the Red Church of Perushtitza with its rich mosaic decoration, the Rotunda Church of St. George in Sofia with its large circular central hall topped by a dome and its powerful brick-red color, and of course the Basilica of St. Sophia in Sofia, with its large dome supported by superb arcatures. The Byzantine architecture is also defensive with the construction of many fortified works, like the fortress of Mezek. At the same time, the Bulgarian nation begins to take shape. It is the advent of the first Bulgarian kingdoms. Pliska, the first capital, is a superb example of medieval urbanism taking advantage of the rugged rocky terrain. The khan Omourtag is the great builder of the city and it is to him that we owe the great palace of Omourtag. The great basilica of Pliska with its 100 m length is the largest Christian church of the Balkan peninsula and testifies to this constant cohabitation between Byzantine Empire and Bulgarian kingdoms. The period of great cultural development linked to the second Bulgarian kingdom will be particularly expressed in the city of Veliko Tarnovo with its church of the Forty Martyrs, the pantheon of the Bulgarian kings. But the jewel of the city is to be discovered on the hill of Tsaravets, the fortified city of the tsars. Its powerful walls of fortification shelter numerous dwellings, tens of churches, monasteries and of course the palace of the Bulgarian kings, the whole squared by a dense network of streets and lanes punctuated by places. The first Bulgarian kingdoms also manifested their power through the construction of numerous fortresses, including the impressive fortresses of Baba Vida and Choumen. The Bulgarian Middle Ages also saw the development of numerous monasteries, the very first of which are fascinating rock structures. Among the oldest and most astonishing, let us note the monastery of Aladja dug in a large vertical rock and composed of two floors with monastic cells, a small church and a chapel of 11 m length, the monastery of Ivanovo with its hundreds of caves fitted out in sanctuaries and troglodyte hermitages, or the monastery of Saint-Dimitri-Bassarbovski, built in the form of a well whose steps cut in the rock lead to the church and the troglodyte crypt. Alongside the monasteries, the building of churches continues with the superb church of Boyana in Sofia with its Greek cross plan, its dome and its richly decorated façade, or with the churches of Nessebar, nicknamed the Jerusalem of the North. One can admire the domes of the Church of Christ the Pantocrator and the superb polychrome paintings of the Church of Saint Stephen. Both were built by the Greeks, who were the great ambassadors of Byzantine Orthodox art. The Bulgarian Middle Ages is thus the result of a confrontation between Byzantine and Bulgarian culture, based on ancient heritages.
From Ottoman rule to the Bulgarian Renaissance
The mosques are the great symbols of the Ottoman presence. The Tomboul mosque in Shoumen is the largest of the country. Its powerful dome culminates at 25 m. The name tomboul meaning "chubby and round" in Turkish is a direct reference. At the time of its construction, the mosque also housed a large madrasa (Koranic school), as the Imaret mosque in Plovdiv which also hosted bathing facilities. The Ahmed Bey mosque in Kyoustendil, whose cubic shape is topped by an elegant dome, also had very beautiful bathing establishments, of which only the Dervish Banja has survived. The Ottoman architecture is thus also that of water which makes the beautiful part with the baths, hammams and fountains, all connected to complex systems of water conveyance. Plovdiv is home to some very beautiful examples of hammams overhung by domes with decorative brickwork. Not to be missed in Plovdiv either, the Kapana district which bears the mark of Ottoman urbanism, as well as the district of the Old Bazaar of Sumen with its narrow and tortuous lanes. Another great witness of the Ottoman know-how: the Nevestino bridge, 100 m long and whose granite walls are decorated with stalactite and rosette patterns, very common in Islamic art, as proven by the beautiful decoration of the vaults of the mosque of Sultan Mehmed in Kyoustendil, whose beautiful minaret can also be admired with this alternation of pink brick and gray limestone drawing decorative patterns. Finally, if you pass in front of churches that seem strangely small, do not be surprised: the Ottomans had authorized their construction on condition that they do not exceed the height of a Turkish rider on horseback ...
Very badly lived by the Bulgarians, this Ottoman occupation will contribute to strengthen the national identity. What begins as a shudder in the middle of the XVIIIth century is transformed in the following century into a national explosion which one calls the Bulgarian cultural Renaissance. The monasteries will play an essential role in the defense of this Bulgarian identity, starting with the powerful monastery of Rila, entirely rebuilt in the XIXth century in order to exalt the great symbols of the Bulgarian nation. The 19th century also marked an urban renewal with the development of large public buildings organized around a central square, the flagship elements of the city being the clock tower - an unmistakable visual landmark - and the school - the place of transmission of the Bulgarian culture. The architect Kolyou Fichéto is one of the great representatives of this Bulgarian Renaissance. It is to him that we owe the astonishing covered bridge of Lovetch. The bridge is 84 m long and is supported by fourteen vaults. But it is undoubtedly in the residential architecture that this Bulgarian identity is most expressed. Plovdiv in particular abounds in superb town houses with shimmering colors and whose structures operate a clever mixture of Italian Renaissance and Baroque with a great symmetry, but also elements that create surprising rhythms, alternating between convex and concave volumes. The staircase, a baroque element par excellence, flanks the facades and allows access to the central room of the house, a vast hall around which everything else is organized. This large reception room, round, rectangular or elliptical in shape, is often very richly decorated with carved wooden ceilings and rosettes. Some of these houses also have a small garden with fountains and rockeries.
With independence, this artistic renewal continues. The evolution of Sofia is the best example. From the end of the 19th century, the city was modernized: electricity supply, development of the avenues and creation of the ochre ceramic paving of the streets, which has become one of the symbols of the city. Landscape architects gave pride of place to parks and squares, inspired by garden cities, while many European architects brought in the styles that were in vogue at the time. This is how Sofia alternates between the national romanticism symbolized by the neo styles, and the modernity symbolized by the Viennese Secession, Art Nouveau and metallic architecture. This movement of Bulgarian Renaissance will reach its apogee with the Alexander-Nevski cathedral, a true memorial temple completed in 1913. From this five-aisle basilica, one can admire above all the superb golden domes that dominate the landscape.
From the Soviet era to contemporary revival
The Soviet period will considerably transform the urban landscape of Bulgaria. Everywhere industrial centers are created, coupled with the construction of new communication routes and new cities. The city of Dimitrovgrad is probably the most striking example. For five years, 50,000 young people will build this new city, a symbol of the ideology of the new regime. Although it was the result of a totalitarian regime, Soviet urban planning did not have only defects. The new houses offered their occupants modern comforts and quality community facilities. Dimitrovgrad, the "garden city", saw the planting of 118,000 plane trees along its main avenues and its green belt. The geometrical layout of the city center gives pride of place to neoclassical facades and colonnades exalting grandeur and luxury, just as Stalin wanted. This style can be seen in the former headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party in Sofia, now called the Largo. But these buildings are reserved for the party elites. The workers migrated to the outskirts of the city in large, functional, but soulless buildings. The Soviet era was also the era of giant stone buildings that hovered over the country's cities, like so many reminders of the "recognition" that the Bulgarian nation owed to the Russian liberator, such as the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship monument in Varna. Paradoxically, since the 1970s, the regime will do much for the preservation of Bulgarian heritage, also launching new archaeological excavations. Moreover, in 1981, on the occasion of the thirteen hundredth anniversary of the first Bulgarian kingdom, the regime decided to build the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. 10,000 tons of steel were needed to build this giant building of 700 m long, 200 m wide and 51 m high. The same year, the regime built another building, but this one all for the glory of the party: the Buzludzha or memorial of the Communist Party. At an altitude of 1,400 meters, it is impossible to miss this concrete UFO, consisting of a rounded block topped by a 15-meter high dome and a 70-meter high tower flanked by 12-meter high ruby-colored glass stars. Now in ruins, the building attracts the curious who come to admire the incredible frescoes and marble mosaics of the dome.
Building on these rich historical foundations, contemporary architecture is turning to green and sustainable solutions. The Bulgarian architect Stefan Dobrev is the great representative of this trend. In Sofia, he is responsible for the National Academy of Arts with its superb bridge of glass and metal linking the two wings of the building, the Benchmark Business Centre with its astonishing structure with a double skin facade on one side designed as a barrier to noise and sunlight, and on the other a sloping facade covering a large atrium where vegetation dominates, and the renovation plan for the historic center for which he has designed large greenways. He also designed the very elegant Sea and Mountain Resort in Saint-Vlas, composed of eco-friendly apartments divided into neighborhoods organized around central squares that follow the relief of the mountains. The same harmony with nature is found in the hotel complex on the shores of the Black Sea designed by the famous architect Norman Foster. A carbon-neutral project that emphasizes local materials. Finally, another great name in architecture, Dominique Perrault, has been commissioned to design Sofia's new government complex. Future projects that should not fail to surprise!
