Ferdinand himself symbolically took the first steps towards paving the city in 1908, when Independence was declared. But only figuratively speaking. The tsar came to Plovdiv, he was greeted with a huge triumphal arch next to the Military Club. But on the way from the station to the arch, he walked with ministers and other distinguished guests, and the boots and shoes of the whole delegation sank into mud and dust. The mayor at that time was Dr. Ivan Kisyakov, who had no guilt - the paving was still foreign to the city.
The tsar finally despaired at the current City Art Gallery of the Main Street. From there the carriages to Asenovgrad started, so there was an unpleasant smell, heat, flies and then the first person in the country got completely sour - this is indicated by the historical sources.
By 1910, very few streets were paved. First, they tried some long pavers. However, they were lined up in the direction of the street and when 200-300 carts passed, the pavement began to sink. Then they realized that they have to line them up, until finally the idea came to them that they needed square pavers lined up like a fan, in an arc. But this happened mainly on the central streets, there was no paving elsewhere. One of the first cobbled streets that Denyo Manev made as mayor after 1910 was the one where he lived. In Plovdiv in the 1920s the streets were covered, which means that they were set with gravel, but there were no pavers.
In the 1920s, Stantsionna, today Ivan Vazov Street, was finally paved. At that time, Plovdiv was already exporting pavers to the whole of Bulgaria. They came out in their typical form thanks to a special machine in the Izida factory in Dzhendem. There is a gap on the hill today - it is from the extraction of rock for the production of paving stones. There were quarries in many places on the hill. They have almost reached the top. Although the hill is huge, it was threatened by the rapid production of stone blocks for road pavement. That is why the people of Plovdiv started a huge battle to close the factory, because the explosions were terrible, the hill was eaten and became unstable.
It was only in 1932 that Bozhidar Zdravkov, the mayor of Plovdiv, managed to close the quarries. However, they continued and although closed, all quarries began to cut stones from above, from the top. With this, the walls and the old temples, which were at the top of Dzhendem Tepe, were completely eliminated.
Their loss, however, is a small part of the total damage suffered by the city in the name of the paving stone. Markovo Tepe - we step on it and drive our cars on it. Pavers were also made from the Monday market. There were quarries on the site of the Radio and Television Center and the St. Peter and Paul church in Bunardzhika.
The pavement was to wipe out all our hills, if the citizens had not shown will and unity. In any case, most of the city was paved. Many of the pavers traveled to all parts of the country and beyond. It is said that half of the material from Markovo Tepe is covering Germany.
The asphalt in Plovdiv entered only in 1959. There may have been some separate streets before, but the concept of pavement was changed just then.
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