During the Liberation in 1878, Plovdiv was an oriental city with a population of about 33,000. The streets were crooked, the houses were built at random and the majority of the population was concentrated in the area around the Three Hills and Roman Stadium Square (Dzhumaya).
In order to live its modernization and gradually transform from an oriental settlement typical of the Ottoman Empire into an industrial center and cultural capital of European Bulgaria, Plovdiv went through several very important stages that still define its appearance to this day.
Urban planning
The first general urban plan in Bulgaria was made in Stara Zagora, as the town was almost completely burned down. That is why even today there are only straight and wide streets, and the neighborhoods are rectangular. The capital Sofia followed, and in 1888 the creation of the first cadastral plan of Plovdiv was assigned to Schnitter. He completed it by 1890, and then made his general regulatory plan of the city. We owe it to him that Plovdiv acquired a modern look after the Liberation, but at the same time managed to preserve its appearance, unlike Sofia, Stara Zagora and other relatively large cities at that time.
The legacy of this plan, known to us even today, can be found in the streets of the city between Vasil Aprilov, Hristo Botev, Iztochen and the unbuilt Severen boulevards.
The construction of water supply system and sewerage under the hills
The next big step towards turning Plovdiv into a European city was the laying of the first water pipe from the Rhodopes to the city. For this, the greatest credit goes to Hristo Dyukmedzhiev, who at that time was the mayor under the hills and took out a loan to secure funds for the construction of the network. Before that, the water was delivered to the houses in containers with questionable hygiene.
The beginning of the water supply system was located along the Tamrashka River (Parvenetska) and the area of the present village of Hrabrino, and initially public fountains were built around the parks and in the central parts of the city.
Later, Dyukmedzhiev's work was continued by the mayor Bozhidar Zdravkov, who undertook to solve the drinking water problem for the entire city. Until then, there was only one water main, whose reservoirs burst during heavy rains. The problem was solved by using the underground water under the hills and digging wells, from which water was pumped with electric pumps. During his time, the construction of the sewage system began in Plovdiv, which at that time had a population of almost one hundred thousand.
The transformation of Plovdiv into an industrial center
Plovdiv became the center of the new tobacco industry. Magardich Tomasyan first replaced the manual cutting of tobacco with a machine driven by a gasoline engine. It was followed by Stamatov's Zheleznitsa factory, Nikola Libenov's Slantse factory, Stavridis and Mardas' Orel factory. So in the 1920s and 1930s the city became the largest industrial district in the country with more than 30 warehouses and five tobacco factories. More than half of the export of tobacco products now came from Plovdiv.
Subsequently, a number of other industries also developed. In 1893, Hristo Syarov opened the first soap factory in Plovdiv, Stefan Obreykov created the May factory - for ink and school supplies, in 1895 Anton Papazov founded the first Bulgarian enterprise for perfumery products, in 1897 Pavel Kalpakchiev created the largest factory for bricks and tiles in southern Bulgaria, in 1909 the first Bulgarian canning factory of Pantelei Genov with the factory brand Hubavata gradinarka appeared.
The First Bulgarian Exhibition
In the young Bulgarian state, only 13 years after the Liberation and seven after the Unification, the idea of the First Bulgarian Exhibition was born. First it was born in Stambolov's office, then its implementation began. Bulgaria then was backward, with an 80% rural population, almost no modernization or public life. But this event played a fateful role.
After it was decided that the exhibition would be held in Plovdiv, the city began preparations. An area of 80 decares, previously occupied by abandoned Turkish cemeteries, was set aside, another surrounding area of about a dozen decares was expropriated. Planning and work began. The main architect of the exhibition was Heinrich Mayer, next to him were the engineers Ivan Nestorov and Stefan Geshov. The concept was for a park with pavilions. In just ten months, 35 pavilions, two restaurants, buildings for the fire department and the police, buildings for animals, a telegraph-post office, a photography studio were built. At the same time the park was created - under the leadership of Lucien Chevallaz, 264 ten-year-old trees and many flowers were planted on 6 pathways. When the exhibition opened on August 15, 1892, people couldn’t believe their eyes.
167,922 people from Bulgaria and abroad visited the exhibition until its closure at the beginning of November 1892. It is believed that it marked the beginning of Bulgaria's economic and cultural rise.
Architecture
A significant role on the change of the architectural appearance from the Ottoman Filibe to the European Plovdiv was played by the architect Josef Schnitter, as well as a number of his foreign colleagues. These European architects arrived in the city from Austria-Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and other countries, bringing with them the architectural styles current at the end of the 19th century - rich in references to Renaissance, Baroque or Classical models.
Some of the first most impressive buildings were educational - the Humanitarian Boys’ High School, designed by Montani, the Girls' High School - today the City Art Gallery - by Schnitter or "The Marzaliya", today Geo Milev School, by the Greek architect Dimitri Andronikos. In the last years of the century, the first Bulgarian architects who graduated abroad began to replace foreigners and the masterpieces of Kamen Petkov, Lazar Nanchev and others appeared. Around the beginning of the new century, the strong influence of the new European style - Secession - was already felt, as similar buildings appeared all over the country, and by the 1920s, the appearance of Main Street, as we know it to this day, took shape.
In just 70-80 years, the city experienced the time of its modernization and in the middle of the 20th century it was already a city of one hundred thousand people with an implemented urban development plan, water supply, sewage, industry, new architectural ensembles in the central part of the city.
The road was certainly not easy and the whole process met with a lot of resistance and a number of difficulties.
Тhere are no comments yet.