"There are a lot of empty spaces out here... why?"
Before coming to Bulgaria I told myself that I should have no expectations, having to constrain myself from googling and looking at photos of how the “ideal” Bulgaria and more specifically Plovdiv, is presented to the unknown traveller. However, I wanted to know at least something about the place that we would soon visit, so ultimately I decided to focus on the rich and harsh history of Plovdiv and learn more about the influences that can still be seen in the city from the middle ages until now.
Landing at Sofia already gave me a first impression of what I thought every Bulgarian city would look like. From the airplane it seemed like a concrete ghost city. Its tall residential buildings, the gray weather, the lack of people and the greenery that was surrounding them was something I had never encountered before and it immediately made me think that, that was what Plovdiv would look like as well. During the ride from Sofia to Plovdiv nothing changed. A concrete ghost city that led to endless fields of forests and grass which ultimately led to the entrance of Plovdiv which looked very similar to Sofia. It was only when we started walking to our hostel, struggling to push our suitcases up the hill, that I understood how different and interesting Plovdiv would be. From my first step into the old town, I was intrigued by the houses that surrounded the small picturesque streets and the lack of people in or around them. It was late in the afternoon, so my first thought was that people were having dinner or resting from the long day that they might have had so I did not want to make any concrete assumptions about the town and its feeling of abandonment and emptiness just yet. At that moment I recognised that I am indeed a tourist in this city and I should be very aware and intrigued by my surroundings.
The morning of the second day, we met Nikola Venkov, a very interesting man that knew everything there is to know about the city of Plovdiv. One of the things that he talked about and I remember most vividly, was the situation concerning all the old, almost demolished, abandoned buildings that can be found in all corners of the city. The houses that can be found in the Old Town, used to be inhabited by artists that were focused in the development and appreciation of the city. Now, they are empty, reminiscing of the time when life was coming in and out of them. Now they are abandoned, remembering the time when the artistic scene of Plovdiv was flourishing through them. We are now in the centre of Plovdiv, outside of the Old Town and Nikola is still making the same point. All of the empty houses we see can not be touched by anyone as they are symbols of the deep history that defines the city and the movement of people and cultures that has been happening for over eight thousand years. At that moment I thought “There are a lot of empty spaces out here, why?”.
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| Abandoned house in the Old Town of Plovdiv |
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| Abandoned house in the Old Town of Plovdiv |
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| Abandoned house in the city centre of Plovdiv |
My question, was not answered during the third day, but it was further demonstrated. From our morning meeting with Svletlana Kuyumdhieva, the art director of Plovdiv 2019, to the space where we met the founding members of the ACEA Mediator organization in the afternoon, the concept of abandonment was always on my mind. The headquarters of Plovdiv 2019, where we met Svetlana where in the heart of the city next to two historic tobacco warehouses that looked like they were being demolished and would later be renovated. However, Svetlana explained to us that, that was the result of a fire (purposefully done) because these buildings could not be used by anyone as they were a part of the historic buildings of the city. Beautiful buildings, turned into ashes for repurposing them also raises some political issues. The government blamed the arson to a homeless person, but that was easily debunked, which also highlights the municipality’s need for validity and good reputation amongst the citizens of Plovdiv. Almost three years after the fire, the building is still in ruins. Are they treating the fire as an addition to the historic value of the buildings or will they ever be rebuilt? This is a decision that needs to be made very carefully and diplomatically as the citizens of Plovdiv have contradicting views on the importance of preserving history and the medium with which it can be done. In our afternoon session, we met the wonderful ladies of the ACEA Mediator organization. The meeting was very touching and inspiring but what immediately caught my attention was the building we were in. It was an old movie theatre that had large empty spaces and looked like it was not used anymore. The composition of the place was very beautiful however. Small light beams were coming in from the tinted windows, giving life to the gray insides of the building and the movie posters that were hanging from the ceiling introduced a vintage feeling to the whole place.
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| Tobacco Warehouse |
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| Tobacco Warehouse |
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| Movie theatre .1 |
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| Movie theatre .2 |
It is day four today and my questions still have not been answered. Why are there so many empty spaces? Can history only be preserved through one building or is it important to maintain all of the buildings that have defined Plovdiv’s history? Why are buildings connected that deeply with politics? How can we appreciate more the beauty of nothing?
by Mikela Koressi
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