On June 2, within the framework of the discussion “Historical cities – preservation and development”, organized jointly by the “24 chasa” newspaper and Sofia municipality, the establishment of the National Association for Development of Historic Sites in Bulgaria was signed. The Association will aim at legislative changes that will implement measures to protect cultural monuments.
There are 1400 tangible cultural monuments on the territory of Sofia alone. Sixty percent of them – about 840 sites, are situated around the center of the city. In a move to protect them, Sofia municipality has proposed a special credit line for the restoration of monument buildings to be granted by the Municipal Bank under a program called “A city with history”. The program will finance up to 70% of the value of the property under favorable conditions, so that the owners of cultural monument buildings will receive funds for reinforcement, conservation, restoration and repair activities.
Sofia’s Mayor Yordanka Fandakova announced that this is the first credit product of that kind.
In case of systematic refusal by the owners of local cultural monuments to restore them, we are ready to establish a mortgage on the property, as the municipality will carry out the restoration, Yordanka Fandakova added during the discussion.
The important sites for which it is extremely important to apply the whole set of measures for the protection of cultural monuments under the Cultural Heritage Act in Sofia, include emblematic sites such as Yavorov’s house, Fingov’s house, Sugar factory, the Bulgarian Industrialists’ Union at “Tsar Ivan Shishman” str., buildings at “Hristo Botev” blvd.,”6 Septemvri” str.,”Patriarh Evtimii” blvd., etc. Some of the sites are with acts of immediate action. In the last years more than 110 facades of old buildings in the central districts of Sredets and Vazrazhdane have been restored by the owners, also thanks to the active work of the mayors of the districts. A total of 8 cultural monument buildings have been restored only in the “Vazrazhdane” district, 4 more are under repair and another 5 are in a process of project approval.
A fine will be imposed in case the owners refuse to restore and repair the buildings. The municipality has imposed sanctions amounting to more than BGN 600 000 so far. Currently, Sofia’s Planning and Construction Act allows the imposition of fines amounting to BGN 100 000. A major problem is that these acts are appealed and long court proceedings are initiated, which slows down the activities on restoration and maintenance of the sites.
At the meeting it was also discussed the work of Sofia municipality on a single electronic register of all monuments of culture, containing information about their history and status. For that purpose, the National Institute for Protection of Cultural Heritage provides its archive, which the municipality plans to digitalize and provide public access to the data, together with information on the status of the cultural values.
Senator Yves Dodge, the author of the Preservation of Historic Buildings Act in France, His Excellency, the Ambassador of France – Eric Lebedel, Architect Alain Marinos – expert in France in the field of cultural and historical heritage, and Ministers Boil Banov and Nikolay Nankov took part in the discussion. Video recordings of the discussion can be viewed on the YouTube channel of “24 chasa” here.
