Contrasts

Chirpan, the city of contrasts

What I absolutely love about the urban plans of the cities in Bulgaria is the diversity of the architecture.

Here you can see at the same time so typical for the former communist countries large or small (usually extremely ugly) panel blocks, beautiful aristocratic houses from the late 19th and early 20th century, even even older houses from the time of the Ottoman slavery, and even buildings built by the Ottomans themselves.

And also, when it comes to new and modern construction, there is no and cannot be, with this variety of architecture, restrictions and regulations for the design of the buildings.

Because I know countries where there are some. In which on the streets you can see only almost the same buildings, built with similar materials, similar color, similar design. They cannot, they have no right to escape the universal status quo.

Of course, I have not yet seen a house in the shape of a flying saucer in Bulgaria (I exclude the alien architecture so characteristic of communism).

But I already know about a snail-shaped house built in 2008 and a Gaudi-style hotel. And even more - what do I even know about Bulgaria, after traveling around it so little.

So, we are talking about Chirpan, a small town in the southern part of the country. According to the latest official data, with a population of 20 thousand people. However, this is no longer true. I'm sure. Visiting a city like this, a person, any normal person would be overwhelmed with sadness and anxiety. Even I, who in principle am enchanted by the architecture and architectural differences in the country and could find beauty and interest in any dilapidated building.

Here are the on-duty apartment buildings I told you about at the beginning.
Oh, in the center of the city there are beautiful Renaissance buildings and buildings in the so-called Bulgarian Revival style. But these are administrative buildings, museums that we will not talk about now. Now we are talking about residential buildings.

What do you see? I will tell you what - poverty.

In fact, not even to the extent that it exists in this city, in all the cities in this country. Because the reason for this post is not the poverty of the country, but its architecture. Its specific architecture in its southern part.

And here, even on the same street, you can see this - the complete opposite of the photos above:

And also this - on the opposite side of the street:

In fact, this building is one of the most curious for me. Because it looks old. At the same time not quite.

But the contrast in its full appearance can be seen in this photo - a beautiful large building in front of panel apartment blocks.

What else?

This pavement:

will soon lead us to this street pavement:

where you can see buildings like these:

And then this same pavement leads to houses and places like these:

The construction of the old houses in Bulgaria is precise. I keep saying that the old construction is better than the new one. Not just because it's more beautiful.

But because all these abandoned and unmaintained old buildings have not yet collapsed under the pressure of time and the climatic conditions to which they are exposed.

Should I mention that I am in love with the old buildings that once rich people managed to build, with their beautiful design and beautiful execution? Unfortunately, all of them have already been abandoned and left to the whims of fate.


	Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you.