Authors
Elitza Stanoeva1; 1 University of Warsaw, Poland Discussion
This paper will discuss the advocacy of Bulgaria architects for the preservation of the architectural heritage of the recent past which made headway from the late 1960s onward in stark contrast to the previous decades of professional complacency with regard to the dissonant heritage of the prewar period, now denounced as a “bourgeois-monarchic era”. The buildings in the spotlight of this preservationist discourse were all key landmarks of pre-socialist Sofia, most notably the former royal palace, that had been a target of ideologically inspired demolition campaigns as remnants and symbols of the ancien régime. While this discourse gradually diversified its arguments, strategies of enlisting support and ultimately voices, it commenced from the first generation of socialist architects, the pioneers of the postwar remake of the city which, paradoxically, envisioned the removal of the very same structures they later came to defend. Their advocacy at a time when they were already enjoying impeccable socialist credentials but about to retire from active practice was shaped by a reflection on professional identity, ethos and legacy that paid heed to intergenerational memory and group solidarity cutting across the 1945 historical threshold. Thus, the discourse and its arguments are explored as synchronized articulations of collective memory in clash with the political memory at a time when the sociopolitical context in Bulgaria allowed for relative professional liberalization. For reconstructing the positions, arguments and strategies of the architects advocating for the preservation of bourgeois-monarchic heritage, this study relies on publications in the corporate journal and stenographic transcripts of public debates organized by the architects’ society to discuss major plans and projects concerning the center of Sofia and the surviving prewar landmarks within it. 
