7 min read
1928: The Earthquake, Damage and Visual Memory
Archive images from the Chirpan earthquake and damage in Plovdiv show how disaster becomes evidence for urban vulnerability and recovery.
01
Image Before Interpretation
In disasters, an archive photograph can look self-explanatory, but it must be read carefully. Date, place, credit, license and file link are part of the evidence. That is why the archive layer preserves media metadata, not only a dramatic image.
02
Damage in the Urban Fabric
Images around the National Library and St Josif Hospital show how the earthquake is seen through specific places, not only aggregate statistics. Then/now pairs are useful because they place damage in a modern reference frame, but remain approximate until the viewpoint is manually checked.
03
Recovery as an Incomplete Archive
This story deliberately does not invent a recovery budget or complete programme when none is present in the current base. Instead it marks what the images prove and where further primary documents are needed: decisions, minutes, reports and period press.
All stories
9 min read
From European Month of Culture to European Capital of Culture
1999 and 2019 show how Plovdiv used cultural programmes, venues and European frameworks to tell its story to a wider public.
8 min read
The Fair City: Exhibition, Industry and Modernity
From the first agricultural and industrial exhibition in 1892 to the postwar revival of the fair, Plovdiv built a public image as a city of exchange and economy.
8 min read
Old Plovdiv as Project: Restoration, Administration and Memory
A story on the specialized Old Plovdiv administration, Lamartine House and how restoration turned the quarter into a public historical stage.