Abstract
Based on empirical research in Asenovgrad, this paper discusses socially constructed spaces during socialism and how they were used to impose and legitimize power. It proposes alternate perspectives towards socialism and its material culture expressed in the creation of modern architectural ensembles in the town center. Socialist architecture was a power statement which imposed new values and ideas. These buildings were markers of state authority which sent a powerful message for the renewal of society by breaking away from older, pre-socialist traditions. Among the issues examined here is the significance of the urban square and its surrounding buildings for residents of Asenovgrad today; how is the town’s center perceived in the collective memory? The analysis concludes by exploring the relationship between architecture and ideology in the way social reality was constructed, instrumentalised and offering insight into how the socialist regime was legitimized through material culture, artifacts, and buildings.
Highlights
IntroductionPlaces and landscapes express individual memories and stories of people; they form the basis of shared identities but can become a means of imposing power
The fundamental research questions are how people rethink the town center and corresponding architectural heritage today, how it influences their perception of the past, and how urban memory is kept and recreated through new projects and activities
Additional information was collected through semi-structured interviews with three representatives of the younger generation in Asenovgrad – young people born at the border and after 1989, members of the youth organization of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the heir of the Communist Party in Bulgaria after 1989
Summary
Places and landscapes express individual memories and stories of people; they form the basis of shared identities but can become a means of imposing power. The fundamental research questions are how people rethink the town center and corresponding architectural heritage today, how it influences their perception of the past, and how urban memory is kept and recreated through new projects and activities. This discussion is ever more relevant in the postsocialist context in which Bulgaria is an EU member since 2007, resulting in a combination of modern and old in the urban landscape of Bulgarian cities
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