The story of one pavement

The historical and administrative center of Sofia is lined with beautiful yellow bricks that have been lying here since 1906, that is, for 111 years already! This pavement is so strong and old that the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences even proposes to declare it the cultural heritage of Sofia.

Why did not see this yellow pavement in my life! There are even legends about it.

For example, one of the legends explains the appearance of such an unusual pavement in Sofia by the fact that it was a wedding gift. It is said that these yellow bricks were presented by Austro-Hungarian relatives to the king Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, for his wedding with Maria Louise of Bourbon-Parma in 1893.

In fact, the yellow pavement appeared in Sofia only after 1906 as a result of large-scale urban planning, deployed by the Sofia kmet, Martin Todorov.

For the purchase of this coverage a loan was taken in German banks for the whole fifty years - 35,000,000 leva. Subsequently, the Sofia budget was able to repay the loan ahead of schedule.

This yellow paving stone was made in Hungary at a coal mine near Budapest: clay marl was crushed, formed into bricks and burned at 1300 degrees. That is why she is so strong.

Then, at the beginning of the last century, the yellow pavement occupied 6 hectares of the Sofia center, but during the bombings in 1944, the population stole a broken cover and sold for a pittance. That is why the yellow garden paths can be seen in the courtyards of the old mansions of the rich Sofia districts.

Interesting detail

Around the same year, Odessa residents also decided to pave their city with the same yellow paving stones, but it turned out that it had a drawback: during rain and snow, the pavement becomes too slippery. Therefore, they abandoned this venture, but they say that a small area remained paved. Unfortunately, I myself have never seen him.

But Bulgarians were so fascinated by the beauty of this pavement that they blocked all the main streets in the center: Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, Alexander Korsakov Dondukov Boulevard, People’s Assembly Square, Alexander Square and some of the others.

And the last little touch

From the urban folklore: if they say about a person that he is a “patella zhlteti”, it means they want to make it clear that he is either a native Sophian or “in power”.

In Bulgarian, this pavement is called "zhylteti paveta".

Thank you for your time and attention.

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All photos in this blog are taken by me unless otherwise attributed.

With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova

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