Monuments of culture

Buildings that are cultural monuments are under the protection of the Ministry of Culture, and their management is not solely governed by the Spatial Development Act (SDA).

Renovation activities on these buildings must meet the requirement of preserving architectural identity to the maximum extent. Projects for such buildings must be coordinated with the Institute for Cultural Monuments. Achieving the criterion of minimal intervention on the original structure requires gathering as much information as possible about the geometric dimensions of the building and its structural elements, the chemical and physico-mechanical properties of the building materials, the impacts to which the building is exposed, previous repair activities, the types, sizes, and causes of current damages, and more. The analysis of the collected information may include computer 3D models showing crack distribution and seismic calculations. The goal is to achieve the desired results with minimal intervention only in critical points of the building. A thorough analysis is not a cheap endeavor, but it can significantly reduce the cost of repairs by drastically reducing the volume of renovation activities.

Modern methods allow minimal interventions that do not affect the exterior appearance of the facade elements or the entire building when required.

The slow approval process for Detailed Development Plans, design visas, and the projects themselves deters investors from purchasing buildings declared as cultural monuments.

Currently, the official approval time for investment projects for buildings of cultural value is four months, but in reality, it can stretch to nearly a year or even more.

If you own a building of cultural value and create a project, it must be coordinated with the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Culture. There are only three experts in the ministry responsible for issuing opinions for the entire country.

The Ministry of Culture is preparing amendments to the Cultural Heritage Act. The goal is to shorten the project approval times and streamline the administrative procedures within the cultural heritage system.

Considerations are being made to decentralize the approval process through digitalization of their archives, enabling the establishment of units in major cities like Plovdiv, Varna, and Veliko Tarnovo to locally coordinate contact zones or group monuments. This will significantly speed up the approval process.

Due to the lack of preservation regimes (for the protection and conservation of buildings that are cultural monuments), owners comply only with the conditions of the general development plan in the respective city.

In Plovdiv, there are currently 770 buildings with the status of “cultural monuments.”