Forgotten beauty

There are cities that are prepared do anything to become even more beautiful - and this is easy to understand. And then there are those cities that, when looking for new ways to make an impression, fail to appreciate what remains of their former glory. This I cannot understand

Mladen Petrov

My friends all have their own dreams. Some are relatively easy to realise, others are just... hard to explain. I'm wondering why someone who owns a perfectly fine apartment in one of Warsaw's best districts would get so excited by the prospect of a Four Seasons hotel in the capital? So she can occasionally check in when bored of her pre-war classic six? I hate to disappoint my friend, but I think the opening of this hotel is still some way off in the future. This company tends to be extremely picky when it comes to locations and buildings, as can be seen by looking at the chain's hotels in other, luckier, CEE capitals. Warsaw, on the other hand, due to its unfortunate past, today lacks large numbers of fabulous, pre-war, historic buildings suitable for being turned into luxury hotels.
I have just returned from Sofia. I can imagine some of you are now saying: "Poor guy, what an ugly city!" Well, I can see your point, but let me do something I never get tired of. Welcome to Mladen Petrov's ?Sofia: a neglected - but not an ugly - city' course. With a large chunk of my family living in Sofia, my views on the city are obviously not the most objective, but at least I am qualified to teach such a class. The thing about Sofia is that you simply have to try a bit harder. Once you land at Sofia airport, all you have to do is to close your eyes for about 15 minutes, long enough to pass the ugly socialist residential architecture on the way to the city centre.
Sofia had much more luck than Warsaw, as it was mostly left intact during the Second World War. The old dilapidated buildings you can see on your arrival are not in that condition because of the war - they look like that simply because no one has really bothered to preserve them. And this is just sad and wrong. Sofia, one of the oldest cities in Europe, dating back to Thracian times, only became the capital of an independent Bulgaria in 1879, soon after the end of Ottoman rule. Shortly afterwards, over fifty architects - the majority from Austria and the Czech Republic - arrived and set to work on giving their new city a makeover. And they did a fine job, as I'm sure you would agree while walking with me down Tsar Osvoboditel Avenue, mostly referred to as Zhaltite pavetata (the yellow paving stones). Back in the day this was the capital's swankiest street, linking the Tsar's palace with the Parliament building. Over the last few years some steps have been taken to take better care of the capital's architectural heritage - a façade being painted here, windows being washed there. With the buildings looking better it is certainly easier to feel the charm of the city - the tiny cobbled streets, the cool shops, the easy going southern European attitude (as reflected in the coffee shops, which are packed at all times).
Unfortunately, on the last day of my stay I noticed something that once again got me going. A beautiful - but abandoned - building in the very heart of the Sofia had been demolished. The building, the kind an international investor with big money might well have been interested in, had stood derelict for many years, until someone in the city government decided that it would be ok to have it demolished rather than looking for a partner to restore the beauty of the old lady. Having lived in Warsaw for many years now I've become very sensitive when it comes to pre-war buildings, simply because we have so few of them. I am glad that developers, despite the red tape and the difficulties in dealing with the historic buildings conservators, are sometimes willing to invest even two or three times the cost of a building built from scratch just to save what is left of old Warsaw. I remember when there was a proposal a few years ago to add Sofia's historic centre to the UNESCO heritage list. "What?! That ugly thing?" - I heard industry players comment back then. It's a crying shame that they fail to notice the potential of what they see every day, something that they take for granted. As it turns out Sofia, for different reasons, is not ready for a Four Seasons hotel either.