On February 1, Georgi Valentinov Georgiev, chairman of the Metropolitan Municipal Council, informed that the municipality has started to clean Sofia from the scratches on the facades to show how beautiful the capital is with its old buildings built in Austrian style.
Georgiev stressed that cleaning these architectural masterpieces is necessary because their beauty cannot be noticed behind the outrageous scratches of people with no responsibility and attitude towards others.
Large-scale cleaning of scratched facades, places, objects and elements of urban furniture begins – starting in Zone I and Zone II – the historic part of Sofia, which has many single and group cultural monuments and is an attractive tourist centre.
The cleaning of scratched facades, places and sites will be gradually expanded to cover more areas of the Metropolitan Municipality and not be limited only to the central part of the city in the future.
Private buildings will also be cleaned at the Metropolitan Inspectorate at the Metropolitan Police Inspectorate when signalled and after the explicit request of the residents.
Georgiev said, “It is very important to distinguish vandalism from art. We are proud of our talented graffiti artists and support their development even more. That is why we determine spaces for building walls for free display of graffiti in Sofia”.
The space under the Chavdar Bridge, the underpasses of the flyover around Poduyane Station along the Boulevard, Botevgradsko Shoes”, free wall in South Park 2 next to OKI “Topocentrala” and free wall in “Studentski” park are the designated places were agreed upon with Sofia Zdravko Zdravkov’s chief architect and discussed with the graffiti artists’ community representatives.
In addition, a quick and easy procedure for drawing a facade/tulle is introduced, after consent of the floor property of the building, preparation of a visual design and agreement from the Architecture and Urban Planning Directorate.