Градските градини и паркове в българските илюстровани картички като образи на модернизацията от края на ХІХ до средата на ХХ век
Urban gardens and parks on Bulgarian illustrated cards as images of modernization in the late nineteenth to mid twentieth century

Summary/Abstract: The current work explores Bulgarian illustrated cards with views of urban gardens and parks as a visual sign of modernization in the late nineteenth to mid twentieth century. The cards in Bulgaria, reproducing urban parks and gardens, were not studied so far and the current work aims to present this cultural phenomenon as a research problem and a specific aspect of the Europeanization/modernization in Bulgaria (most specifically in Sofia) in the late nineteenth to mid twentieth century. The interpretations are done from the perspective of the ideal-aesthetic exchange between the mass („low“) and elite („high“) fine art, between publications in the press media from those days and memoirs. From the various card collections the author analyses a number of basic gardens, emblematic not only for the period under consideration, but also afterwards – the botanic garden in Kniazhevo (the Borisov garden) 1885 and the City garden 1895. The selected images are interpreted according to their specific function in Bulgarian society in the late nineteenth to mid twentieth century. They are analyzed as a result of the new attitude towards nature, fascination at the cultivated vegetation, relevant knowledge, cultivation, perception and depiction. The author presents the artistic means for achieving the basic suggestion and idealization of the modern urban environment. The visual strategy of publishers and card illustrators is discussed in interdisciplinary and comparative perspective – Bulgarian and European urban areas are compared in terms of the featured parks and gardens.

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