ABSTRACT
This paper suggests a new perspective on twentieth-century Plovdiv, Bulgaria, as a crossroads of foreign construction know-how. The paper discusses three notable yet insufficiently studied buildings: the railway station (1905–08), Excelsior cinema (1911–12) and tobacco warehouses (1912–28). First, using archival and historical literature, it seeks to understand the protagonists behind the design and construction of the station building. This research was augmented with onsite investigations of building materials and techniques. Next, the paper discusses the construction technology of the cinema. Then, it adds to an understanding of the local warehouse building type through a comparative analysis of several case studies. This paper unveils traces of foreign influence in all three by comparing their features with buildings described in foreign nineteenth-century technical manuals. The paper extends the little existing knowledge on the three examples and suggests the ways through which building know-how flowed into Plovdiv.
