THE CITY OF A DREAM

Evening Star, Issue 23273, 23 May 1939, Page 11

THE CITY OF A DREAM

There are two Sofias just now: a nal one and, a dream one. Actually the Bulgarian capital has 300,000 inhabitants; the dream Soda has 750,000. and is planned as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. Now a British author. Bruce Lockhart, has written in a recent book that Sofia is the most beautifully located city on the continent. Most people Iwho have been in Venice, Geneva, Stockholm, and other places, would disagree, but still it is certain that Sofia has a splendid natural site. And now the whole city is to be transformed. It is to be rebuilt as the fantasy of a skilled German engineer dictates. No vested interests or temporary inconveniences will be allowed to interfere with future beauty and convenience. To-morrow’s Sofia may be a model of city planning. _ It is to be like a star with eight great avenues radiating from the centre. Yet there is to be no congestion in the centre and the star is to be green. Street cars and auto-buses will be directed away from the busiest streets on to “ ring ” avenues. The trunk-roads also are planned to make graceful detours. All the main streets will be tree-shaded. The whole city will be verdant with parks. A goodsized forest is to be included in tjie city limits, but is not to prevent expansion. 'Sofia will move symmetrically out over the plains and climb in an ordinary fashion up the nearby mountains. There are to be swimming pools, many athletic fields, and direct roads to nearby skiing areas. All Sofia, winter and summer, will be able to_ pour out of town into woods and picturesque defiles. . This dream has been worked out in detail, put into plaster of Paris, and is on exhibition. The plan is also dis(nissed in every cafe and home. For its realisation costs money. Beside* that, it requires the tearing down of many existing buildings It will also bring decided changes in real-estate values,—-* Christian Science