The City of Shields
I don’t know if the reason I see them everywhere is because I look too much at the buildings or if really in Sofia the dominant architectural element is the TURTLE. And in no case can we blame only the new builders. Every second building in the historical center of Sofia proudly shines with a shield, on which the ghost of the neighboring building, which is no longer there, stands out brightly. Of course, the main difference is that the old fenders have bloomed like moth-eaten holes in an old garment, completely randomly, any caliber of windows. Often these secondary windows are basically each a different generation of window frames, almost necessarily NOT aligned with each other, and necessarily different sizes. My absolute favorites are the small square windows to the attic, necessarily off-center on the central axis of the building.
Sometimes the remaining bricks from the demolished neighboring building are so massive in places that they form a kind of 3D relief panels.
I wonder if in a few years the same thing will happen to the shiny white shields of the new construction??!! Will they also resist the temptation to poke here and there at a window? Mandatory with different sizes.
Obviously, the construction of a shield is inevitable in the city, which “grows but does not age” and every centimeter of area must be absorbed to the last. Consolation for the eye are the single buildings that managed to shake off the magic of the shield and get 4 meaningful facades, without necessarily belonging to the group “Mastodonts of the Sotsa”, where it is clear that there is no way to build “on shield”.