Resources

Despite the extensive network of balneosanatoria and public thermal baths built across Bulgaria, the resources related to their history could be difficult to locate and access. The documents on the topic are on rare occasions digitized and accessible online, with the digitized content typically limited to the period between 1878 and 1944. In addition, pieces of information are spread across multiple locations in different cities, ranging from the local branches of the State Archives to the small libraries of community centers. The Bulgarian National Library retains copies of local newspapers only for a period of 5 years, meaning that an in-depth study of earlier issues requires travel and visit to a regional library. Due to the political controversies surrounding the period between 1944 and 1989, the architectural heritage of that time have been largely missing from the debate and efforts to catalogue the existing printed resources on the topic were able to cover only fragments of the available information.

An article carefully cut out from Naroden drugar at “Georgi Rakovski” Regional Library – Yambol. A widespread practice before copying became accessible.

While creating an exhaustive database would be а long term project for dedicated librarians an archivists, we decided to assemble a small, but expanding list of the documents we were able to study in local libraries and archives, including multiple items found only in physical catalogues or absent even in those. The resource library also includes architectural drawings, which due to copyright restrictions will be presented as simple isometric drawings. In addition, photos from our recent site visits have been added, which, at least for a period of a few months could be considered an accurate document of the current state of the studied structures.