site.btaEnthusiasts Seek to Turn Sofia Bomb Shelters and Underground Passages into Museums and Exhibition Halls

What lies underneath the streets of Sofia and can this unknown, dark and invisible world be turned into a spiritual and bright space - this question has attracted the interest of a group of people with different specialties. Their idea is to breathe new life into bomb shelters, tunnels, dungeons - hidden and unused spaces that could become a stage, a museum, a club, a place for an exhibition. 

The interest in Sofia's underground spaces was born out of our curiosity about the “invisible” layers of the city - those places that exist but remain hidden to most people, Adriana Dikancheva from the team told BTA. Disused bomb shelters, as part of the city's infrastructure, are potential spaces for new life, she believes. The team includes people with different interests and backgrounds - in caving, architecture, economics, visual arts. These spaces provoke their imagination and awaken a desire for transformation. 

Our main idea is to revive these spaces, giving them a new, modern function - cultural, educational, social. We believe they can become stages for exhibitions, discussions, installations, escape rooms, even club spaces or museums, she explained. The team's goal is to “socialize” these spaces while preserving their history and potential function as refuges in times of need. Their interest is not limited to bomb shelters, but extends to other “invisible” urban spaces such as underground rivers, tunnels, and canals. Dr. Ivo Anev, who is part of the team, has been researching environmental issues related to water in Sofia for years, including river pollution, and Dikancheva herself has experience with speleology. According to her, although caves are natural objects and bunkers are artificial, the approach to their exploration has much in common. Combining our knowledge opens up new possibilities for understanding and using the underground city, she notes.

The team tries to attract supporters and partners and last year started a series of events under the title “Sofia - dungeons, bunkers, secrets”, which involved more than 150 participants. “We organized lectures, tours, screenings and discussions, with the focus on the bomb shelter in South Park. We formed partnerships with the Optimistas Foundation, who presented a good example of the revitalization of a former military burial ground in Varna, which was turned into the ReBonkers cultural space,” Dikancheva said. 

This year, their plans include architectural photography, 3D scanning and creating a digital model of the bunker in South Park to serve as a visualization and planning tool for future features. They will also seek institutional support for a pilot project to revitalize the site. They are also planning interactive guided tours with 3D glasses, as well as expanding to other similar sites in Sofia.

On Monday, April 28, there will be a discussion with a wide audience at the Toplocentrala in Sofia, where the historical context of the bomb shelters will be discussed, but also their potential for contemporary cultural use. Footage of the underground passages will also be shown and attendees will have the opportunity to take a virtual tour with 3D glasses.

There are successful examples in other countries - in Budapest, for example, a bunker has been turned into an interactive museum that tells the story of World War II and the Cold War. In Germany, too, a World War II bunker has been transformed into a museum that tells the story of the Nazi regime.

We are looking forward to awakening public and institutional interest in these forgotten places. Bomb shelters can have a dual function - cultural and protective, and their sustainable development could only be implemented with active civic and institutional engagement, said Dikancheva. Their message is that even seemingly unnecessary and forgotten places can be turned into living cultural spaces - as long as there is will, imagination and work.