The Life and the Work of Libor Bayer, One of the Czech Pioneers of the Modern Urban Planning in Bulgaria
Abstract: The goal of this paper is to trace up the beginnings of Bulgarian urban planning and the work of Czech architects and engineers and mainly the work of the Czech Libor Bayer. Bulgarian territory was a part of the Ottoman Empire for a long time and the development of Bulgarian cities was not managed by any urban principles. Russian-Turkish war in 1877-78, that brought freedom to the Bulgarian people, but many towns were burnt down or destroyed in the severe battles. One of the most important tasks of the free country was the reconstruction of the damaged towns and creating new town plans for survived towns. However, the state didn't have any specialists and they came to the country from abroad, including from Czech and became pioneers of Bulgarian city planning. One of the most interesting personalities was Libor Bayer. But his life is covered with a lot of secrets, because it has not been studied in details up to now. There is no information of his origin and only insufficient of his life in Bulgaria. Bayer became the creator of the famous city plan of the burnt town of Stara Zagora in 1879. There he applied a new foreign approach for Bulgaria by founding the new town on a regular rectangular net which was very close to the Roman city Augusta Trayana, whose ruins lay under the today city of Stara Zagora. Libor Bayer worked out also the plan of the nearby towns of Nova Zagora and Kazanlak, as well the plan of the town of Kyustendil.
