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Sofia-Published Map of Bulgaria, In Bulgarian.
Gigantic early-20th-century folding map of Bulgaria, published in Sofia and showing the country in fine detail and focusing on the nation's road and rail connections and showing its topography.
The work is an impressive mapping of the Bulgarian nation less than two decades into its existence as its own tsardom. Many cities, towns, villages, roads, railways, and more are all shown. An extensive index in the lower right describes the many features that can be seen on the map.
The map shows a few regions that were not part of Bulgaria in the 1920s but had historically been a part of the country. For example, in the southwest of the map, the town of Strumica is shown as lying just outside the nation's borders, but within a second, unshaded set of borders. Strumica had become Bulgarian in 1912 with the defeat of the Ottomans in the First Balkan War, and Bulgaria retained the town despite its defeat in the Second Balkan War in 1913. The town became part of Yugoslavia in 1919 when it was ceded to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes at the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Provenance
The map bears a purple stamp near the title reading "Direction de la Presse Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres et des Cotes." Ink manuscript appears below this, while later pencil manuscript is dated 1949.
Rarity
Bulgarian language maps of the country are rare on the western market, especially of this size.
We have located only a single other example of this map, lacking the leftmost two sheets.
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