URBAN SPACE, SOCIAL TOPOGRAPHY, AND CULTURAL MEMORY: SPIRITUAL NETWORKS IN SOFIA (19th – 20th CENTURIES)
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2026, N 2, pp. 458-477
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62761/645.EB.LXII2.09
Georgeta NAZARSKA 
University of Library Studies and IT, Bulgaria
E-mail: g.nazarska@unibit.bg
Abstract: This article is a case study of the cultural spaces in the Bulgarian capital that in the 19th – 20th centuries were the headquarters of the New Religious Movements and the esoteric societies or they used them for their own activities. The study uses the perspectives of urban historical geography, social history and cultural topography, combining methods of social mapping, of prosopographical analysis, and of social network analysis. Based on archival sources, cartographic documents and reference publications, a database was created. It was processed with statistical methods and the results obtained were plotted on historical city maps. The maps allow to localize the sacred public and private urban spaces, used by spiritual societies and circles in the Modern Times; to trace and analyse their ties with the formal and informal spiritual networks; to examine the spaces diachronically and to draw conclusions about their transformation into ‘realms of memory’; to discuss opportunities socializing them through cultural and tourist routes.
Keywords: Bulgaria, New Religious Movements, esoteric societies, mapping, sacred urban space