Poltava cinema

“Poltava” cinema

“Of all the various forms of art, we find cinema to be the most important”

This is what was written above the main entry of the hall of “Poltava” cinema 20 years ago. Slowly throughout the years the sign has vanished. This cinema used to be one of the fanciest places in the town of Veliko Tarnovo in the yearly 80′s – a historic capital of Bulgaria, visited by thousands of tourists every year. The architect who conceived the building is called Tanio Belev: we recently made that discovery and had the chance to visit this extraordinary building that doesn’t function as a cinema anymore. We find some similarities with the work of Louis Kahn in terms of monumentality and form.

The building:

Build in the 80′s, this unique cinema originally had two halls: a main one with 720 seats and a small one, disposing of 150 seats. Due to the lack of audiences, the cinema was soon closed and the main halls were used for different purposes such as bars, clubs, and mini market.
Poltava cinema

At present the facades of the building are in poor condition.

Poltava cinema
Poltava cinema

Instead of movie posters the walls are covered with scratches and grafitti.

Poltava cinema

What happens to a cinema when it grows old?

For now no one knows what will happen to this old cinema although it is located in the center of the town- nobody’s willing to invest and this beautiful building is in very bad state. Unfortunately what is happenning in Tarnovo is common to other big cities in Bulgaria where traditional cinema as an art institution is being replaced by the multiplex thus destroying the identity of that art form.