Topography, Cartography and Cadastre in Bulgaria at The end of XIXth Century and in the Begining of XXth Century : First Steps and First Results

Kotseva, Veneta

The topographical and cartographical activities performed on the Bulgarian territories during the 1877-1878 Russian-Turkish war and in thereafter are described. There was a Topographic Corps formed during the War with the Russian Army preparing for military actions on the Bulgarian lands with a task to improve the found triangulation network of European Turkey and to modernize the Russian General Mapp. After passing the Danube River, however, it was established that there was no developed triangulation and that the General Mapp, issued in 1829, was aged. Geodesy and cartography in our country developed in two main directions after the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman Rule in 1878: for the needs of the Army and for economic purposes. Up to year 1932 the State Geographic Institute to the Ministry of War was the only in the country institution for the performance of the main geodetic measurement works. Special attention is devoted to the first printed editions for topography, military geodesy and cartography in Bulgaria in the period 1891-1920. First applications of cartographical and geodetic products for the purposes of the statistics in the Principality Bulgaria in 1897 are presented. The history and the development of the geodetic and cartographic activities in Bulgaria are in fact history of the military topography and cartography of Bulgaria. The scientific and the scientific applied contributions of the Geographic Institute to the Ministry of War and of the Bulgarian geodesists who worked in it and who left a bright trail in various spheres of military topography, higher geodesy, geodetic astronomy, cartography, photogrammetry, gravimetry and the other geosciences are incontestable, big and of great significance.

Event: FIG Working Week 2015 : From the Wisdom of the Ages to the Challenges of Modern World

Document type:Topography, Cartography and Cadastre in Bulgaria at The end of XIXth Century and in the Begining of XXth Century : First Steps and First Results (674 kB - pdf)