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Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria and it is an old city that, since the country’s independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, has evolved from a provincial city to a cosmopolitan metropolis with a lovely atmosphere among the many sights, green spaces and distinguished shopping districts that visitors can enjoy.
The Roman Serdika is part of the history, and from that time several ruins have been preserved. They are complemented by ancient churches of early Christianity, and these historical monuments stand nowadays side by side with modern Bulgarian architecture.
The city offers countless beautiful buildings from the last centuries; these are constructions from the country during the Ottomans and not least through the 20th century. With the imposing building style of Bulgaria’s communist era, it gives an interesting architectural blend in the cityscape.
The communist era lasted from 1946 to 1990, and in those decades many large complexes such as the central government district around Largo in Sofia’s center were built. War monuments and Sofia’s cultural palace are other good examples of their time.
Sofia’s surroundings are characterized by beautiful scenery and ancient cultural monuments. The Vitosha Mountains are located just outside Sofia’s city limits, and provide great opportunities for a nice outing.
Largo is the name of the central building complex, erected in monumental style in the 1950s as the headquarters of the Communist Party of Bulgaria. The complex was also called the Party Building/Бивша стагана на комунистическая партия. The style became pompous, as the buildings had to radiate the system’s skill in the post-World War II era. It is also one of the most beautiful examples of communist architecture in Eastern Europe outside the former Soviet Union.
It was decided to build Largo in 1951, and the following year the site was cleared of the damaged buildings that stood here after the devastation of World War II. The central party building was completed in 1955, and at that time it was adorned with a red star on top. In 1956, the ministerial building south of the party building was completed, and the following year the TSUM/ЦУМ department store to the north could open.
In the square between the buildings, today it is called Independence square/pl. Независимост, formerly stood a statue of Lenin. After the communist era, Lenin was removed, and since 2000 a statue of Saint Sophia has stood in the same place.
Sofia is blessed with several health-giving springs whose water is around 46 °C. The city’s central mineral baths were built in an impressive oriental style and stand as Sofia’s most beautiful historic bathhouse around the springs. The baths were built 1911-1913. The bath was open as a public bath until 1986, when it had to close due to the danger of the roof collapsing.
The domes of the roof were replaced by copper roofs, which were however stolen, after which a fire ravaged the building in 1993. After unsuccessful attempts to find an investor to reopen the bath, it was decided to furnish the main wing of the beautiful building as a new city museum. The framework is well chosen with this neighborhood’s ensemble of distinguished buildings from the decades around the year 1900. In parts of the building, however, you can again visit and enjoy thermal baths that make use of the hot water.
Already in Roman times, the warm water was used for bathing purposes, and in the 16th century a Turkish bath was built here. The current building replaced the 16th-century bathhouse, which at the beginning of the 20th century had fallen into disrepair. Since then, the entire area around Ploshtad Banski/площад Бански has been landscaped as one of the city’s finest oases.
This church is Sofia’s oldest preserved building. It was built as a rotunda for public use by the Romans in the fourth century, and it was only in the later Middle Ages that the rotunda was converted into a church building.
In Saint George’s Church you can see a number of frescoes that have been painted over the centuries. The earliest are from the 9th century. The frescoes were painted over during the Ottoman era, when the church was used as a mosque, but they reappeared during a renovation in the 1900s.
Next to the church are ruins which, like the church, originate from the Roman city of Serdika. Today, the place is set up as a museum, and it can be a bit difficult to find the church, as it is located in the courtyard of a large square behind, among other things, the presidential offices on the Independence Square; Президенство [Prezidenstvo].
Sofia’s Great Palace of Culture was built in 1981. It was done, among other things, in honor of Bulgaria’s head of state Todor Zhivkov’s daughter, Lyudmila Zhivkova, who died of illness when she was in her 30s. Lyudmila Zhivkova was the Minister of Culture and did a great job to strengthen and spread Bulgarian culture in the world.
The Palace of Culture not least contains offices, congress facilities, concert halls and catering facilities. From the top there is a fine view of the city and the beautifully landscaped square in front of the building. The ensemble of the Palace of Culture with the layout of the square gives a fine impression of the then impressive facility from the communist era.
The Ivan Vazov National Theater is Sofia’s best-known theater. It is beautifully located by the centrally located city park. The theater was established in 1904, and the neoclassical theater building was completed in 1906. It is today one of the city’s best-known architectural works.
In 1923, the theater was extensively damaged by fire, and it took until 1929 before the German architect Martin Dülfer spearheaded a reconstruction. The theater is named after the writer Ivan Vazov, who founded modern Bulgarian literature. It contains several stages, and in the largest hall there are approximately 750 spectators.
The National Archaeological Museum contains countless finds from not least the Thracian and Roman past of the Bulgarian area. Among the many objects, you can see, among other things, bronze figures from the 7th century, mosaics from the 5th and 6th centuries and the 5th century Greek tombstone from the city of Apollonia on the Black Sea coast. Apollonia was the city that today is called Sozopol/Созопол.
Since 1892, the museum has been housed in the former Great Mosque/Буюк джамия [Bujuk Dzjamija], which is the largest and oldest of the mosques built during Sofia’s Ottoman era. Built from around 1474 under Sultan Mehmed II, it is believed to have opened in 1494. The mosque is one of the five mosques preserved in present-day Sofia. Only one of them is still active as a religious house of prayer for Muslims.
Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral is Sofia’s beautiful Orthodox cathedral, completed in Neo-Byzantine style in 1912 to commemorate the Russian losses in the 1877-1878 war against the Turkish Ottomans. The memory of the losses is also the story of independence for Bulgaria, which was a consequence of the Russian victory. Today, the cathedral stands as one of Sofia’s best-known landmarks, and it is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world. Thus, only Saint Sava Cathedral in Belgrade is bigger than Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral in the Balkans.
The church’s status as a cathedral means that it is the seat of the Patriarch of Bulgaria. It is named after the mighty Grand Duke Alexander of Novgorod and Vladimir, who in the 13th century was both skilled and victorious in politics and military battles. Nevsky is considered one of the most important personalities in the history of Russia. A relic of Alexander Nevsky is kept at the altar. The relic was a gift from the Russian Orthodox Church.
It took 30 years to build Aleksander Nevski Cathedral, and workers and artists from six countries created very beautiful works such as icons and frescoes. The interior of the church was made of Italian marble, Egyptian alabaster, onyx and gold from Brazil and other fine materials that look beautiful together with the country’s richest collection of icons.
The dimensions of the cathedral are quite large. The central gold dome measures 45 meters in height and the bell tower 50.5 meters. There can be 10,000 people in the church, whose foundation stone was laid in 1882. However, the actual construction period lasted from 1904-1912.
Opened in 2011, this museum is a branch of the National Gallery of Bulgaria. The museum complex consists of both a park and an exhibition hall. Here you can see countless monumental sculptural works, mainly consisting of statues and busts of famous Bulgarian and Soviet communists such as Georgi Dimitrov, Dimitar Blagoev, Vasil Kolarov, Vladimir Lenin, Tsvyatko Radojnov and other socialist activists. There is also a bust of politician Todor Zhivkov. Other statues are typical examples of socialist realism, showing partisans, the Red Army, workers and friendly collaborators.
To stage the time of this art, you can also watch documentaries and information about the communist era in Bulgaria, which lasted from 1944 to 1989. One of the great symbols of this era was the red star that shone above the party’s headquarters in the center of Sofia . This star was inspired by the stars that can still be seen above the Kremlin in Moscow. However, the Bulgarian star was supposed to be smaller than the Russian ones, and the star can be seen today in this museum.
Boulevard Vitosha is one of Sofia’s central main streets. It runs south from the center of Sofia towards the silhouette of Mount Vitosha, which rises in the landscape seven kilometers from the capital. The street was laid out as one of the city’s main thoroughfares with cafes and shops, and it is also one of Europe’s most expensive business streets, where you can find many well-known shops with leading brands.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were almost only smaller buildings on the long street, but in the time between the 1st and 2nd World Wars, large, beautiful buildings sprung up, and thereby the exciting and worth-seeing street was created for what you can experience today.
Sofia Central Halls, also simply called Halite/Халите, is the name of Sofia’s large covered market. The building was constructed from 1909 and opened in 1911. The architect was the Bulgarian Naum Torbov, and the Neo-Renaissance halls are considered his best work. In the style, there is also inspiration from both Byzantine architecture and neo-baroque.
Today, the halls are restored and act as a mixture of a market and a shopping centre, where the old framework has been preserved, and they create an atmospheric wrapping of the place. There are four entrances to the 65×55 meter market hall, and the tower-adorned main entrance can be found on Bul street. Maria Luiza/Bul. Maria Luisa.
As a curiosity, in the basement of the market hall you can see excavated ruins from the historical Serdika/Сердика, which was centrally located in today’s Sofia.
In a park just on the north side of the Central Mineral Baths/Центральна минеральна баня, there is public access to Sofia’s hot springs with the 46 °C hot water that trickles out just below Ploshtad Banski/площад Бански between the Central Baths and Banja Bashi Moské/Джамия Баня Баши.
The water already played a role in the foundation of the now historic Serdika/Сердика, where access to thermal springs was quite valuable. This was seen in the founding of several Roman cities.
The National Gallery of Bulgaria is housed in the country’s former royal palace, which was built in two phases with the first part 1880-1882. The style is typically French from the latter half of the 19th century during the Second French Empire. Architecturally, the style takes its starting point in the 17th-century Renaissance, and to that comes an eclectic mix of different styles with Baroque as one of the clear imprints. The style is known from Paris and, for example, the Louvre.
The Royal Palace in Sofia was built for and under the first prince of modern Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg, who reigned 1879-1886. The castle was expanded under Ferdinand I, who ruled as Tsar in the years 1908-1918. In both parts of the building, it was Viennese architects who designed the castle, which functioned as a royal residence until the abolition of the monarchy in 1946.
The Bulgarian National Gallery was founded in 1934 after having been a department of the country’s archaeological museum since 1892. The historic royal palace was assessed as an ideal setting for the exhibition of works of art, whereby the museum was set up here in 1946. Thus, during a visit you can experience both art and take a closer look at the building itself.
The museum exhibits the works of Bulgarian artists with an emphasis on the period after Bulgaria’s independence in 1878. Its collections consist of more than 50,000 works with a large and wide representation of Bulgarian artists. The collections also include the country’s largest art collection from the Middle Ages, which includes a number of interesting icons.
Below Independence Square/pl. Независимост, you can see ruins from the fortifications around the historic Serdika. Ruins have been excavated in various places in Sofia, but in this particular place there is an informative overview of Serdika’s original distribution and the ruins that can be found and seen in the city today.
You find your way here by going below street level in the pedestrian tunnel between the Council of Ministers Ministskijat Svjet/Министерский совет and the presidential building on the square; Президенство [Prezidenstvo]. Here you come down to an original Roman road, which was last repaired and paved in the 5th century. On the site was the eastern gate in the walls of Serdika, and from it emanated the important road towards Philippopolis, which is today the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
Serdika Arena was a large amphitheater in the city of Ulpia Serdica, which was the historical Serdika. The theater was built on a former Roman theater probably in the 100s. It was immediately outside Serdika’s city walls, and it was in use at least under the later emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla.
The end of the theater took place in 268, when Gothic attacks caused the burning and destruction of the large building, which did not once again set the stage for the previous performances, which had gladiator fights on the program.
The presence of the amphitheater has been known since 1919, when a stone was excavated with images of an amphitheater with gladiators and various animals in battle. However, the actual ruins of the theater were only discovered in 2004, when excavations had to be carried out for the hotel, which came to be called the Arena di Serdica Hotel. Later, other ruined parts of the theater were found in nearby places, but the excavations are best seen in the basement of the Arena di Serdica Hotel, which beautifully integrates the ruins into the hotel.
The arena measured 60.5×43 metres, and it was therefore only about 10 meters smaller than the Colosseum in Rome. 20,000-25,000 spectators are believed to have been able to sit in the stands of what was among the largest theaters in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
Czar Boris Park is a green oasis in the Bulgarian capital. The park is named after Czar Boris III of Bulgaria and was laid out in three periods between its establishment in 1884 and 1944.
In the beautifully landscaped park, there are various types of garden facilities. There are also a number of stone sculptures of animals here, which is due to the fact that the city’s zoo used to be located in the park. In the area there are also various sports facilities such as the Bulgarian national stadium, named after the national hero Vasil Levski; Stadium Vasil Levski/Стадион Васил Левски.
In the park you will also find the old Sofia TV Tower/Телевизионна кула София. The tower is 106 meters high and was built in 1958-1959. The tower was used for television transmission by the Bulgarian National Television from the inauguration that took place on December 26, 1959. The tower was read in 1985 by the television tower on Mount Vitosha.
Bojana is one of Sofia’s southwestern suburbs, and it is close to the center of Sofia. Bojana was an independent town until 1961, when it was made part of Sofia. Located at the foot of the Vitosha Mountains, the district is one of the affluent parts of the capital.
Bojana is particularly known for Bojana Church/Боянска цервка, which was built from the 9th century, expanded in the following centuries and finally completed in the 19th century. Today, the church has been included in UNESCO’s list of world cultural heritage, which is not least due to the preserved frescoes from 1259.
The frescoes are extremely well preserved and are among the best examples of medieval art in this part of Europe. There are a total of 89 scenes painted on the church walls, and in the adjacent museum you can see, among other things, some reconstructions. Under the famous frescoes, earlier art from the 1000-1200s has been found, and there are also several more recent paintings.
The city also houses the National Historical Museum/Национальный историческом музей. It is Bulgaria’s and one of the Balkans’ largest historical museums. The museum was founded in 1973, and its large collections and research deal with Bulgarian history from the earliest times to the present day. The collection is also interesting, as the country and many historical events are seen in a European context.
The beautiful Vitosha Mountains lie immediately south of Sofia and can be seen from the city as a beautiful backdrop that can be recognized from countless postcards and photographs. The mountain range covers a large area and has 16 peaks, the highest of which is Den Sorte Top/Черни връх with a height of 2,290 meters. The Vitosha Mountains are a national park, and have been since 1934. This makes the area one of the country’s oldest of its kind.
In the summer, Vitosha is a destination for wonderful hikes, while the winter offers ski slopes. On a hike, you can see the stone rivers of the area, and a beautiful example of them is the 2.2 kilometer long Zlatnite Mostove/Златните мостове, located south of the town of Bojana.
The ski area Aleko/Алеко is located at an altitude of 1,800 meters and can be a starting point for trips in the park and especially up into the heights. The city is reached in the most breathtaking way with a cable car over 6 kilometers long from the city of Simeonovo. The trip takes 30 minutes, and there is the option of getting off along the way. From Aleko, it is only a few kilometers to the top of Den Sorte Top.
From Dragalevtsi/Драгалевци on the outskirts of Sofia, a chairlift goes up to an altitude of 1,800 meters. This is where the Dragalevtsi Monastery/Драгалевски манастир is located. It was built in the middle of the 14th century under Ivan Alexander and has, among other things, been used as one of Vasil Levski’s hiding places during the independence struggle against the Turkish Ottomans.
The town of Bankya is located at an altitude of around 700 meters at the foot of the 1,256 meter high Ljulin mountain. Bankja’s name comes from the Bulgarian word for baths, and the place is also best known for its hot springs, which measure 24-37 °C in temperature.
There are several springs in the city and one of the places to enjoy wellness and spa facilities is Bankya Palace (bul. Varna 70/bul. Варна 70). In the city you can also see Saint Quiricus and Julietta Church/Черква Св. Sv. Кирик и Юлита (ul. Major Kosta Panitsa/ул. Майор Коста Паница), which was built in 1932.
Bankya has laid the groundwork for many fine visits by international heads of state. Todor Zhivkov was Bulgaria’s leader from 1971-1989, and he had a large residence in Bankya. In the lovely surroundings, several official guests such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro were brought along.
Rila Monastery is a centrally located monastery in the consciousness of every Bulgarian. The importance of the monastery was very great in the centuries before the Ottoman Empire conquered the area, and it was not least here that Bulgarian culture, faith and hope were maintained throughout the many centuries under the rule of the Turks.
The monastery was founded in the 9th century close to the cave in which the hermit and later saint, Ivan Rilski, stayed. Ivan was a monk from an existing monastery, but broke with the order and gained his own disciples, enabling him to establish Rila as a new monastery. The facility was continually expanded over time. Successive Bulgarian tsars added more money or more land, so that Rila and its inhabitants were well off and able to develop the place.
Over time, several fires have destroyed the monastery. The greatest damage occurred in the 15th century and most recently in the 19th century, both times a reconstruction took place immediately after destruction. Most of the current Rila was built in connection with the latest reconstruction.
In the large monastery courtyard, you will find Hreljo’s Tower/Хрельовата кула, a 23 meter high defense tower from 1334-1335, as well as the Church of the Virgin Mary/църква Рождество Богородично, which is the monastery’s primary church. It was built by Pavel Ivanovich in 1834-1837 as a three-domed cathedral with colonnades, where there are frescoes with biblical stories. The last tsar of Bulgaria is buried in the church. It was Boris III, and he was gifted in 1944. The church is also the country’s largest monastery church.
The large square monastery building around the courtyard contains the monastery’s other facilities such as offices, library, monks’ residences and guest rooms. Among other things, you can see some of the approximately 300 rooms on a tour.
A visit to the Rila Monastery is a special and very comprehensive architectural and artistic experience. Among other things, there are works by icon painters and wood carvers, and materials such as wood, stone and metal are beautifully combined. The monastery is still in operation.
In the Rila Monastery there is also a museum where you can see, among other things, Rafail’s Cross/Краст на Рафаил, which is a cross cut from a single piece of walnut wood. On the 81×43 cm, you can see 140 biblical scenes with more than 600 figures. The Rila Monastery is located at an altitude of 1,147 meters in the beautiful Rila Mountains. From the top of the monastery, there is a fantastic view of the area, which makes the location a sight to see in itself.
Plovdiv is Bulgaria’s second largest city, and it is among the oldest cities in the entire Balkans. Plovdiv has had many names throughout its long history, belonging to various kingdoms in the region, Thrace, Byzantium, the Roman Empire, Macedonia and of course Bulgaria. As a result, the city has also had many different names in its history. Plovdiv was finally freed from Ottoman rule in 1885, and then quickly connected to Sofia by rail, Plovdiv became a city of international exhibitions, great trade and many industries.
In Plovdiv you can see many preserved ruins from the Thracian Philippopolis and the Roman city. The square Ploshtad Tsentralen is located where the city’s old Forum was located, and where there are still significant ruins from it. From here you can walk along the main street of ul. Knjaz Alexander I to the north to the preserved part of the historic stadium, and close to this are the ruins of the quite well-preserved theater from the 100s. If you want to learn more about Plovdiv’s early history, you can visit the city’s archaeological museum, which covers e.g. Thracian, Greek and Roman cultures and finds.
bul. Arsenalski 2/бул. Арсеналски 2
ccs-mall.com
bul. Stambolijski 101/бул. Стамболийски 101
mallofsofia.com
Boulevard Maria Luiza 28/Булувард Мария Луиза № 28
Kosta Luljev 52/ул. Коста Лулчев 52
skycitycenter.com
Boulevard Maria Luiza/Булувард Мария Луиза
tzum.bg
Bul. Vitosha/Бул. Витоша, ul. Tomb Ignatiev/ул. Граф Игнатиев, ul. Pirotska/ул. Пиротска, ul. Georgi S. Rakovski/ул. Георги С. Раковски, bul. Stambolijski/бул. Стамболийски
Muzej na metjkite – v Priroden Park Vitosha/Музей на мечките – Природен парк Витоша
Mestnost Dendrarium/Местност Дендрариум
Natsionalen voennoistoritjeski muzej/Национален военноисторически музей
ul. Cherkovna 92/ул. Черковна 92
militarymuseum.bg
National prirodonautjen muzej/Национален природонаучен музей
Bul. Czar Osvboditel/Бул. Цар Освободител
nmnh.bas.bg
Kokolandija/Коколандия
ul. Nesabravka/Ул. Незабравка
kokolandia.hit.bg
Uveselitelen park Sofialand/увеселителен парк Софияленд
Bul. Nikola Vaptsarov/Бул. Никола Вапцаров
sofialand.bg
Zoologycha gradina/Зоологическа градина
ul. Srebarna 1/Ул. Сребърна № 1
sofiazoo.com
Sofia’s first settlement is located in the fertile plains of western Bulgaria, and the good agricultural potential has attracted settlers and characterized the country for millennia.
The first permanent settlement is believed to belong to the Thracian tribal Serdis who founded Serdika, of which remains are found in the center of present-day Sofia.
In spite of many external attacks, the Greek Thracians maintained Serdika for centuries until around the year 100 the Romans settled in the area. However, Macedonian Philip II had destroyed Serdika in 339 BC. and a subsequent time under Philip II and Alexander the Great’s Macedonian rule.
It is believed that the Romans conquered Serdika in the year 29 BC, and with the new rule Serdika was called Ulpia Serdica. Under Emperor Trajan, who ruled in the years 98-117, the city was granted the status of a municipality, which meant that it was the administrative center.
Ulpia Serdica had also become a fortified capital in the province of Dacia. It had city walls and fortress towers, and the Romans also erected many civilian buildings such as a larger amphitheater and bathing facilities.
Emperor Diocletian let the province of Dacia divide in two in the late 280s. The result was the provinces of Dacia Ripensis and Dacia Mediterranea, and Ulpia Serdica became the capital of the latter.
Several major events took place in Ulpia Serdica in the 300s. The emperor Galerius’ edict on religious tolerance was adopted in the year 311, and with it Christianity became an accepted religion in the Roman Empire. In 343, one of the church’s synods was held in Ulpia Serdica, and the topic was, overall, a theological controversy about the relationship between God and Jesus.
The Roman Serdika was reportedly a beautiful city with fine facilities. In the 300s, Emperor Constantine I called the city his Rome, but with the attacks of the females in 447 Ulpia Serdica was partially destroyed. During the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian Is in the 500s, Ulpia Serdica, who was named Triaditsa, flourished anew with a rich social life, new neighborhoods and new large defense facilities.
In the following centuries, large numbers of slaves came to the region, and Triaditsa was subject to numerous attacks. In the late 600s, the Bulgarian Khan Asparuh fought against the Byzans, and after a victory in 681, the first Bulgarian kingdom was established. The capital became Pliska and the area extended into part of present-day Bulgaria. However, the Byzantine Empire had continued to rule over the region.
Under Khan Krum, who was Bulgarian king in 803-814, great battles were again fought between Bulgarians and Byzantines, and in 809 Triaditsa was conquered. The city changed its name to Sredets and was integrated into the kingdom, which was the first Bulgarian empire.
Until 1018 there were several battles between the Bulgarians and the armies of the Byzantine emperors. Emperor Basilius, who became known as the Bulgarian killer, conquered the Bulgarian kingdom in 1018 and thereby Sredets, who now changed his name to the Byzantine Triaditsa.
In the following centuries, Triaditsa was a thriving city with a thriving trade and skilled craftsmen. The surrounding mountains also boosted the city’s economy with mineral resources, which provided further growth in both trade and crafts.
In 1186, the Second Bulgarian Kingdom emerged as a result of the uprising against the Byzantine Empire in Veliko Tornovo, which became the capital of the new kingdom. The name Sofia was first mentioned in 1382 in a document by Tsar Shishman. The town name derives from Saint Sofia Church, which can still be seen in the city.
In 1396, Bulgaria was conquered by the Muslim Turks, and it marked the beginning of a period of almost 500 years under foreign rule. In 1443 Crusaders tried to expel the Turks from the Bulgarian area, but it ended without success. The crusaders were helped by many citizens of Sofia and were subsequently punished by the Turks.
In 1444, the Ottoman Empire made Sofia the capital of much of their conquered territory in Europe; the so-called Rumelia. This status was maintained until the 18th century and it gave Sofia some growth with the administration that came with it.
In the area, the Turkish Ottomans tried to introduce their culture and traditions, but throughout the years there was a Bulgarian resistance to foreign power, not least from the monasteries, which were located just south of Sofia.
Under Turkey, the country was economically developed and the 16th century in particular was a period of fine growth. Sofia, however, did not experience the flourishing that characterized other of Europe’s later major cities. Thus, the city remained real small throughout the period until Bulgarian independence in the 19th century.
By the mid-19th century, the Bulgarian national resistance to the Ottomans had grown and manifested itself in actual fighting. Among the rebels who gathered in the mountain monasteries were Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev, who later became two of the great heroes of the independence struggle.
After failed battles in 1876, forces from closely related Russia arrived in 1878. The Russians, together with the Bulgarians, fought against the Ottoman Turks, who had to withdraw from Bulgaria, who became independent that same year. The following year, Sofia, which at that time had 18,000 inhabitants, became the country’s new capital; it happened after a transition with the city of Tarnovgrad as its capital. That decision formed the foundation and growth foundation of the million city that makes up today’s Bulgarian capital.
In 1879 Bulgaria became a prince with Alexander I as the prince. Alexander had participated as a Russian officer in the battles against the Ottoman Empire in 1877-1878. Formally, the principality was subject to the Turkish sultan, but in reality Bulgaria acted as its own state with the regime of Sofia. The country had its own constitution, flag, national anthem and foreign policy.
Sofia flourished with a beginning industrialization that brought the city and the country forward. In addition, many traces of the Turkish presence had been erased in the war against the Russian forces, where most of Sofia’s mosques were, for example, crashed into gravel.
Decades after independence were marked by many changing leaders in Sofia. Alexander I abdicated and Prince Ferdinand became king and from 1908 to 1918 self-proclaimed czar. In 1908, Bulgaria became a kingdom, not least to strengthen the country in the years of new borders after the imminent dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Particular areas in present-day Macedonia and northern Greece, with the majority of Bulgarians, were of interest to the country.
The time after World War I was marked by political settlements and a lack of industrialization. People mainly lived in the countryside and cultivated the land on small plots of land, and Bulgaria lacked an elite capable of driving the country forward.
Politically, in 1923 it came to a new nationalist government with support from both the king and the military. That same year, a communist coup attempt under Georgi Dimitrov failed to flee to the Soviet Union.
The 1930s were marked by some industrialization in the otherwise agricultural-dominated society. It was also a decade in which the king took power in 1935 and ruled the country through a puppet government. Other parties were banned, and the king later entered into an alliance with Nazi-led Germany and fascist Italy.
With Bogdan Filov as Prime Minister, Bulgaria became part of World War II in 1940. Against the acquisition of land from Romania, the country joined Germany, and on March 1, 1941, Bulgaria formally allied with Germany, Italy and Japan. From Sofia, permission was given for German troops to use the country as a way to occupy Greece and Yugoslavia.
The Bulgarians subsequently acquired most of Thrace and Macedonia as part of Bulgaria. The war turned and in 1943 and 1944 Sofia was bombed on several occasions. There was growing opposition to the German and Bulgarian rule, and in mid-1944 the Sofia government tried to negotiate a way out of the war.
In August 1944, Bulgaria withdrew from the war and in September they declared war on Germany. However, it could not stop the Soviet Union, which went to war on Bulgaria on September 8; Eight days later, the Red Army entered Sofia.
Immediately after the Soviet victory over Bulgaria, a unifying government was formed, but the real power was the Soviet Union, which in 1946 was able to abolish the monarchy after a referendum. Vasil Kolarov became president, while Georgi Dimitrov became prime minister and the executive communist leader.
The tasks were many for the new board in Sofia. World War II had devastated much of Sofia, and it had created an even greater housing shortage than there was already. At the same time, the country was not significantly industrialized compared to many other European countries.
Georgi Dimitrov was the new leader of the new People’s Republic. The country developed into one of Eastern Europe’s major agricultural countries, but at the same time the industry expanded, especially around Sofia, where many new neighborhoods were built in the decades after the war.
Large buildings such as the central government district in imposing communist architecture were completed, and Sofia was also given the cultural palace and much more, which were the hallmarks of Soviet-dominated countries in Eastern Europe. In the 1960s, the city’s metro was also planned, but the facility first started in the 1990s.
In 1949, Georgi Dimitrov died and in it a mausoleum was built in just six days in central Sofia. Here the Communist leader lay at rest until 1990, when the communist system had fallen. Over the decades after Georgia, several leaders stood at the head of the regime, which in the late 1980s fell at the same time as the other communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, a modern Sofia had been built with many new neighborhoods, hotels, monuments, parks, educational institutions and so on.
In November 1989, there were major demonstrations in Sofia, which initially led to the replacement of Todor Zhivkov as the leader of Bulgaria. Demonstrations against the regime continued in the streets of Sofia, and after a few months the then rulers had to change the system and a democratic election was held in June 1990. The election result was that the Communists could continue in power under a new socialist name.
Since the time of communism, much has happened in Sofia. In 1998, the city’s subway began to run, and it has since been expanded. The restoration of old buildings and the construction of new ones have also happened in great style in Sofia, which since 2007 has been the EU capital after Bulgaria’s accession to the Union.
Today, visitors encounter a green and charming capital city, where the sights are within easy walking distance. The infrastructure is well developed, and the city has many activities, theaters and so on, which carry on Bulgarian culture from, for example, Ivan Vazov to modern times.
Sofia, Bulgaria[/caption]
Overview of Sofia
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria and it is an old city that, since the country’s independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, has evolved from a provincial city to a cosmopolitan metropolis with a lovely atmosphere among the many sights, green spaces and distinguished shopping districts that visitors can enjoy.
The Roman Serdika is part of the history, and from that time several ruins have been preserved. They are complemented by ancient churches of early Christianity, and these historical monuments stand nowadays side by side with modern Bulgarian architecture.
The city offers countless beautiful buildings from the last centuries; these are constructions from the country during the Ottomans and not least through the 20th century. With the imposing building style of Bulgaria’s communist era, it gives an interesting architectural blend in the cityscape.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
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The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
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Opened in 2011, this museum is a branch of the National Gallery of Bulgaria. The museum complex consists of both a park and an exhibition hall. Here you can see countless monumental sculptural works, mainly consisting of statues and busts of famous Bulgarian and Soviet communists such as Georgi Dimitrov, Dimitar Blagoev, Vasil Kolarov, Vladimir Lenin, Tsvyatko Radojnov and other socialist activists. There is also a bust of politician Todor Zhivkov. Other statues are typical examples of socialist realism, showing partisans, the Red Army, workers and friendly collaborators.
To stage the time of this art, you can also watch documentaries and information about the communist era in Bulgaria, which lasted from 1944 to 1989. One of the great symbols of this era was the red star that shone above the party’s headquarters in the center of Sofia . This star was inspired by the stars that can still be seen above the Kremlin in Moscow. However, the Bulgarian star was supposed to be smaller than the Russian ones, and the star can be seen today in this museum.
Boulevard Vitosha is one of Sofia’s central main streets. It runs south from the center of Sofia towards the silhouette of Mount Vitosha, which rises in the landscape seven kilometers from the capital. The street was laid out as one of the city’s main thoroughfares with cafes and shops, and it is also one of Europe’s most expensive business streets, where you can find many well-known shops with leading brands.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were almost only smaller buildings on the long street, but in the time between the 1st and 2nd World Wars, large, beautiful buildings sprung up, and thereby the exciting and worth-seeing street was created for what you can experience today.
Sofia Central Halls, also simply called Halite/Халите, is the name of Sofia’s large covered market. The building was constructed from 1909 and opened in 1911. The architect was the Bulgarian Naum Torbov, and the Neo-Renaissance halls are considered his best work. In the style, there is also inspiration from both Byzantine architecture and neo-baroque.
Today, the halls are restored and act as a mixture of a market and a shopping centre, where the old framework has been preserved, and they create an atmospheric wrapping of the place. There are four entrances to the 65×55 meter market hall, and the tower-adorned main entrance can be found on Bul street. Maria Luiza/Bul. Maria Luisa.
As a curiosity, in the basement of the market hall you can see excavated ruins from the historical Serdika/Сердика, which was centrally located in today’s Sofia.
In a park just on the north side of the Central Mineral Baths/Центральна минеральна баня, there is public access to Sofia’s hot springs with the 46 °C hot water that trickles out just below Ploshtad Banski/площад Бански between the Central Baths and Banja Bashi Moské/Джамия Баня Баши.
The water already played a role in the foundation of the now historic Serdika/Сердика, where access to thermal springs was quite valuable. This was seen in the founding of several Roman cities.
The National Gallery of Bulgaria is housed in the country’s former royal palace, which was built in two phases with the first part 1880-1882. The style is typically French from the latter half of the 19th century during the Second French Empire. Architecturally, the style takes its starting point in the 17th-century Renaissance, and to that comes an eclectic mix of different styles with Baroque as one of the clear imprints. The style is known from Paris and, for example, the Louvre.
The Royal Palace in Sofia was built for and under the first prince of modern Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg, who reigned 1879-1886. The castle was expanded under Ferdinand I, who ruled as Tsar in the years 1908-1918. In both parts of the building, it was Viennese architects who designed the castle, which functioned as a royal residence until the abolition of the monarchy in 1946.
The Bulgarian National Gallery was founded in 1934 after having been a department of the country’s archaeological museum since 1892. The historic royal palace was assessed as an ideal setting for the exhibition of works of art, whereby the museum was set up here in 1946. Thus, during a visit you can experience both art and take a closer look at the building itself.
The museum exhibits the works of Bulgarian artists with an emphasis on the period after Bulgaria’s independence in 1878. Its collections consist of more than 50,000 works with a large and wide representation of Bulgarian artists. The collections also include the country’s largest art collection from the Middle Ages, which includes a number of interesting icons.
Below Independence Square/pl. Независимост, you can see ruins from the fortifications around the historic Serdika. Ruins have been excavated in various places in Sofia, but in this particular place there is an informative overview of Serdika’s original distribution and the ruins that can be found and seen in the city today.
You find your way here by going below street level in the pedestrian tunnel between the Council of Ministers Ministskijat Svjet/Министерский совет and the presidential building on the square; Президенство [Prezidenstvo]. Here you come down to an original Roman road, which was last repaired and paved in the 5th century. On the site was the eastern gate in the walls of Serdika, and from it emanated the important road towards Philippopolis, which is today the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
Serdika Arena was a large amphitheater in the city of Ulpia Serdica, which was the historical Serdika. The theater was built on a former Roman theater probably in the 100s. It was immediately outside Serdika’s city walls, and it was in use at least under the later emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla.
The end of the theater took place in 268, when Gothic attacks caused the burning and destruction of the large building, which did not once again set the stage for the previous performances, which had gladiator fights on the program.
The presence of the amphitheater has been known since 1919, when a stone was excavated with images of an amphitheater with gladiators and various animals in battle. However, the actual ruins of the theater were only discovered in 2004, when excavations had to be carried out for the hotel, which came to be called the Arena di Serdica Hotel. Later, other ruined parts of the theater were found in nearby places, but the excavations are best seen in the basement of the Arena di Serdica Hotel, which beautifully integrates the ruins into the hotel.
The arena measured 60.5×43 metres, and it was therefore only about 10 meters smaller than the Colosseum in Rome. 20,000-25,000 spectators are believed to have been able to sit in the stands of what was among the largest theaters in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
Czar Boris Park is a green oasis in the Bulgarian capital. The park is named after Czar Boris III of Bulgaria and was laid out in three periods between its establishment in 1884 and 1944.
In the beautifully landscaped park, there are various types of garden facilities. There are also a number of stone sculptures of animals here, which is due to the fact that the city’s zoo used to be located in the park. In the area there are also various sports facilities such as the Bulgarian national stadium, named after the national hero Vasil Levski; Stadium Vasil Levski/Стадион Васил Левски.
In the park you will also find the old Sofia TV Tower/Телевизионна кула София. The tower is 106 meters high and was built in 1958-1959. The tower was used for television transmission by the Bulgarian National Television from the inauguration that took place on December 26, 1959. The tower was read in 1985 by the television tower on Mount Vitosha.
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