In the heart of Sofia, right next to the yellow cobblestones, you’ll come across a small but significant landmark in history – the tomb of Alexander I Battenberg. He was the first Bulgarian prince after the Liberation and reigned between 1879 and 1886, before abdicating and leaving the country. After he died at the age […]
The Banya Bashi Mosque is the only surviving medieval mosque still in use in Sofia. It was designed by Sinan, the most renowned Ottoman architect, who designed nearly 300 buildings during his lifetime. The mosque was part of a larger bath complex, from which it takes its name. The inscription on the stone arch at […]
The National Palace of Culture is the heart of the city, where many urban stories begin and end. Skateboarding, cycling, parkour and K-Pop, all in one place alongside pop music, classical music, theatres, books and the city’s biggest concerts, conferences and film festivals! The monument brings together different cultures and subcultures, and right next to […]
At the corner of Slivnitsa and Opulchenska streets, time passes a little differently. There, under the watchful gaze of the clock tower, stands the building of the National High School of Applied Arts. The school is named after the saint who is considered the founder of Christian painting and the patron saint of the arts. […]
In 1958, a competition was held for the construction of Sofia’s first multi-purpose building, a vision that at the time seemed like pure futurism. The winning design was the work of architects Alexander Barov, Doncho Vladishki, Ivan Tatarov and Ivan Ivanchev – an architectural team whose name is behind some of the capital’s most iconic […]
Some people refer to blocks 67 and 68 in the Druzhba 1 housing estate as the Bulgarian ‘twin towers’. Although this nickname is not strictly accurate, it helps to raise the profile of one of Sofia’s most unusual buildings. The two residential blocks, seemingly joined together in the shape of the letter ‘H’, were built […]
If you climb above the Journalists’ Quarter in Lozenets, hidden from the view of passers-by, you will find the elegant building of the Sofia Theological Seminary. It has stood there for over a century – a temple of knowledge and tranquillity, sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the city. Its foundations were laid in […]
In 1858, an earthquake shook Sofia. Dozens of homes, churches and other public buildings were destroyed, whilst in the fields to the south-west, surprisingly, a hot spring gushed forth. The locals simply named it ‘Gyolo’ or ‘The Hot Water’. Little by little, the place became an unofficial wellness centre. Decades later, following the end of […]
In 1989, southern Sofia gained a new cultural landmark – the Krasno Selo Cultural Centre. The impressive building, situated in the heart of the picturesque Hippodrome Park, covers an area of 1,000 square metres across two floors and comprises dozens of rooms. The cultural centre has the status of a municipal cultural institution and hosts […]
Want to see how the average Bulgarian lives? Take the metro towards Obelya and get off at Lyulin – Sofia’s largest district, with nearly 130,000 residents, more than enough to easily qualify as the country’s seventh-largest city. The vast labyrinths of identical prefabricated blocks in typical socialist-era style span a full ten micro-districts. The characteristic, […]
