SOFIA - София
IntroductionHistory
The Centre
Entertainment
Parks
Eating
Getting Aroun
Essentials
Mount Vitosha
Elsewhere around Sofia
In the twenties and thirties western European visitors compared Sofia with Paris for its bustling street life, its cafe society and cosmopolitan culture. Life, or so it seemed, was lived to the full, the opera houses and theatres were always busy and the intellectual life of the city was comparable to Vienna or Prague. The communist years dimmed this spirit while changing the physical face of the city radically. The old wooden houses of the suburbs were cleared to be replaced by concrete blocks of flats to house the workers whose only allegiance was deemed to be the state and the party. Thankfully, the greater part of the centre remains relatively unchanged, its wide boulevards and old narrow streets lined with characteristically Balkan houses, some now a little dilapidated but still with an inimical character that grows on the visitor. Since the Changes in 1989, that cosmopolitan spirit has returned and the city of today is as interesting as it must have been 60 years ago, a busy and colourful place with its quota of ugliness as any city has but with many beautiful buildings, a rich cultural life and of course its very own mountain, Vitosha, an oasis of peace and quiet to escape the intensity of Sofia’s busy streets. Since Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, the city has become the epitome of a European capital, it’s shopping streets and tourist attractions the equivalent of most European capitals at a significantly lower price. In the evenings there is a multitude of choices, concert halls, opera, the cinema, the theatre and lots of little and some not so little back street bars with anything ranging from jazz to traditional music on show, and should all else fail, and in Sofia that is most unlikely, you can always participate in that most Bulgarian form of entertainment, find a seat in a street cafe, drink a long, slow coffee or beer and watch the world go past.
The Sofia basin and Mount Vitosha have been inhabited since Neolithic times, but the first substantial settlement was founded by the Thracian tribe, the Serdi, in the 5th century BC. The settlement was on a main trade route between east and west and thus was much harassed notably by Philip II of Macedonia in 359 BC, who ravaged it, and Alexander the Great. The Romans conquered the area in the 1st century AD, fortifying the city and naming it Serdica after its founders. By the reign of the Emperor Trajan (97-117) it had become a prosperous trading centre and in the 3rd century AD capital of the Roman province of Dacia. In the 4th century, despite the depredations of invading bands of Goths and Huns (Attila burnt the city down in 443), the city reached the zenith of its prosperity under Emperor Constantine, becoming one of the principal trading centres of this part of the Roman Empire. Emperor Justinian (527-565) restored the city, building the substantial walls which were to protect it for the next two centuries. It was subject to increasingly frequent raids by the Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries, who finally captured an almost deserted city at the end of the 7th century and renamed it Sredets, meaning `centre`. In 809, the Bulgarian Khan Krum occupied it and, along with Plovdiv and Adrianople (present day Edirne in Turkey) it became one of the most important commercial centres of the First Kingdom. Basil II, Emperor of Byzantium, the infamous `Basil the Bulgar-Slayer` (see History) besieged it in 986, 1001, 1004 and 1006 as part of his campaign to subdue the Bulgarians, finally capturing it in 1018.
Sredets now entered a period of considerable instability, changing hands frequently over the next three centuries much to the detriment of its inhabitants. In 1048 and 1076 the city, now called Triadisa, was ravaged by the Pechenegs and then in 1096 occupied by the knights of the First Crusade. In 1183 it was pillaged by the Magyars and the Serbs and again in 1189 by Crusaders led by Frederick Barbarossa. The Bulgarians occupied it in 1194, incorporating it into the Second Kingdom and endowing it with a short period of peace and prosperity. The first mention of its present name, Sofia, from the ancient church of Sv. Sophia, appears in 1376 in a charter in which Tsar Shishman granted certain privileges to Dragalevtsi Monastery. In 1382 the Turks sacked the city and finally established themselves here in 1396 after the battle of Nikopol. Apart from a short time in 1443, when an army of Poles, Serbs and Hungarians briefly occupied it, under the Turks Sofia entered a time of growth and increasing commercial importance until in the 18th century it was second only to Constantinople as the economic and cultural centre of the Ottoman Balkans. Sofia, a 17th century traveller reported, was a ‘place so wholly Turkish, that there is nothing in it that appears more antique than the Turks themselves’. During the 19th century, unable to take advantage of the development of modern industry, the city went into economic decline and by the time of liberation in 1878 was a small provincial town with only 20,000 inhabitants. It was however chosen as the capital of the new nation because of its geographical position, its highly defensible setting on a plain surrounded by mountains also allowing room for expansion that other more historically resonant sites such as Veliko Turnovo could not. It was also closer to the centre of the enlarged Bulgaria, including Macedonia, envisaged by the First Constituent Assembly.
Little of the old Ottoman Sofia now remains, much of the centre was rebuilt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The area around Pl. Sveta Nedelya has been the hub of the city since ancient times. The Sveta Nedelya Church itself, the last of a long series of churches on this site, stands at the conjunction of Serdica`s two principal streets. In the early years of Christianity a number of small churches and monastic foundations stood here, endowed by the boyars, and during the Turkish occupation it became the centre of the warren of little streets that was the Varosh, the Bulgarian quarter of Sofia. The church then was known as Sveti Kral, the Blessed King, because the remains of the great Serbian king Stefan Urosh were kept here. In 1856 the original church was destroyed by fire and a new building completed in 1863 commissioned from the Bulgarian architect Pomeranov. In 1923, in an attempt to assassinate King Boris, a number of bombs were set off in the church during a funeral mass. Boris survived but 120 of the congregation did not and the government, accusing the Communists, took their revenge by suppressing them in the round of arrests and killings known as the White Terror (see History). Before the building of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, Sveta Nedelya was the Metropolitan, the principal church of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. North of Sveta Nedelya, an underpass under Blvd. Dondukov takes you to an extensive complex of Roman remains on two sides of TsUM (short for Tsentralen Universalen Magazin), Sofia’s main department store during the Communist years and now home to up-market boutiques. The remains, discovered during work on the Metro in 2004, are a part of the centre of Serdica and consist of eight streets, including a substantial length of Dekumanus Maximus, Serdica’s main street. Two houses, both luxurious villas with sewerage and water-mains, have been identified by namestones near their doors, the houses of Felix and Leontius, and the complex also includes an early Christian Basilica from the 4th century. At the edge of the excavations in front of TsUM is the little 14th century church of St. Petka the Saddler, Sv. Petka Samardzhiska, built by the guild of saddlers according to Ottoman edict below ground level so that it did not intrude upon Turkish eyes. It is not often open, but if by chance you find it so it is worth going in to see the frescoes from the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries. Beyond TsUM is the Banya Bashi Mosque (Banya Bashi Dzhamia), built in 1576 by the Turkish architect Hajji Mimar Sinan with an arcade of four stone columns and three lead domes. It is the last remaining Ottoman mosque in Sofia from an estimated twenty or so at the height of Ottoman power, with a richly decorated prayer space and a magnificent central dome. Behind the mosque is the ornately mosaiced facade of the old mineral baths, Tsentralna Banya, once the biggest of Sofia’s oriental baths and a popular meeting place. It was built in style known as the Vienna Secession and opened in 1913. The baths closed in 1986 and fell into disrepair, but, after partial renovation, it is now the Sofia Regional History Museum. The museum, with a permanent exhibition over eight halls, holds exhibits of life in Sofia from neolithic times to the 1940’s. Behind the baths again on Ul. Iskur is the excavated remains of a section of the old Roman walls. On Exarch Iosef west of the mosque, is the Halite, an indoor market and a little further the Synagogue, a magnificent building in Spanish-Mauritian style built by the architect Grunanger in 1909 to resemble the famous Sephardic prayer house in Vienna. Its octangular dome is lit by the biggest chandelier in the Balkans. Behind the synagogue is a Jewish History Museum (not open at weekends) At the end of Exarch Iosef on Stamboulov is one of Sofia`s main markets, Zhenski Pazar (Lady`s Market), set in one of the remaining older quarters of Sofia. Return to Sveta Nedelya by Ul. Pirotska (just past the market tram stop), one of Sofia’s main shopping streets for clothing and shoes.
From Sv. Nedelya, Ul. Suborna leads westwards past a gap in the Sheraton through which the Rotunda of Saint George (open Tues - Sat) can be reached. Parts of this little church, the oldest building in Sofia, date back to the 2nd or 3rd century. Its original function is unclear, perhaps as a temple, mausoleum or more prosaically a public bathhouse but it was consecrated as a church during the reign of the Emperor Constantine (306 - 337). Devastated by invading Huns in the 5th century it was rebuilt by Emperor Justinian. Three layers of frescoes from the 10th, 13th & 14th and 15th centuries have been discovered, the latter being the finest, including the magnificent 2 metre tall frescoes of 22 prophets in the dome. The Turks converted it into a mosque, the Rese Mosque, in the 16th century. It still functions as a church and there are three services a day. At the back of the church is the office of the President of Bulgaria.
The National Archaeological Museum, further along Suborna, is housed in the former 15th century Buyuk Mosque, the Big Mosque, with three large central domes and 6 others. It houses exhibits of Thracian, Greek and Roman remains from around the country.
The Archaeological Museum lies at the western end of Pl. Alexander Battenberg, dominated by three buildings. Immediately facing the museum is the old Party House, the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Now the offices of present-day politicians, the pole on top used to support a huge illuminated five-pointed red star designed to be visible from most of Sofia. To the south, past the Bulgarian National Bank is Pl. Battenberg, the site in Communist Party days of the biannual Manifestatsia, the mass demonstrations of support for the party that most of the citizens of Sofia had to participate in. On the left is the ornate facade of the National Art Gallery, formerly the Konak, the headquarters of the Turkish regional administration where Vasil Levski was tortured before his execution. After 1878 it became the Royal Palace. It also houses the National Ethnographic Museum at the rear of the building. The Art Gallery has a permanent exhibition of a vast collection of contemporary and National Revival art, sculpture and paintings, and the country’s largest collection of medieval paintings. The interior, befitting its former role, is sumptuous with ornate staircases and marble fireplaces. In the small park facing the palace is the City Art Gallery which has a changing exhibition of modern painting and sculpture. Impossible to miss from here also is the imposing facade of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, built by a Viennese architect in 1907.
Across the square, is one of Sofia’s oldest and most venerable hotels, the Grand described by John Reed, a visiting American journalist in 1915 as `the one hotel where everybody goes.. where journalists make news, magnates plot...,lawyers blackmail and politicians upset ministries`. A plaque on one wall commemorates one of the hotel’s more idiosyncratic inhabitants, the English journalist, James Bourchier (1850-1920) who lived here for 20 years. Partially deaf and a shy Eton schoolmaster until his late thirties, in 1888 he resigned and on a whim travelled to Romania. There he discovered a passion for the Balkans and became a journalist for various English newspapers, becoming in 1892 the London Times Balkan correspondent. He took up various Balkan causes with such enthusiasm that in turn the Greek President Venizelos and the Bulgarian King Ferdinand both described him as a friend of their respective countries. After the first World War he championed Bulgaria`s claims to Macedonia and in recognition of this King Boris granted his dying wish to be buried at Rila Monastery, the only foreigner to be allowed such a privilege. Eastward along Tsar Osvoboditel is the Museum of Natural History (open Wed - Sun) whose detailed displays on the geology, zoology and botany of the Balkans are the most comprehensive in the region. A little way further is the pretty golden-domed Russian Church, commissioned by a Russian diplomat, Sementovski-Kurilo, in 1914 because he believed the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to be schismatic. Typical of Moscow architecture of the period, the frescoes were painted by painters of the Novgorod school and the four altar icons are replicas of ones in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev.
Further along on the same side, the dignified facade of the Military Club, now a restaurant, occupies the corner of Osvoboditel and Ul. Rakovski across the street from the little park known as Kristal, whose cafes are a popular meeting place. A short walk up Rakovski leads to the glorious vista of Pl. Alexander Nevski with as centrepiece the imposing bulk of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. It was built to commemorate the 200,000 Russian casualties during the War of Liberation to a design by the Russian architect Pomerantsev. There was long debate about the siting of the monument, but finally this site in the new capital, Sofia’s highest point and the site of the ancient necropolis of Serdica, was chosen in preference to the Shipka pass or Tsaravets hill in Turnovo. It bears the name of Alexander Nevski, patron saint of Tsar Alexander II, `The Liberator`, leader of the Russian forces. Alexander Nevski was a Prince of Novgorod (1220-1263) who saved his country by defeating the Swedes on the River Neva (hence the title Nevski).
The first stone was laid in 1882 but because of tension between Bulgaria and Russia construction dragged on for many years. A changed design was approved in 1896 and the main part of the building, erected between 1904 and 1912, is 75 metres long and 55 wide with a central dome 52 metres in height. The church was finally consecrated in 1924. There are twelve bells, cast in Moscow, the heaviest of which weighs 12 tons and can be heard 20 miles away. The domes were re-gilded in 1960 using 18 pounds of gold leaf. It is a five-aisled basilica in the Byzantine style with Renaissance, Russian and Oriental elements and a carved marble iconostasis. The Patriarch`s throne to the right of the iconostasis has columns of alabaster and onyx from Brazil. The rich interior frescoes, painted by Russian and Bulgarian artists depict scenes from the life of Christ with a particularly impressive `Lord God of Sabaoth` looking over His flock from the majestic height of the dome. Outside the church and to the left of the main entrance a marble staircase leads down to the Crypt and a display of icons from all over Bulgaria. These range from lifelike medieval portraits of individual saints from Nesebur and Sozopol to exquisitely detailed 18th and 19th century biblical parables and gruesome scenes from the life of Saint George.
At the northern end of the square stands the church of Sv. Sophia, one of the most famous buildings in Sofia and one whose chequered history most evokes the vicissitudes of the city’s history. Built in the 6th century by Justinian on the site of two smaller and older churches destroyed respectively by the Huns and the Goths in the 5th century, there are two legends about its foundation. One is that Emperor Justinian`s wife, suffering from some dread illness, came to Sofia hoping that the air of the town would cure her. When the cure worked, she had the church built in gratitude. Alternately another legend has it that it was erected for one of the daughters of Emperor Constantine who was buried in one of the niches. Its architecture reflects the differing influences that shaped early Slav and Bulgarian society. Its shape, a cross with arms of equal length and a dome over the intersection, comes from Byzantium, such features as the absence of lateral arches and the grouping of the windows resemble basilicas in Asia Minor and the round arches in the vaulting are characteristic of the Roman style. During the reign of Tsar Samuil its windows were reduced in size and some blocked up completely. The Turks turned it into a mosque at the beginning of their occupation, but, after two earthquakes in 1818 and 1858 destroyed parts of it, abandoned it, deeming them to be bad omens for their occupation. At the time of Liberation it was in a dilapidated state and in use as a fire station. In 1900 donations were raised to reconstruct the church and in 1930 it was again open for worship. Behind the church is the grave of Ivan Vazov, who is buried here rather than in the crypt of the cathedral because he wished to be in contact with daily life and work of the people.
The imposing Viennese styled building behind the cathedral on the eastern side of the square is the National Gallery for Foreign Art, a gallery largely devoted to works of art donated by Bulgarians living abroad. The ground floor is given over to an interesting collection of Indian, Japanese and Nepalese wood carvings, small statuary and prints, the second floor to mostly minor, mostly French paintings and sculpture from the 17th century to the 1950s and the third contemporary eastern European, Cuban and Venezuelan works. Some of its exhibitions are housed in Kvadrat 500, part of the same complex but in the old state printing house now renovated.Behind the gallery, a monument in the middle of the square marks the spot where Vasil Levski (see History) was hanged by the Turks.
On the south side of the square the Narodno Subranie, the parliament building looks out over Subranie Square and the statue of Tsar Alexander II astride his horse and to the east of that, across the road from the facade of Sofia University with the two seated statues of its founders, the brothers Hristo and Evlogi Georgiev, there is a little park with a modern statue of one of the earliest and most illustrious of the medieval church`s patriarchs, Kliment of Ohrid.
Back at Sv. Nedelya, Sofia`s main shopping street, Blvd. Vitosha (known universally as Vitoshka) leads southward past, one block down, the columned façade of the Palace of Justice, Sofia’s central court.
At the bottom, dominating the Iuzhen Park (lit. Southern Park) is the National Palace of Culture (known to most Sofians simply as НДК, pronounced En-De-Ka) one of Ludmilla Zhivkova`s projects, and one whose expense raised considerable resentment, built to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of Bulgaria. This ultra-modern conference centre has one large central concert cum conference hall, a dozen other smaller halls, restaurants, a small bazaar in the basement and in an adjacent sunken courtyard and a patisserie on the roof which gives superb views of Sofia.
A walk south of here through the park behind NDK takes you to the Museum of Earth and People in the old Sofia Arsenal, a museum dedicated to Bulgarian art since 1990.
A curiosity is the Museum of Socialist Art (open Tuesday - Sunday) which holds a vast array of monuments (including the five-point star that once stood on top of the Party Headquarters) , sculptures and artefacts from the Communist years. It is a little out of the centre on Ul. Lachezar Stanchev a short walk from Metro station Joliot Curie.
Apart from the height of summer when half of Sofia`s population seems to disappear to the Black Sea Coast, the city has a busy night life. NDK hosts rock and pop concerts by visiting American and European bands, classical concerts, film premieres and the occasional theatrical spectacular, the Opera House`s season (Ul. Vrabcha.) runs from September to May and, a central European speciality, the Light Opera theatre on Vasil Levski Blvd. (close to the Levski monument) mounts productions of a variety of light operas ranging from 19th century classics to more modern offerings (all in Bulgarian). The Bulgaria concert hall on Ul Aksakov presents a regular season of concerts by Sofia`s two resident orchestras, The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sofia Radio Orchestra as well as chamber music concerts. Sofia has many theatres, the most prestigious of which is the Ivan Vasov National Theatre, it is rare though to find a performance in anything but Bulgarian. In the shopping malls that dot the suburbs there are a number of cinemas, all reasonably cheap, which show most of the latest releases (subtitled in Bulgarian). Nightclubs tend to fall into four main flavours; piano bars, as the name says with a show or entertainment based around a pianist and often singers; rock bars with usually local bands; DJs, often international, playing house and techno to Sofia's trendy set; and turbo-folk or chalga clubs, usually expensive and specialising in pop-folk music. While there some long-established clubs like the Yalta next to the university, they open and close or go in and out of fashion with startling rapidity, but most of the major hotels have some form of night club or a casino. The Army Stadium, in Geo Milev suburb, has established itself as a touring rock venue with bands from Europe and the UK.
One of the pleasures of city life is a Sunday stroll in one of Sofia's many parks, eating ice cream in the summer or ice-skating in the winter. There are two close to the city centre.
Borisova Gradina, Boris Gardens, named after Tsar Boris III (1918–1943). Close to the university, this park has an impressive range of sculptures and at its end a monument to Tsar Boris. Near the entrance is a lake where you can hire boats in the summer and in the winter forms Sofia's largest skating rink. At the city end of the park are tennis-courts, swimming pools, bicycle racing tracks, the Vasil Levski National Stadium (athletics and football) and the smaller Bulgarian Army Stadium.
Iuzhen Park (the Southern Park). A ride on Tram No. 1 down Vitoshka from NDK, the Palace of Culture (alight at the terminus and a short walk down the shopping street from there)takes you to this extensive park which is in places as much countryside as it is park. The park stretches about three klms. from its entrance to the up-market suburb of Lozenets. With its wooded trails, many ponds, cafes, and views of Mt. Vitosha (from the Lozenets end) it is a favourite with Sofians.
There is no shortage of good and reasonably priced restaurants in Sofia most open from midday until 11pm or midnight, including some offering different national foods. There is a wide selection of small restaurants offering traditional Bulgarian dishes in the small streets off Vitoshka. There are more up-market traditional restaurants on the slopes of Vitosha, a short taxi ride from the centre. As a European capital, fast-food outlets are ubiquitous but there are still some of the more traditional bira-na-skara (beer and grill) places that used to be Sofia’s staple fare, particularly around Zhenska Pazar. A range of traditional sweet pastries and torta are available from sladkarnitsas and banitsa (a cheese pastry) from shops called Banicharnitsi.
Sofia has an efficient and cheap Metro system which takes you to most places around the city. If you are flying in, the Metro only serves Terminal 2 (known as Nov Terminal – the new terminal). There is a shuttle bus from Terminal 1 (Star Terminal - the old terminal) to Terminal 2 but it is often overcrowded, if a number of flights arrive at once. Travelling by tram is a wonderful way to see the city and there is comprehensive bus service. You can buy tickets ( a cheaper pack of ten is called a desetka – stamp them on machines on the bus walls) or a weekly or daily card from street offices, or individual tickets from the driver. Taxis (always yellow) are generally cheap, but check the tariff on a sign displayed on taxi windows before getting in as some companies are more expensive.
EMERGENCY NUMBERS
Fire Brigade Tel. 160
Ambulance Tel. 150
Police Tel. 166
Traffic Police Tel. 166
The Pirogov Hospital, Blvd. Tsar Boris 3rd (opposite the Rodina Hotel) has a casualty department for emergencies.
The POST OFFICE, 5, Ul. General Gurko, sells stamps (marki) and post cards.
RAILWAY INFORMATION
Central Railway Station (Tsentralna Gara), Blvd. Maria Luiza Tel. 0900 63 099 (trams no. 1 or 7 from Sveta Nedelya). Tickets for all northern domestic destinations are bought on the ground floor and everywhere else, including international and sleeper tickets in the basement.
SHOPPING
Vitoshka is the city's main shopping street, with a selection of up-market boutiques, tourist shops and many restaurants. Further down past Sv. Nedelya, is TsUM, which used be to the city's department store during the communist years. Inside it is an impressive building, with marble columns and crystal chandeliers and today it has a variety of boutiques and small shops spread over three floors. Opposite TsUM is Halite, a food market, and Ul. Pirotska with many small clothes and shoe stores. Most suburbs have supermarkets and 24 hour small shops. In recent years a number of shopping malls have been built in Sofia's suburbs with fast-food places, chain stores and supermarkets. The nearest to the centre is the Mall of Sofia down Blvd. Alexander Stamboliiski from Sv. Nedelya. Sofia's many markets sell fresh fruit and vegetables, clothes and handicrafts.
Zhenski Pazar (Ladies market), Stambolov. the biggest and most central of Sofia`s markets. fruit and vegetables, meat, handicraft
Rimska Stena (Roman Wall) Hristo Smirnenski Blvd. Small, expensive, but interesting market around what is actually an Ottoman wall.
Sitniakovo, Sitniakovo Blvd. General but good fruit and vegetables.
MOUNT VITOSHA (Витоша)
The Vitosha massif, a compact mass of granite, some 19 kms.(12 miles) long by 18 kms.(11 miles) wide, is today the playground of Sofia, where Sofians go in winter to ski and in summer to walk or picnic in its forests and meadows, but it was not always so. For the ancestors of today`s inhabitants of the city it was both a place of refuge, during times of strife Thracians, Romans and Bulgarians built numerous fortresses on its slopes, and a place of religious retreat, in the medieval period there were around forty monasteries here of which only two, Dragalevtsi and Kladnitsa, survive.
Lining the southern slopes of the mountain are three villages, now fairly exclusive suburbs of Sofia, from which roads run up to different parts of the mountain. From the easternmost, Simoneovo, a cable car (sometimes closed in the suummer) ascends to Aleko, a group of hotels and restaurants just below the massif`s highest peak, Cherni Vruh (2290m./7440ft.) and the main skiing centre on the mountain. In the immediate vicinity are short beginners and nursery slopes and a chairlift to the top of Cherni Vruh for a longer easy run down to Aleko. Close by are also some short reds. For the advanced skier, a chair lift goes to another peak, Goliam Pesen, from where there is a long 2.5 km. black. There is also cross-country skiing lower down the mountain. In summer, apart from giving a superb view of Sofia, Aleko makes an excellent place from which to explore, by a series of well marked paths which criss-cross the mountain from here, some quite breathtaking scenery. From the next village westwards, Dragalevtsi, the main road to Aleko ascends past Bulgaria`s oldest monastery, Dragalevtsi Monastery. Built in the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331-71) the only part of the original structure which survives is the church, decorated with fine 15th and 17th century frescoes. In the porch is a portrait of the founder, Radoslav Mavra, and his family in typical clothes of the 15th century. Just below the monastery a chairlift ascends to near Aleko.
Westward again, up hill from the square in the village of Boyana is one of the finest of Bulgaria`s churches. This little church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains some of the most beautiful and well-preserved medieval frescoes in Southern Europe. Built on to an older building in 1259 by Sevastokrator Kaloyan, the then boyar of the Sofia area, it was part of a larger fortified complex built by the First Kingdom boyar, Voivoda Botko (from whose name the village`s is also derived) of which all that is left is the ruins of a tower just above the village, past a picturesque waterfall, on a rock called Momina Skala (Maiden`s Rock). The church consists of three parts, the oldest and smallest part dating from the 11th century, cruciform in shape with a cupola. To this Kaloyan added a two storey building, the lower storey of which was the narthex and a vault for the donor`s family and the upper the church. A further extension was added in the 19th century.
The frescoes in the church belong to different periods but the most interesting date from 1259. In the 36 scenes from the lives of Jesus, Mary and the portraits of Kaloyan and his wife and Tsar Constantine, the unknown artist broke from Byzantine tradition by taking his figures from life, legend has it that the faces are of his contemporaries in the village, and introducing elements of life around him. Thus in the painting of the Annunciation the figure of the Angel has a suppleness and is as well-proportioned as one would expect from later painters of the Italian Renaissance. No less novel for its time is the face of the boy Jesus in `Jesus and the Doctors`, vibrant and alive with intelligence and wisdom, and the terrified faces of the three sailors in the miracle scene from the 18 scenes from the life of St. Nicholas. In `The Last Supper`, Jesus and the Apostles dine on bread, turnip and garlic, a fairly typical meal of the period and one which the painter`s audience would immediately identify with.
The church is on occasion closed for restoration, but, should you be unlucky, a museum dedicated to the church near the gate has an exhibition of reproductions of the frescoes and periodic showings of a film about the church.
Downhill from the church, a 20 minute walk takes you to the National History Museum. Housed in the Presidential Villa of the former Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov, the size and scope of the villa is almost as startling as the exhibits. Admission is by ticket (except on the last Monday of the month, when it is free) and for a small extra fee the museum offers guided tours in English
Hall 1 is given over to prehistory, and Hall 2 to Thracian, Greek and Roman exhibits, including a stunning series of Thracian treasures unearthed in various parts of Bulgaria. A hoard of golden vessels from the village of Vulchi Trun near Pleven from about 1300 BC and the most valuable of all, a hoard of ornate and elaborate golden drinking vessels and plate from Panagiurshte. Hall 3 contains exhibits from the First and Second Kingdoms, Hall 4 Ottoman Bulgaria, Hall 5 National Revival Bulgaria and Hall 6 Bulgaria after independence.
Uphill from Boyana, a road leads to another popular walking and picnicking spot, Zlatni Mostove. Meaning `golden bridges`, this river of large boulders, a glacial moraine that runs from the summit of the mountain almost to its base, is so called because gold was once found here.
Westward again, in the suburb of Kniazhevo, a path leads up the mountain from the tram terminus (by one of the many mineral springs that dot the mountain side) on which the physically fit can walk to Zlatni Mostove and then on to Aleko, a day`s walk.
GETTING THERE...
From Sofia there are three main bus routes up the mountain. Bus 122 leaves from the terminus of Tram 8 or 9 (from NDK) to the suburb of Simeonovo from where a cable car goes to Aleko near the summit. From the same terminus, bus 66 goes through Dragalevtsi suburb and past Dragalevtsi Monastery also to Aleko. Bus 61 leaves from Ovcha Kupel bus station (tram 19 from near the National History Museum) to Boyana and up the mountain to Zlatni Mostove. For Kniazhevo catch tram 5, one of Sofia's most picturesque tram lines, from the terminus behind the Palace of Justice to its terminus.
The villages on the plain of Sofia are the traditional home of the Shop people (hence the ubiquitous Shopska salata - Shop salad) most of whom now live in the city itself. Viewed by most Bulgarians as the British view Cockneys and the Germans view Berliners, the Shops are a close-knit urban tribe with a humorous and often acerbic wit.
Bankya (Банкя), This small town around 20km from Sofia has its own microclimate and is a popular health resort with two mineral springs and an expanse of parkland to stroll in. Trains run from Central Station every half hour.
German. (Герман) A pleasant little village in the foothills of Mt. Lozen on the outskirts of Sofia, perhaps the closest village that is still a village and not a suburb, named after an old folk tradition meaning a prayer for rain. Uphill from the village the first Kingdom Germanski Monastery, rebuilt in the 19th century, has some interesting icons from the Samokov school and close by the remains of an ancient church. Bus 6 from Geo Milev suburb.
Iskur Gorge. Good walking country with several interesting monasteries, rock formations and villages accessible by train from Sofia - see the Western Stara Planina section for details.
Koprivishtitsa, a well-preserved museum village accessible on a day-trip from Sofia - see the Western Stara Planina section for details.
Pancharevo. (Панчарево) A popular resort area for Sofians focussing around a 5km lake used for boating, rowing and fishing. Many restaurants and cafes along its bank including some of the better traditional restaurants in Sofia. (Samokov bus from Avtogara Iug).
Samokov and Borovets. Samokov, some 30kms south-east of Sofia has some beautiful National Revival houses and is close to one of the country`s biggest ski resorts, Borovets, also beautiful walking country. See the Rila section for details