Ancient Sofia: Heart of History and Faith

The Church of St. George is a circular early Christian church built at Serdica, the ancient name of Sophia. Built in red brick, it is considered the oldest building in the Bulgarian capital. The structure was erected by the Romans in the 4th century as a cylindrical domed building on a square base. Built as part of the imperial thermal complex of Roman Serdica, the city that Emperor Constantine I loved to call My Rome, the Rotunda is a circular red brick building 10 meters in diameter, topped by a dome that rises 14 meters. It is famous for its interior frescoes from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, of which three layers have been discovered so far. The church stands in the courtyard between the Balkan Hotel Sophia and the seat of the President of Bulgaria. The ground level of the church and the surrounding ruins is several meters lower than the current street level of Sophia.

Sofia has been the capital of Thrace, a Roman city named Serdica, so beloved by Emperor Constantine the Great that he considered making it the seat of the Empire instead of Byzantium, then a medieval Bulgarian settlement, and finally an Ottoman capital of the Balkans for almost five centuries. The National Archaeological Museum is housed in the former 15th-century Ottoman Grand Mosque, the Boyuk Kamei, built by the Turks after their conquest of the city in 1382. It was the first mosque built in Sofia after the Ottoman conquest, following Bulgarian liberation in 1878, it was converted into a museum. The Ottoman building now houses the most important collection of Bulgarian antiquities, Thracian, Roman, medieval and proto-Bulgarian artefacts. Among the most extraordinary pieces are the Thracian gold treasures, some of the oldest and finest goldwork of the ancient world.

The Church of Saint Sophia, the oldest in Sophia after the Rotunda of Saint George, is the place from which the city takes its name. Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the Church of Saint Sophia was built in the 4th century, on the remains of several earlier churches, and the necropolis of the city of Serdica. Excavations conducted beneath the basilica's floor in recent decades have uncovered the remains of four earlier religious buildings, superimposed on the same sacred site, dating back to the 4th century AD. Most of these remains can be visited through an underground pathway beneath the central nave. After the invasions of the Visigoths and Huns, Emperor Justinian built a church dedicated to the wisdom of God, the Greek meaning of Sophia. The inhabitants loved it so much that in the 14th century they decided to rename the city, calling it Sophia.

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral stands 45 meters tall. With its bell tower containing 12 bells, it reaches 50.52 meters. The cathedral covers an area of 3,170 square meters and can hold more than 5,000 people inside. It was dedicated to the Russian prince Alexander Nevsky because the cathedral was erected to commemorate the death of 200,000 Russian soldiers, who fell during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, at the end of which Bulgaria obtained its independence. Construction resumed in 1904 and was completed in 1912, designed by Russian architect Alexander Pomerantsev. The iconostasis in white Carrara marble with onyx inserts stands 6 meters tall and 30 meters wide, and the baldachin above the high altar is gilded with gold leaf. During the First World War, in which Bulgaria fought against Russia, the church was rededicated to Saint Cyril and Methodius. Only in 1924 did it reclaim the name of Alexander Nevsky.