Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria and the largest city in the country. Now this dynamically developing city of Eastern Europe is a place where Western and socialist cultures are intertwined, as is typical for all countries of the former Warsaw Pact.
For the first time, a city on this territory was founded around the 7th century BC. You can still find ruins of ancient buildings in some places of the capital. Then the Thracians founded their settlement here, a little later the Romans named it Serdika. Years passed and the city fell under the onslaught of the Roman Empire, and later turned into the capital of one of its provinces.
During the Great Migration of Nations, the city received a new name - Triaditsa. He played an important role in Byzantium. At the beginning of the 9th century, a new Bulgarian state was founded on this territory, and the city entered it under the name of Sredets. The modern name was fixed for the city only at the end of the XIV century, when it was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In 1879, the country was finally freed from its oppressors, and Sofia became the capital of an independent state.
In Sofia, there are still churches built in the period of antiquity and the early Middle Ages, for example, the Rotunda of St. George, built in the 4th century, the Temple of Hagia Sophia, built in the 6th century. Not far from the Rotunda are the ancient ruins of the Byzantine palace of Emperor Constantine I the Great. Unique monuments remained from the Turks on the territory of Sofia: the Black Mosque, which was later transformed into the Christian Church named after the Holy Seven Numbers, and the magnificent Banya Bashi Mosque, which is one of the oldest in all of Europe. Holidays in the capital of Bulgaria are ideal for those who appreciate the beauty of architecture.
The city center can be explored on foot or from the windows of local trams. One of the busiest streets in the city is called Vitosha Boulevard. Here you can find many banks, restaurants, shops and a large historical museum with an excellent collection of objects related to the Thracian culture.
