26 Sights in Sofia, Bulgaria (with Map and Images)
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Explore interesting sights in Sofia, Bulgaria. Click on a marker on the map to view details about it. Underneath is an overview of the sights with images. A total of 26 sights are available in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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The National Military History Museum is a museum dedicated to military history in Sofia, Bulgaria. A structure of the Ministry of Defence, it has existed under various names and subordinate to various institutions since 1 August 1914. It consists of 5,000 m2 of indoor and 40,000 m2 outdoor exhibition area, changing exhibits, a library and a computer centre.
Wikipedia: National Museum of Military History, Bulgaria (EN), Website
The Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia is a museum of art which covers the history of the communist era in Bulgaria. It was established on 19 September 2011 amidst a controversy over the name, which was initially proposed as "Museum of Totalitarian Art". The museum's collection of large and small statues, busts, and paintings represents the period from 1944 to 1989, from the establishment of the People's Republic of Bulgaria to the fall of communism. The museum spread over an area of 7,500 square metres (81,000 sq ft) in the Sofia suburb known as "Red Star" is in three parts - a park with sculpture installations drawn from the communist period, an exhibition hall with paintings and easel representations, and a media or video hall in which films and newsreels related to the communist period are screened.
The Saint Sofia Church is the oldest church in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, dating to the fourth century. In the predecessor building took place the Council of Serdica held most probably in 343 and attended by 316 bishops. In the 14th century, the church gave its name to the city, previously known as Serdika (Сердика).
4. Saint George Rotunda
The Church of Saint George is a Late Antique red brick rotunda in Sofia, Bulgaria. Built in the early 4th century as Roman baths, it became a church inside the walls of Serdica, capital of ancient Dacia Mediterranea during the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. The Early Christian church is considered the oldest building in modern Sofia and belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
5. Neolithic Settlement of Slatina
Early Neolithic settlement Slatina-Sofia is a prehistoric settlement-one of the largest in the Central Balkans. It is a multilayered archeological site located in the eastern part of Sofia, south of Slatina. It occupies an uninhabited terrace on the left bank of the Slatinska River. Its total reserved area is about 80 acres, but probably during its existence in centuries it grows and shrinks over an area of about 300 acres. It occurred at the end of the 7th millennium BC, in the early Neolithic period, and existed for more than half a millennium - until the middle of the 6th millennium BC. The cultural layer accumulated during this period reaches a thickness of up to 4 m. Eight consecutive levels of habitation have been registered, in which the remains of the life of prehistoric people are found: destructions from burned and unfinished houses, facilities and objects of their interior, ritual structures surrounding Boops, numerous stone, bone, horn and ceramic cannons, ceramic vessels, animal bones and human remains. Due to its geographical location, the Slatin settlement is a mediator in the central zone of the Balkans and probably for this reason its inhabitants are carriers of active innovative thinking and an engine of cultural development in the region.
6. Катедрален храм “Успение Богородично”
The Bulgarian Catholic Eparchy of Saint John XXIII of Sofia is an eparchy of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church which is a sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church based in Bulgaria. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. The Church is organised as a single eparchy. Its liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Bulgarian language. It was elevated from an Apostolic Exarchate to a full eparchy by Pope Francis on 12 October 2019. The cathedral church of the eparchy is the Cathedral of the Dormition, in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. The incumbent eparch is Christo Proykov.
Wikipedia: Bulgarian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sofia (EN), Website
7. National Archaeological Institute with Museum
The National Archaeological Museum is an archaeological museum in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It occupies the building of the largest and oldest former Ottoman mosque in the city, originally known as Koca Mahmut Paşa Camii. The construction started in 1451 under grand vizier Veli Mahmud Pasha but due to his death in 1474 the mosque has been completed in 1494. The museum was established as a separate entity in 1893 as the National Museum directed by Czech Václav Dobruský with its headquarters in the former mosque that previously housed the National Library between 1880 and 1893.
Wikipedia: National Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria (EN), Website
8. Holy Nedelya Church
Saint Nedelya Cathedral, is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, a cathedral of the Sofia bishopric of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. The temple of Sveta Nedelya dates back to the 10th century, being a cathedral of the city from the 18th century. The sacred building has suffered destruction through the ages and has been reconstructed many times. The present building of the temple is among the landmarks of Sofia. It was designed by the famous Bulgarian architectural team Vasilyov-Tsolov. The relics of the Serbian king Stefan Uroš II Milutin are kept in the church.
9. Doctors Memorial
The Plovdiv Monument is a monument in the Doctor's Garden in Sofia. It was built in 1882 – 1884 by the design of the Czech architect A. I. Tomasek. It is a truncated four-sided pyramid at the top with a granite sarcophagus. On the four sides of the bulging stones are carved the names of 531 doctors and orderlies who died in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878, most of whom worked in the mission of the Russian Red Cross and fell in the battles at Pleven, Plovdiv, Mechka and Shipka peak.
10. National Anthropological Museum
The National Anthropological Museum was established on March 21, 2007 as part of the system of museums at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences under the patronage of the Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It is located in Fr. Sofia, bul. 73 Tsarigradsko Shose Str., in close proximity to the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
11. The Unknown Soldier
The Monument to the Unknown Soldier is a monument in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, located just next to the 6th-century Church of St Sophia, on 2 Paris Street. The monument commemorates the hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian soldiers who died in wars defending their homeland. Ceremonies involving the President of Bulgaria and foreign state leaders are often performed here.
12. Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church
The Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church and formerly The Black Mosque is a Bulgarian Orthodox church in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It was created in 1547 as an Ottoman mosque later converted into orthodox Church, and was inaugurated on 27 July 1903. The church is named after Cyril and Methodius and their five disciples, known in the Orthodox Church collectively as the Sedmochislenitsi.
13. Войнишки мемориал на Първи и Шести софийски пехотен полк
The memorial of the First Sofia Infantry and Sixth Tarnovo Infantry Regiments of the First Sofia Infantry Division, called "The Iron" or "Shopskaya", was inaugurated on October 28, 1934 by Tsar Boris III. In front of it were held military celebrations, parades, memorials and other celebrations until World War II.
14. Vasil Levski Monument
The Monument to Vasil Levski in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is one of the first monuments to be built in the then newly liberated Principality of Bulgaria. It commemorates the hanging of Bulgarian national hero and major revolutionary figure Vasil Levski on the same spot on 18 February 1873.
15. Russian Monument
The Russian Monument is a monument in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The first monument to be built in the capital of the newly liberated Principality of Bulgaria, it was unveiled on 29 June 1882 and is located on the road which Osman Nuri Paşa used to flee from Sofia to Pernik on 22 December 1877.
16. Intercession of the Mother of God
The Shroud of the Virgin Mary is an Orthodox church in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, located not far from the Russian Monument. It was built in 1922 – 26 by Yordanka Filaretova. The iconostasis is one of the few original gold-plated iconostases in Bulgaria. It is made in Mount Athos.
17. Ivan Vazov National Theatre
The Ivan Vazov National Theatre is Bulgaria's national theatre, as well as the oldest and most authoritative theatre in the country and one of the important landmarks of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It is located in the centre of the city, with the facade facing the City Garden.
18. Central Mineral Baths
The Central Mineral Baths is a landmark in the city center of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, a city known for the mineral springs in the area. It was built in the early 20th century near the former Turkish bath and was used as the city's public baths until 1986.
19. National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria
The National Assembly (Bulgarian: Народно събрание, romanized: Narodno Sabranie is the unicameral parliament and legislative body of the Republic of Bulgaria. The first National Assembly was established in 1879 with the Tarnovo Constitution.
20. Alexander of Battenberg
The Memorial Tomb of Alexander I of Battenberg, better known as the Battenberg Mausoleum in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is the mausoleum and final resting place of Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria (1857–1893), the first Head of State of modern Bulgaria.
21. Doctors' Garden
The Doctors' Garden is a park in the Bulgarian capital Sofia between the Oborishte and Shipka streets. It is located behind the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library and close to many of the historical monuments and state institutions in the capital.
22. Sofia Zoo
Sofia Zoo in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was founded by royal decree on 1 May 1888, and is the oldest and largest zoological garden in Southeast Europe. It covers 36 hectares and, in March 2006, housed 4,850 animals representing 840 species.
23. Света Параскева
The Church of St Paraskeva is a Bulgarian Orthodox church in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The church, dedicated to Saint Paraskeva, is located on 58 Georgi Rakovski Street in the centre of the city. It is the third-largest church in Sofia.
24. National Ethnographic Museum
The Ethnographic Institute with Museum is a state cultural institution at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia for the development of ethnology and the parallel preservation of the material riches of the past of the Bulgarian people.
Wikipedia: Институт за етнология и фолклористика с етнографски музей (BG)
25. Sofia City Art Gallery
The Sofia City Art Gallery was established on October 22, 1928 by order of Gen. Vladimir Vazov, then Mayor of Sofia Municipality. It is housed in the reconstructed a little earlier building of the City Casino on 1 Gurko Street.
Wikipedia: Софийска градска художествена галерия (BG), Website
26. Къща-музей Иван Вазов
The house-museum "Ivan Vazov" is located on the corner of ul. "Rakovski" and ul. "Ivan Vazov", from which is the entrance. This is the first literary museum in Bulgaria. It was opened on November 26, 1926.
Wikipedia: Къща музей „Иван Вазов“ (София) (BG), Website, Facebook
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