Belgrade, Serbia to Sofia, Bulgaria
475 km, nearly 300 miles
It is going to take some time to get to Sofia. Today we have another boarder crossing, so add some time for that. We followed the pattern of yesterday. Got on board, and took a nap. Got to the boarded and followed the same procedure. We stopped at the gas station for “lunch”. Mary and I split a ham and cheese sandwich. Back on the bus, another nice nap, and we arrived in Sofia about 15:30.
We stopped and picked up the local guide, Nikolai. Nikolai is easy to understand and seems for more informed than yesterday’s guide. We stopped near the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Храм-паметник "Свети Александър Невски" is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral built in Neo-Byzantine style. It serves as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and it is one of the 50 largest Christian church buildings by volume in the world. St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia occupies an area of 34,100 square feet and can hold 5,000 people inside. It is among the 10 largest Eastern Orthodox church buildings. It is the largest cathedral in the Balkans.
Yes, we were informed that the gold on the domes are indeed real gold. They were redone just a couple years ago. It is a very impressive building and quite beautiful.
We walked on a little to the Church of St. Nikolay Chudotvorets. Officially known as the Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker is a Russian Orthodox church situated on Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard. The church was built on the site of the Saray Mosque, which was destroyed in 1882, after the liberation of Bulgaria by Russia from the Ottoman Empire. It was built as the official church of the Russian Embassy, which was located next door, and of the Russian community in Sofia, and was named, as was the tradition for diplomatic churches, for the patron saint of the Emperor who ruled Russia at the time, Nicholas II of Russia.
The church was designed by the Russian architect Mikhail Preobrazhenski in the style of Russian Revival architecture, with decoration inspired by the Muscovite Russian churches of the 17th century. The construction was supervised by the architect A. Smirnov, who was building the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral nearby. The exterior decoration of multicolored tiles was done by G. Kislichev, and the interior murals were painted by a team of artists led by Vasily Perminov, who also painted those in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The five domes are coated with gold. The bells were donated by Emperor Nicholas II.
Construction began in 1907 and the church was consecrated in 1914. The church remained open after the Russian Revolution and during the Communist period in Bulgaria (1944–1989), though priests and church-goers were carefully watched by the State Security police. The exterior was recently restored by the Russian Government. The crypt housing the remains of Saint Archbishop Seraphim is located beneath the Russian Church's main floor. Dozens of people still visit the grave of the archbishop, who died in 1950, praying and leaving notes asking for wishes to be granted.
Continuing our walk we got the the central garden area of Sofia. Here there is the beautiful Ivan Vazov National Theatre. Founded in 1904 by the artists from the Salza i Smyah company, the theatre was initially called the National Theatre, before being named after the prominent writer Ivan Vazov. Like so many things here the name before, during and after the communist period changed. It also bore the name of Krastyu Sarafov between 1952 and 1962.
Vazov's play The Outcasts was the first to be performed at the theatre when it opened. The theatre's neoclassical building, designed by famous Viennese theatre architects Hermann Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner, was finished in 1906 and opened on 3 January 1907.
A theatrical school was established as part of the National Theatre in 1925. The building was extensively damaged by a fire in 1923 during an anniversary celebration, but was reconstructed in 1929 by German architect Martin Dülfer. The bombing of Sofia in World War II caused further damage to the building, but it was reconstructed in 1945. Another reconstruction followed in 1971–1975, and a €100,000 restoration project was implemented in 2006. Today it looks absolutely beautiful.
We walked through the park and towards the President’s office. Here we were witness to an on the street press conference. Apparently, it was an informal exchange between the President of Bulgaria and the President of Macedonia. It seems the two don’t like each other much. Bulgaria considers Macedonia part of its territory. Macedonia is recognized by the United Nations as Northern Macedonia, since the name Macedonia is claimed by the Greeks. Just another one of the problems in in Balkans.
We walked through the building into the courtyard behind the building. Here we visited the Saint George Rotunda Church. Ротонда „Свети Георги“, is from some where between the 3rd and 7th centuries. It is a red brick rotunda, probably built in the early 4th century as a Roman bath. It became a church inside the walls of Serdica, capital of ancient Dacia Mediterranea during the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The Early Christian church is considered the oldest building in modern Sofia and belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The building is a cylindrical domed structure built on a square base, is famous for the 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-century frescoes inside the central dome. Three layers of frescoes have been discovered, the earliest dating back to the 10th century. Frescoes of 22 prophets over 2 metres tall crown the dome. Painted over during the Ottoman period, when the building was used as a mosque, these frescoes were only uncovered and restored in the 20th century. Unfortunately, it was after 17:00 and the church was closed for the day.
Again, continuing on we walked along the street to a square where we were standing before a statue of Sveta Sofia. She is about 25 feet tall with a gold crown, a bird on one arm and a laurel wreath in the other hand. She is standing on top of a 50 foot pedestal which was, in the communist period, occupied by Lenin. The image is considered too erotic and pagan for a saint. So, it is somewhat controversial.
We walked on, to an archaeological site. Here at the site if the TZUM, metro underground complex, is the Church of St Petka of the Saddlers. It is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church. It is a small one-naved building partially dug into the ground located in the very centre of both the modern and the antique city. The church features a semi-cylindrical vault, a hemispherical apse, and a crypt discovered during excavations after the Second World War. The walls are 1 m thick and made from brick and stone.
Nikolai pointed out that the door is about a meter high. He said this was because the men used to ride their horses into the church, so when they built this church they purposely made then entry too small to right your horse through. This church sits right next to the ruins of a Roman bath house.
The Sofia Public Mineral Baths was built in the early 20th century near the former Turkish bath and was used as the city's public baths until 1986. Prior to that having a bath in your home wasn’t very usual.
Public baths have existed in Sofia since at least the 16th century. During the visit of Bohemian traveler Hans Dernschwam to Sofia in 1553–1555, Derschwam noted the presence of 1 large bath and 2 smaller baths on either side of the city. Dernschwam described the baths as follows:
“The baths are located on the square; there is a big quadrangular building in front by the entrance, with a round Greek-style dome on top, like the Pantheon in Rome. It is richly covered in white marble … The big water conduits that lead the water into the baths are made of potter's clay. Each tube is approximately one Viennese cubit long and the separate tubes go through each other. They are plastered up like I have seen in Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) too, in old buildings in Thorenburg (Turda).”
The current Central Mineral Baths building was designed in the Vienna Secession style, but integrating typically Bulgarian, Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox ornamental elements, by the architects Petko Momchilov and Friedrich Grünangerin 1904–1905 and approved on 30 January 1906, as projects by an Austrian (in 1889) and a French architect (in 1901) were declined. The raw construction was finished in 1908, and a Bulgarian company constructed the complex roof and the mineral water conduit. The baths opened on 13 May 1913, but the building was completely finished after 2 more years, and a garden was arranged in front of the baths. Artists Haralampi Tachev and St. Dimitrov designed the building's ceramic majolica decoration.
The north wing was damaged during the bombing of Sofia in World War II but was restored several years later. Today it is no longer used as a public bath since most people have baths at home now. They are looking to turn it into a museum of some type.
We then walked back to the bus and loaded ourselves up for the trip to the Ramada City Center Hotel. Turns out is is another 4-star communist era hotel, with a casino attached! The room is spartan, the bed is hard and the comforter is about three-quarters the size of the bed. Clean, otherwise comfortable. The people behind the front desk are much nicer.
Dinner tonight is in the hotel and included in the tour. We started with a typical Bulgarian “salad”. Cucumbers, tomatoes, spicy yogurt, a potato salad, rice wrapped in a grape leaf, and a mined meat wrapped in a cabbage leaf. Interesting. It wasn’ all mixed together just presented together no the plate. The main course was a chicken breast with a curry flavored gravy. This was presented with a square of scalloped potatoes with cheese, and accompanied by a “stack” of vegetables. A grilled tomato slice, topped with a grilled green bell pepper, topped by a grilled mushroom, topped by a red bell pepper, grilled of course, and topped again by a bigger grilled mushroom, held in place by a fairly large toothpick. Very good, all of it.
Dessert was a raspberry and cherry compote served over yogurt. Bulgaria produces over 15,000 tons of raspberries a year, and production has been rising. This makes Bulgaria either the second or third largest producer of raspberries in Europe. Bulgarian raspberries said to be preferred because of their taste and high content of active substances. In 2018 Bulgaria hosted the XI World Raspberry Conference. Raspberries are a big thing around here.
Ok, Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria.
Comments