Europe

The National Gallery of Bulgaria Sofia

We said goodbye to Plovdiv and drove to Sophia where our comfortable hotel was right across the road from a very large art gallery: the National Gallery of Bulgaria.

National Gallery of Bulgaria
The collection is huge
Many are portraits, of people mysterious to me. And again, the artists are mostly unknown to me too
One exception being Aristide Mailliol
Click on the image to see the full album

Probably the most commanding building in Sofia is the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky
Yet, inside it's rather dull, as Orthodox churches go.
It contains a very large void, dwarfing the surrounding icons and frescoes, that are dulled by candle smoke
I can't show you, as they wanted 10Lev to take a photo - and I was put-out after
a churchperson insisted that I put on long pants before I could gain entry.

Boyana Church

Among the tours one can take out of Sofia is a bus tour to  the 'culturally important' Rila Monastery.  We opted not to spend most of our day on a bus to see another monastery but noted that the tour also stopped at: Boyana Church, "a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church," in the outer suburbs, that we could easily drive our rental car to.

It turned out to be a, recently restored, UNESCO World Heritage Site and quite interesting. We were pleased that we didn't take the organised tour. It would have been problematic to visit with a busload, as entry to the church is three or four people at a time (about a dozen inside) and a second wait in the Annex. Even when it's not busy it involves a half hour wait to be allowed through the tiny wooden door.  

The church owes its world fame to its frescoes, most from 1259
"They form a second layer over the paintings from earlier centuries and represent one of the most complete
and well-preserved monuments of medieval art in the Balkans."
Needless to say, no photographs were allowed inside (but you can see some of them on-line here)
The grave (top right) is of Queen Eleonore of Bulgaria

The grounds are also historic and include the grave of Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz (22 August 1860 – 12 September 1917) Tsaritsa (much loved Queen consort of Ferdinand I) of Bulgaria.

Interestingly, the gave is a restoration.  Wikipedia tells us that: during the Communist period, "the grave was broken into, her jewelry stolen and then the memorial stone bulldozed back in the grave, with no visible marks left over the ground. However, after the democratic changes in 1989, the original memorial stone was excavated and the site was restored back to the original state."

Sofia Communist Tour

To get some more historical information and to see something of the city we joined a three-and-a-half hour Sofia Communist walking tour of the city.

Initially it was raining, but the sky cleared and a party of around 20 set out. 

"The tour covers a 45-year-long period of Bulgarian history (1944 – 1989), including the factors that led to it, its aftermath, and how it affects present-day Bulgaria."  In particular, it claims that participants will "Find out what it was like on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain"  And: "Our main goal is to present this controversial period of history in an objective and informative way," we were advised.

The tour included the main landmarks of communist history in the city of Sofia: Former Headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party; Secret Police Investigation Facility; the location of the destroyed Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum (an amazing story - click on the link - it was still there in 2020 but is no more in 2024); the Monument of the Soviet Army (almost as bizarre - particularly as Bulgaria had already switched sides, as explained above, so no Soviet troops were required - it too is disappearing, by degrees); the National Palace of Culture, the Memorial to the Victims of the Communist Regime, and Berlin Wall memorial.

Monument of the Soviet Army; A remaining Hammer and Sickle (most have bee taken down):
The President's Palace; and part of the Berlin Wall
The inscription says: 
On August 13, 1961, a wall divided Berlin, Germany, and with it, Europe and the world in two.
Bulgaria remained enclosed to the east of this wall - until November 9, 1989, when the people knocked it down.
This broken piece of the Berlin Wall is a gift from the Berliners to the citizens of Sofia as a sign of a reunited Europe and proof that the Bulgarians are now free.
Berlin, May 2006

The walking tour assured us that we would "learn about the theory of communism, what Marxism-Leninism is, the history of communism in Bulgaria, and the pros and cons of the period. Topics also include World War 2, religion, industry, economy, housing, culture and everyday life of the Bulgarian people."

We enjoyed it.

Changing of the Guard

At the Presidential Palace we were in time for the changing of the guard. 

Changing of the guard in Sofia

Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker - much prettier inside than the huge Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Much more interesting than the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky is the nearby Saint Sofia Church, the oldest church in Sofia, dating from the fourth century.
In the 14th century, the Byzantine church gave its name to the city, that was previously known as Serdika. 

It's both older and newer than the nearby cathedral.  It's on the site of a Roman necropolis that has since been excavated under the present building, allowing public access.

Church of Saint Sofia - built over a Roman necropolis
The site spans the pre-Christian; Byzantine; Ottoman (when it became a mosque - destroyed by two earthquakes and abandoned)
to eventually be renovated and restored as a church, in the early 20th century

Absolutely fascinating.

It's just one of many Byzantine remnants around Sofia.  But, of course, Sofia is a world capital and despite all the churches, worshipers are relatively few.  As elsewhere, cathedrals to Mammon also abound and are much better patronised.

A Shopping Mall in Sofia  (Click on the image above to see the full Bulgaria album)

 On the whole, we can recommend Bulgaria.  From Sofia, after returning the car, we flew out to London.