A WEEKEND IN SOFIA
The capital of Bulgaria was named after the Church of St. Sofia. This is the oldest Orthdox Church in the city and was built in the mid-6th century AD. The Ottomans added minarets when they used this as a mosque in the 16th century. Most of the building was destroyed by earthquakes in the 19th century and the church was completely rebuilt in 1900. They are currently undergoing more renovations as they are opening up access to the crypts buried under the building.
As many of you know, I visited Sofia for two days this past summer. While I saw most of the things I will post here, I saw them without jetlag this time. We stayed at a university-owned apartment in central Sofia. I actually said "oborvishte chetiridecet e dve" to the taxi driver at the bus station and it worked!
Most of our first day was spent grading (Do I need to say this again? DO NOT teach on your sabbatical). After that we ventured out into the very busy streets of Sofia. Our first stop was at the building shown here that holds two museums: The Enthographic Museum and The National Gallery of Art. The former has displays of Bulgarian arts and crafts from the past 300 years. Our favorite exhibits were those showing the clothing/costumes and embroidery. The National Gallery had paintings from only the last 100 years or so and featured some good impressionist works. While both museums were nice, Brent and I found ourselves looking more at the ceiling and floor. The building we were in was the old Royal Palace (built in 1887). The parquet floors were magnicificent with inlaid oak and walnut carvings. We felt a bit guilty walking over it.
Across the street is the Presidential Palace. Every hour there is a changing of the guard outside. The soldiers do a nice high-stepping march out and across the entry. If you walk through the opening you enter a courtyard that faces the Sheraton hotel. More interesting is that in the middle of this courtyard is the oldest preserved building in Sofia. The Church of St. George was originally built as a rotunda by the Romans in the 2nd or 3rd century BC but was converted into a church during the Middle Ages. It was destroyed by the Huns, then underwent rebuilding in both the 6th century and 20th century. There are three layers of murals painted inside from the 10th to the 14th century.
I have to be honest--one of my favorite places in Sofia is Onda, the Bulgarian Starbucks. Actually, I don't think its a chain, and the pastries are much better than Starbucks, but the coffee drink selections seem to match. Bulgarians make great cappucinos. It's just that we are so used to GRANDE drinks that one cappucino never seems quite enough. Another pretty cool thing about Onda is that it is right across the street from theh Sveta Nedelya Cathedral.
This is considered to be one the THE landmarks in the city. It was built in the mid 1800s on foundations of the Roman city of Ulpia Serdica. The cathedral is particularly ornate. One interesting note about this site: it was rebuilt in 1925 following a bomb attack by a communist group attempting to kill Tsar Boris III. He survived, but over 120 people, including most of his cabinet, did not. This is a very busy church as streams of newly-weds come by to have their picture taken both outside and in. It reminded us of St. Petersburg where newly married couples go to the statue of Peter the Great for their photos. Needless to say, we went through several coffees while watching these groups stop by (oh, and they are WiFi).
We'll sign off with a picture of one of the buildings often seen on postcards of Sofia (you are going to think from our blog that we are on the "church tour of Europe"). This is the Aleksander Nevski Church. It is the largest of its kind in the Balkans. Built at the turn of the 20th century, it is a memorial to the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria's independence during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78.
The American University in Bulgaria begins its semester break at the end of this week. That must mean its time for Brent and I to hit the road. We travel to Prague this weekend and Budapest next week. See you on the flip side--the 25th is Hump Day.
The capital of Bulgaria was named after the Church of St. Sofia. This is the oldest Orthdox Church in the city and was built in the mid-6th century AD. The Ottomans added minarets when they used this as a mosque in the 16th century. Most of the building was destroyed by earthquakes in the 19th century and the church was completely rebuilt in 1900. They are currently undergoing more renovations as they are opening up access to the crypts buried under the building.
As many of you know, I visited Sofia for two days this past summer. While I saw most of the things I will post here, I saw them without jetlag this time. We stayed at a university-owned apartment in central Sofia. I actually said "oborvishte chetiridecet e dve" to the taxi driver at the bus station and it worked!
Most of our first day was spent grading (Do I need to say this again? DO NOT teach on your sabbatical). After that we ventured out into the very busy streets of Sofia. Our first stop was at the building shown here that holds two museums: The Enthographic Museum and The National Gallery of Art. The former has displays of Bulgarian arts and crafts from the past 300 years. Our favorite exhibits were those showing the clothing/costumes and embroidery. The National Gallery had paintings from only the last 100 years or so and featured some good impressionist works. While both museums were nice, Brent and I found ourselves looking more at the ceiling and floor. The building we were in was the old Royal Palace (built in 1887). The parquet floors were magnicificent with inlaid oak and walnut carvings. We felt a bit guilty walking over it.
Across the street is the Presidential Palace. Every hour there is a changing of the guard outside. The soldiers do a nice high-stepping march out and across the entry. If you walk through the opening you enter a courtyard that faces the Sheraton hotel. More interesting is that in the middle of this courtyard is the oldest preserved building in Sofia. The Church of St. George was originally built as a rotunda by the Romans in the 2nd or 3rd century BC but was converted into a church during the Middle Ages. It was destroyed by the Huns, then underwent rebuilding in both the 6th century and 20th century. There are three layers of murals painted inside from the 10th to the 14th century.
I have to be honest--one of my favorite places in Sofia is Onda, the Bulgarian Starbucks. Actually, I don't think its a chain, and the pastries are much better than Starbucks, but the coffee drink selections seem to match. Bulgarians make great cappucinos. It's just that we are so used to GRANDE drinks that one cappucino never seems quite enough. Another pretty cool thing about Onda is that it is right across the street from theh Sveta Nedelya Cathedral.
This is considered to be one the THE landmarks in the city. It was built in the mid 1800s on foundations of the Roman city of Ulpia Serdica. The cathedral is particularly ornate. One interesting note about this site: it was rebuilt in 1925 following a bomb attack by a communist group attempting to kill Tsar Boris III. He survived, but over 120 people, including most of his cabinet, did not. This is a very busy church as streams of newly-weds come by to have their picture taken both outside and in. It reminded us of St. Petersburg where newly married couples go to the statue of Peter the Great for their photos. Needless to say, we went through several coffees while watching these groups stop by (oh, and they are WiFi).We'll sign off with a picture of one of the buildings often seen on postcards of Sofia (you are going to think from our blog that we are on the "church tour of Europe"). This is the Aleksander Nevski Church. It is the largest of its kind in the Balkans. Built at the turn of the 20th century, it is a memorial to the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria's independence during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78.
The American University in Bulgaria begins its semester break at the end of this week. That must mean its time for Brent and I to hit the road. We travel to Prague this weekend and Budapest next week. See you on the flip side--the 25th is Hump Day.
posted by WarnerSteel at 2:47 AM
