SEEING SOFIA
- Joelle McDonald
- Jun 24, 2023
- 19 min read
Jet-Lagged Morning
This morning I wake up naturally before my alarm. Thinking it must be close to time to get up so I can get my run in, I reach for my phone and flip it over to check. 3:23 AM. What? I lay back down thinking I will easily fall back asleep but soon hunger settled in, my feet hurt, and I needed to pee. I get up to go down to the kitchen and promptly wake up Hannah. It’s impossible to get out of this bed quietly.
After doing everything I thought my body would need to settle in for the rest of the night, I lay wide awake. Three hours later, Hannah and I both haven’t fallen back asleep, and we give up. I finish proofreading Hannah’s blog of our first day and am tempted to crawl back into bed, but I know nothing will come of it. Instead, I start getting ready to run.
Rainy Run Through Borisova Gradina Park
It a gray and rainy morning. The canal outside our apartment that usually looks absurdly large for the trickle running through it was completely filled at around 4:30 this morning (I really hate that I know that. I would prefer the sleep), but now the level has receded a bit. The streets are very quiet as I splash my way down slippery stone streets toward the park we went to yesterday. The park feels nearly empty. I think I went a full mile without seeing anyone, quite a strange thing in a European capital city. I pass the park’s observatory, which is so small and run down that I’d be shocked if anyone still used it. I cross under a road to turn onto the forest trails, which are seriously muddy. I try to be more methodical about the route I take today, so I don’t get lost. I succeed for a while, but once I cross another road into a new section of the park, I have to start watching my dot move on Google maps to have any idea where I am. I only get spooked when I am fully disoriented on a trail Google doesn’t know about in the middle of what feels like the woods, yet only 500 meters or so from the Russian Consulate.
Free Walking Tour of Sofia
When I get back, Hannah and I get ready for a free walking tour of Sofia. It’s pretty neat. They run in English three times every weekday and four on the weekends regardless of weather and/or holidays and all you have to do is show up outside the Palace of Justice on time. We cut it a little close on the “on time” piece but made it with 30 seconds to spare.
The tour covered a lot of ground in 2 hours, literally and figuratively. It would be impossible (and probably not very interesting via a computer screen) to say all that again here, so we will list all the places we went and tell you the highlights. Short on time or interest? Just read up on Sveta Nedelya Church (#2), the Sofia Synagouge (#7), and the Former Communist Party Headquarters (#11). I think those were the most interesting! The story with the National Theater Ivan Vazov (#16) is entertaining too.
Start: Palace of Justice - Ironically, despite the tour starting here, they didn’t actually give us any information on it.
Sveta Nedelya Church - When we were standing outside this church, a baptism was just ending so priests and families were leaving it, which was very interesting to see. This church was built around the 10th century, but this version of it has only been here for 90 years. In 1925 Bulgaria was still a monarchy, but underground communist movements were gaining traction and wanted to assassinate the King. The King, however, had a lot of security, so instead, the communists chose an easier target: the military general. They knew many important elites and royal leaders would come to the general’s funeral, providing the perfect opportunity to assassinate the King. The communists bribed the priests to allow them to place explosives in the church and just as the funeral began, they detonated them, killing 200 people and wounding another 500. To this day, it is the deadliest terror attack in Bulgarian history. However, the attack failed to kill the King. Why? He was running ten minutes late! He had another funeral to attend that morning for his driver (who had been shot days earlier in another failed communist assassination attempt on the King). Being ten minutes was enough to save his life. Now, according to our guide, some Bulgarians claim that being late is good for your health.
Statue of Sofia - This copper and bronze statue stands on a high pedestal overlooking Independence Square (or what was once Lenin Square - read more on that in the Former Community Party Headquarters section). The statue was erected in 2000 as a replacement to the statue of Lenin that used to stand there, gazing directly at the main communist government buildings. St. Sofia was chosen to replace it because she shared her name with the city. Today, you can still see the statue of Lenin in the Museum of Art from the Socialist Period in Sofia. We hope to be able to go before we leave the country for Greece!
Church of St. Petka - this church was built during ottoman rule on top of Roman ruins. During Ottoman rule, churches were not banned, but it was very hard to get permission from the Muslim government to build them. Some communities waited 150 years without an answer. This church was planned by a group of saddle makers, which were the wealthy of the time so they bribed Ottoman officials to get permission to build the church. Eventually they did get permission, much faster than they otherwise would have, but they realized that they had spent all the money for the church on bribes and didn’t have any for materials. In order to build the church, the saddle makers went around the city collecting stones and bricks from other buildings and sites to use for the church. For this reason, the building has many different stone types in its walls, including Roman style bricks which suggests they may have taken some material from the nearby ruins of Roman Serdica.
Largo Square Roman Ruins - This was a main street of the ancient Roman city of Serdica where wealthy elites had their apartments, floor heating included. Most people lived outside the city’s fortress wall and entered the city for commerce during the day; however, the rich lived within its protection. These ruins were found while digging to expand a subway station and were slowly excavated. However, much of them are only ten years old now because, after they were excavated, no drainage was added, so after some rains, they became more like a swamp than ancient ruins and the had to be restored. They even brought in new flooring tiles from Turkey (which apparently just happened to sell them at the best price).
Banya Bashi Mosque - Not much was said about this mosque, but it is one corner of a square of religious temples: the Sveta Nedelya Orthodox Church, a Catholic Church, the Sofia Synagogue, and of course the Mosque. These four religious temples have peacefully coexisted in this very close proximity for centuries, earning the name the “Square of Tolerance.”
Sofia Synagogue - One fact Bulgaria seems particularly proud of is that, despite being allied with Germany during World War II, it saved its entire Jewish population of 50,000 from deportation and execution. After losing a series of wars, including WWI, Bulgaria knew that whatever side it chose during WWII would probably lose, so they tried to stay neutral. Eventually, Italy was struggling in Greece, and the Nazis needed to pass through Bulgaria to provide aid. Germany demanded Bulgaria choose a side so they knew how to approach their passage. Bulgaria agreed to be an Axis ally, being in a bit of a bind and because they offered the most (including the territories of Macedonia and Northern Greece, which is why Bulgaria had fought all those wars they lost). In order to protect the Jewish people of the country, which were a minority but had strong and widespread support across the country, Prime Minister Georgi Kyoseivanov procrastinated their deportation. He said he was using the Jews for labor on infrastructure projects that would benefit the Nazis and that he would begin sending them next month, every month until the end of the war. With that said, Bulgaria did deport Jews from areas it occupied during the war but were not it’s own land (they much less proudly advertise that).
Former Public Bath / Museum of Sofia - This beautiful building is famous for sitting on top of a mineral hot spring, which is how it was chosen as a location for the city bathhouse in 1908. People would come to be scrubbed by the bathhouse workers until they were squeaky clean, then go sit in the warm pools fully naked (though there were different sections for men and women) and chat with their neighbors. Around the 80s the building was left abandoned, but it has since been renovated into a local history museum (notably with no information on the very long and important communist era). Apparently the museum is very disliked amongst locals because they want their bathhouse back (having been to one in Turkey, I can understand why).
Mineral Water Fountains - Despite the bathhouse now being a historically-selective history museum, there is nothing to stop the hot spring water from flowing. Instead, there are numerous water fountains placed around the building that provide a constant stream of the water, where locals often fill up their bottles. The water is believed to be good for the kidneys and liver.
The Roman City’s Eastern Gate - Today you have to walk under the modern streets to see the old city entrance. Here you can see the walls are 2 meters thick and 8 meters wide. Usually cities like Sofia would have much weaker fortress walls, but because Sofia doesn’t have many hills immediately close to protect it, the Romans built stronger defenses.
Former Communist Party Headquarters - During WWII, under pressure to declare war after allying with the Axis powers, Bulgaria declared what it considered a “symbolic” war on the United States and Britain. Bulgaria was a very small, distant (Russia was too close to declare a “symbolic” war on), and rather unimportant country on the global level. Unfortunately for Bulgaria, the US and UK didn’t share the same mindset and started dropping “not so symbolic bombs” on Sofia. These bombs destroyed about 1/3 of the city (although I’m not sure if that meant 1/3 of the whole city or 1/3 of downtown and government buildings). From those ruins, as a communist regime emerged, new municipal buildings were constructed in the Stalinist style. This building was the main communist government building, topped with a red star and directly opposite of the statue of Lenin’s gaze. People believed the red star was made of rubies like Moscow’s, so when it came down after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many gathered to try to get a piece to sell. There was huge disappointment when everyone realized it was only red glass.
Council of Ministers - This building was also a part of Lenin Square constructed in the wake of WWII. This is where many offices of the state operated to plan the economy.
Presidency - This building was not particularly grand considering it’s the home of the president, but the president in Bulgaria is supposed to be more or less symbolic so perhaps that makes sense. However, in the last two years there have been five national elections and none have produced a stable government. In the meantime, the president has created some temporary government structures to run the country, so he has more power than he typically would. The last election was about two weeks ago and apparently it doesn’t look particularly promising but maybe it will pull together after all.
St George Rotunda - This is the oldest standing building in the city (I think…). It was an old bath house with the large rotunda used to regulate the temperature of the water coming from the hot springs and many rooms used for treatments and pools. Those got turned into apartments for important visitors later (maybe during the ottoman times?) with luxurious heated floors. Eventually, the rotunda was converted to a church, then a mosque, then back to a church until the communists planned to tear it down and build a parking garage. Ultimately, that didn’t go through, so instead, they hid the building from site by surrounding it entirely with a communist government building that today hosts the presidency.
City Garden - This garden is somewhat small but was very busy with families and others strolling about. There was a well stocked balloon cart near the very long and very beautiful fountain leading to the National Theater.
National Theater Ivan Vazov - This theater was constructed in the honor of a Bulgarian playwrite while he was still alive and living just down the street. It is an ornate building with the city garden’s fountain leading up to it and many carvings accented in gold. One interesting, unplanned gold accent is on the carved baby, where his… male anatomy… is painted gold. When the building was being painted, one of the people working on it thought it would be funny to make that little addition. His “creative expression” did not go unpunished but the gold paint was never removed. It is also believed that the playwrite, who used young women as muses for his work, died in his 70s while making love to one. The tour guide then said if that is true he must have been “the luckiest Bulgarian ever” between that and his career success.
National Gallery (Former Royal Palace) - This building was constructed in the days of Ottoman occupation and contained most of the civil functions of the city's government, like the police force. When Bulgaria became a monarchy, it was offered to the King as a residence as it was the largest and nicest building available. The communist party converted it into an art gallery during their regime and it remains that to this day.
Russian Church - For some reason, nothing was said about this very pretty church during the tour, but we did go by it. Click here to read about it if you are interested.
St. Sophia Basilica - This somewhat simple church was built in Roman times and gave the city its name. It was constructed to be tall and visible against the surrounding landscape (I think it’s at the highest point in the city) so as travelers approached the city they would say “There is Sofia” when they saw the church instead of the city’s ancient name “Serdica.” Eventually the name Sofia was adopted. This church became a fire station due to its high vantage point but has since been converted back to a church.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - This site is just around the corner of the St. Sofia Basilica. Originally, a large statue of a lion was chosen for the memorial, as lions are a symbol of Bulgaria and its strength. However, when the lion was unveiled people thought it was too skinny to be a true, strong Bulgarian lion, so it was taken away. Now there is a white stone memorial with an eternal flame and the lion has returned. People didn’t mind it once the lion wasn’t the whole memorial.
End: St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - This cathedral is named after a Russian patron saint chosen by Peter the Great, a Russian emperor, meaning that St. Alexander Nevsky has nothing to do with the Sofia’s history. Instead, as an act of gratitude to Peter the Great for leading the Bulgarian Army against an enemy (I don’t remember who), they built the cathedral in honor of his patron saint. Today, it is the largest cathedral in the Balkans, but Romania is currently constructing one that is three times taller, which is hard to imagine.
Bonus: In our group, if you got a question right, our guide would reward you with a Bulgarian candy. The ones on offer were mint hard candies that tasted like cough drops, but weren't bad. I won two for Hannah and I with correct answers for the questions "What used to be on the top of the Former Communist Party Headquarters?" (a red star) and "What was the original purpose of the building that is now the Museum of Sofia?" (a bath house).
Afternoon Break
We make our way back to our Airbnb after the tour, exhausted and hungry. We stop to go inside the cathedral since our tour only went to all the buildings without going in them. It is beautiful with incredibly high ceilings and attentively painted frescos. I don’t have any pictures of the inside to show you because you have to pay to take photos, so you’ll just have to take our word for it. Back at our apartment, we hungrily scarf down leftover pasta from yesterday and consider what to do with the rest of the day. Our walking tour of Sofia was so fun and interesting that after a bit of consideration we decide to go on a paid walking tour operated by the same company this afternoon about the communist era in Bulgaria. We have just enough time for me to lay down for 20 minutes before we go, which go by way too fast.
Tour of Sofia's Communist History
Meeting our Group
Once again, we make it just on time to our tour. When we arrive, the group that is assembled has a much different vibe than the one from our more general morning tour. We sit down to wait next to a group of four twenty-something guys engaged in deep discussion about American politics. Among them is an American, a Brit, a South Korean, and an Argentinian. The conversation seems to center around the lack of respect for institutions and leaders in the US and deciding if that is a trend amongst other well-established democracies. The Argentinian says that if he were an American he would vote for Trump because he did good things for the economy, despite Trump’s disregard for democratic institutions. Hannah and I enjoy listening to their debate without chiming in.
Introduction to the Communist Era
The tour begins at a communist-era hotel to demonstrate the style of construction used at the time. These Soviet-style apartments and hotels are all over the city: simple, functional, and very bleak. Here Marxism-Leninism is explained to us and we are told Bulgaria never technically achieved true communism, it was a socialist government that aimed to reach total communism but fell short. According to our guide, no government has ever reached true communism. The communism era (or technically socialism era) of Bulgaria lasted from September 9, 1944 to November 10, 1989.
Religion and Communism
We move to a nearby church that, like the St. George Rotunda, is closely surrounded by a communist-era building. There is even a useless concrete slab of the building that just obscures the cross on the front of the church from the street. During communist times, going to church was never illegal, but it was highly discouraged. People feared they would face consequences in their career if they were found to be religious. On Christmas and Easter, the two days when the largest number of Bulgarians would normally go to church, there was an elevated police presence outside all the churches to instill fear in people, though they never actually did anything. Additionally, the one TV station in the country, which was state-owned and only played Russian or other communist-made movies, would play American Hollywood movies only on Christmas and Easter to encourage people to stay home. Our guide says one of his grandmothers never stopped going to church during the communist regime, and she never faced any consequences.
The Secret Police and Reporting
Our next stop is a small, unmarked black door in an alley with stairs with a bar and dance studio on one side and what looks like apartments on the other. It seems a strange place to stop, and it isn’t immediately obvious what we are here to talk about. Apparently, this black door was central to the communist security forces operations. Behind that door, there is a large series of tunnels and rooms that were used for questioning by the Bulgarian equivalent of the KGB. The building above the black door (and above the bar) held the archives of reporting and intelligence gathered by those secret police. Our guide’s great grandfather was sent to a communist labor camp for six months during the regime and refused to talk about it, so his family never knew why. After the regime fell and his great grandfather passed away, his dad looked in these archives for information as to why he had been sent to a labor camp, but he came up empty handed. Apparently once the regime fell and the archives were opened, the extent of neighbors reporting on other neighbors to the communist government was realized. Giving tips to the government was one of the only ways to gain special favor, so it was said, in a group of four, if you weren’t spying on anyone then someone was spying on you.
The Umbrella Assassination
We move out of the alley to a quieter spot to hear the next story of a Bulgarian play-write, Georgi Markov. At the time, all plays had to be submitted to the government for approval based on their themes and messaging, which the play-write hated. He, however, was very close with Todor Zhivkov, a communist party leader. He used that connection to get very rare permission to leave the country and visit his brother in Italy. Once he was out of Bulgaria, he never came back, eventually moving to London and speaking out vocally against communism in general and in Bulgaria. In 1977, the Bulgarian government decided something had to be done about him, so when the play-write was walking along a bridge in London, he passed someone with an umbrella and immediately felt something strange in his leg. Hours later, he was hospitalized for ricin poisoning as he kept repeating something along the lines of “Umbrella, umbrella.” He died four days later. It’s believed that a poisonous dart was shot at him from an umbrella-disguised weapon. More interesting still, he was poisoned on the birthday of Todor Zhivkov, the government friend who allowed him to leave the country in the first place. Coincidence? Who can say…
Mausoleum for Georgi Dimitrov: Rise and Fall
Our next stop is in a park just across from the former royal palace-turned art gallery. We stop in front of a concrete slab surrounded in temporary medal gates. We again aren’t sure what exactly we are here to talk about. Our guide allows us to be confused for a moment before he begins explaining that the site we are here for was once a mausoleum but has since been destroyed. Part of the site’s history is that there isn’t one anymore. In Russia, there is a mausoleum in honor of Lenin, and Bulgaria wanted one to honor a communist hero of their own. Upon the death of Georgi Dimitrov during an official visit to Russia (again, coincidence?), the government moved quickly to construct a mausoleum. It took only six days to construct, doubled as a bomb shelter, and connected to a network of communist tunnels under the city. Impressive! The body was mummified by the same person who mummified the body of Lenin and it very much was constructed in imitation of Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow. It was a point of pride for Bulgaria. It was even built into the Bulgarian school curriculum: every first grade class took a field trip to it.
For May Day there were always parades through the city that passed by the mausoleum, where officers of the communist government would always stand as guards in celebration of the parade. One year that tradition was broken. On May 1, 1986 the parade came by as celebratory as ever—even despite the bit of rain falling—and found there were no government officials standing at the mausoleum and no information given as to why. It turned out that parade was just days after the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant disaster. There was a massive radioactive cloud over Europe and the drizzle of a storm was exposing everyone outside in the parade to radiation poisoning. The Russian government had kept the disaster quiet so only top government officials knew and chose not to go to the parade. The rest of the public found out months later and was enraged. Our guide said his grandfather’s garden produced wonderfully huge vegetables compared to a typical year, but when he finally got word about Chernobyl, he we devastated that he had fed them to his family.
Finally, the guide tells us the story of the destruction of the mausoleum, which also took six days, though it was intended to take only a moment. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the communist regime in Bulgaria, the people wanted the monument gone. The radioactive rain incident may also have contributed to the people’s readiness for the monument to be gone. The monument was filled with bombs and the detonation was televised. It was the type of national moment that you could ask anyone about today and they could tell you where they were when they watched it happen. When the highly anticipated explosion to destroy the mausoleum went off… well… nothing happened. It was a bomb shelter after all. It became a national joke for many and, for supporters of communism, it was used as evidence that communism was too strong to be destroyed. After multiple attempts to blow up the mausoleum, bulldozers were brought in to finally level it.
Soviet Hero Statue
Our next stop, I promise we are getting toward the end here, is a monument to Soviet soldiers thanking them for liberating Bulgaria. It shows a large and victorious Soviet soldier with a much smaller Bulgarian man, woman, and child on either side, high over the park on a pedestal. On two separate non-elevated statues in front of the victorious Soviet are Bulgarians welcoming Soviet soldiers with hugs and kisses. Waking around the side of the pedestal of the Soviet soldier statue is another one, depicting many Soviet soldiers as hero’s. Hints of yellow and blue paint streak its bronze, much like streaks of red pain ran down one of the statues of Bulgarians embracing with Soviet soldiers. This monument is highly controversial among Bulgarians and has been the target of vandalism for years. Many Bulgarians strongly dislike Russia and its actions during this century. It has been painted to look like the Avengers heroes, painted entirely in red, and painted in the colors of Ukraine. Since the war in Ukraine began, what were once occasional vandal attacks have become almost nightly, with the yellow and blue paint left half heartedly cleaned off in the mornings. The Russian embassy even successfully demanded a security camera be placed facing the most often vandalized statue of the Soviet War Heroes.
Achievements of the Communist Era
By this point, we have heard a lot of negative stories from the communist era, but the tour was designed to give a balanced and as-complete-as-possible view of the communist era, so we learn about some of the achievements of the time. Education was perhaps one of the most impressive accomplishments, with the literacy rate soaring from about 30% to 99% and free schools and universities opened all over the country. Of course, a fair bit of propaganda was included in the curriculum. Healthcare also took off with completely free medical care and very well trained doctors. When the regime fell, many of the doctors left the country to work all over the world, so the quality and accessibility of healthcare declined post-communism. During the communist era, there was also very low unemployment, sometimes even 0%, but this meant that sometimes five people would do the work of two and do it very inefficiently. According to our guide, what he thinks was one of the greatest achievements of communism, which more or less persists today, is the closure of the gender pay gap. Under socialist principles, everyone got the same pay for the same job with no consideration of gender. Today, Bulgaria has one of the lowest gender pay gaps in the world. The final fact that we learned, and which shocked us as we begin to consider what it will take to someday own a home of our own, is that 90% of Bulgarians are homeowners. The communist government allowed for the private purchase of apartments (with some restrictions) and, with the housing boom of communist era apartments and government regulation, they were very affordable. Today, the positive legacy of those private homeownership policies continues.
Memorial of Victims of the Communist Era and The Berlin Wall
Our final stop is by the main pedestrian street in a packed park. We are here to see a culture building that was constructed during communist times, but honestly its story didn’t really stick with me (despite the guide saying it is arguably the most important building in Sofia). Instead, our stops in the park to see a very understated memorial to the victims of the communist era and a piece of the Berlin Wall resonate a lot more. The memorial doesn’t seem to do justice to the amount of suffering inflicted on the Bulgarian people by the communist regime. Just past the memorial we have our final stop: a piece of the Berlin Wall that was gifted to the city in honor of the impact it had on the nation.
End of the Day
FINALLY, our tours are over. Both of them were so interesting but our brains are stuffed. We are so glad we did both tours, and we would highly recommend them to anyone. We get back to our apartment wiped. My total mileage for the day between my run and all the walking was almost 17 miles! Hannah kindly makes dinner while I shower. When we sit down to eat, I am so hungry that I eat through half a bowl of our white rice, squash, onion, and white bean combination that is for dinner before realizing how gross it is. It only took Hannah one bite. Many of our typical staple foods weren’t available at the grocery store down the street, so we thought those ingredients may be enough to scrape together a meal, despite it not sounding great. Turns out it was not meal worthy. We choke down just enough to be properly fed Hannah just ate rice)—laughing at even thinking this would be good—before turning in for a well deserved night of rest.
I love the World War II history. Hannah, the recipe seemed sound! A sense of humor is priceless! Hope you get some rest, Ladies! Are you also hiking in Albania?
I love how you are digging into the history and culture. Great recap.
I love how Sofia got its name! I need to read up more about Bulgaria and WWII. How interesting! Did you join in with the locals dancing now that you are experts?! :)