Sofia

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, lies in the Sofia plain, enclosed by the Balkan Range Mountain to the north, and Mount Vitosha to the south. A city with a 7000-year-old history where excavations in its very centre bring up objects from Neolithic man, and remnants of the stone and bronze era, Sofia was a settlement for Thracians, Romans, Bulgarians, Byzantines and Ottoman. Several buildings and most of the sites of particular interest are found in the center of Sofia within easy walking distance of each other: the Church of St Nedelya, the 13 century Chapel of St Petka Paraskeva- a medieval foundation dwarfed beneath turn-of-the-century buildings, the Banya Bashi Mosque near Sofia's mineral baths, the sunken Church of St Petka Samardzhiiska originally built in the 14 century, the 4th century Rotonda of St George-Sofia's oldest church, the Russian Church, the National Assembly, the National Art Gallery and the Ethnographic Museum housed in the former royal palace. One of the finest pieces of architecture on the Balkans and certainly Sofia's crowning glory, is the Alexander Nevski Memorial Cathedral honouring the Russsian casualties of the 1877-78 War of Liberation. Nearby is the Church of St Sofia dating from late Roman times believed to have given its name to the capital. Sofia's liveliest areas include the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the monument of Cyril and Metodii in front of the National Library, the National Palace of Culture.