This is a picture of the original gates to the city when it was still Sardica, the military capital of the Byzantine Empire. Excavations were everywhere in Sofia and they weren't really roped off or anything. The new just mingles with the old. For example, these gate excavations are in the center of an underground public transit terminal. They are for everyone to enjoy as part of their daily life.
Here is a picture of the ruins of a church built by Justinian. That's right--Justinian. The guy that made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. On the left you can see the new building. Unfortunately, Justinian's church was damaged by fire and earthquakes so these ruins are all that is left. The "new" building was built in the 1800s.
This is the yellow brick road you follow to all of the important sites in the central city. I'd also like to add (because I have no pictures of the church) that the church where we went to the Orthodox worship service was the site of the greatest act of terrorism of the 20th century. You see, during the first few (failed) Socialist revolutions in Bulgaria, the Socialists killed a very important government leader in their attempt to kill the King. When the entire government went to the church for the man's funeral, they blew up the church in an effort to wipe out the entire government at once. Fortunately, they again failed to kill the King, but they did kill many, many people--and so, you have the greatest act of terrorism (world-wide) of the 20th century.
Sofia was founded as a city because it has 7 natural mineral springs under it. The first settlers thought this was great. The water is hot and locals still get all of the water from the public fountains above the springs. This is a picture of Nathan filling up our water bottle with delicious warm water that was really welcome on a cold day. And no worries....we had to wait in line behind locals to get this water and, you know, when in Rome....It tasted really great.
More ruins. This is behind the mosque and these are the excavated ruins of some of the original Turkish baths from the Ottoman Period.
This is the beautiful brickwork from around the Turkish baths. One of the things I love about Bulgaria is how the bricks you walk on are so beautiful (when they aren't covered with litter).
Remember Chupa Chups and how cool they were in middle school? Here's a building-sized ad for them...
So...in a nutshell...that's some Sofia sights. We didn't make it to the huge Orthodox church or the museums. We plan on doing that when we go back with my Archaeology class next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment