| Page Views: 2,065 Last Visit to Sofia: - | Scarlie's Sofia Page by Scarlie - last update: Dec 27, 2004 |
| She Grows but Doesn't Age |
The City Sofia's history goes back several millennia to long before the Romans came and conquered our lands. It is said to be the second oldest city in Europe. The city's motto is "She grows but does not age", and as you go around, you can see remnants from different eras.
The first written name of the city is Serdica -- after the Thracian Serdi tribe who settled here in the 7th c. BC. The Byzantinians called it Triaditsa and the Slavs - Sredets.
The town was a regional centre in the Eastern province of the Roman Empire, and was accordingly fortified (some remains can be found under the Presidency and across the square in the Archeological Museum). There were several Imperial roads passing thru -- one to Constantinople, the other north'-bound to the present-day village of Gigen (which is thought to be the outmost post of the province).
Spartacus (yes, the gladiator before "The Gladiator") is also thought to have come from this region (but I bet there are a lot of other places who claim the same fame).
The modern city of Sofia was named in the 14th century after the Greek basilica St. Sofia. In Greek, "sofia" means wisdom, but the city was named after a Greek princess, who was coming to the town to improve her poor health.
The city, however, became a capital only after the liberation from the Ottoman Empire at the end of 18th century. This did cause quite a furrore at the time: Sofia was a rather small provincial place and way behind the old-capital Veliko Turnovo, and the much bigger and modern cities of Plovdiv and Russe. They still haven't forgiven us! ;-)
Please check my Travelogue for the City Centre tour. Happy walking!!
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Local Customs Most of the local customs are not specific to Sofia, but to Bulgaria as a whole. I haven't got the time yet to create my Bulgaria page.
Some of the tips are of the "Do & Don't" and "How to" type, but I have started adding bits about traditional festivities - those have the dates next to them. In most cases the Bulgarian names & terms are given to help you along.
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Questions, Questions... If you have questions about Bulgarian customs or festivities, history or other, just drop me a line and I'll do my best to explain.
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| Pros: | " Sofia is beautiful, sunny, green and manageable" | | Cons: | " Can be noisy, dirty and polluted, not to mention the taxi drivers" |
Scarlie's Sofia Travel Tips
 Scarlie's Sofia Travelogues | | | |
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 Comments for Scarlie about Sofia | | | | |
combat18 Sat Apr 29, 2006 13:03 UTC
thank you very much for all your information about bulgaria i have been 5 times lasy and i will return in june 06 to buy an apartment in sofia many thanks as i am still learning about bulgaria......:)) | desert_princess Mon Oct 24, 2005 19:49 UTC
very well written...congratulations!! I would move the "local customs" on the Bulgaria page as they apply for the whole country. there's a "Move to other Page" that transfers the whole tip | bijo69 Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:12 UTC
Excellent Local Customs part!!!! | onecut Fri Dec 10, 2004 21:01 UTC
great page on Bulgaria |
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