The church at 7:53 is also from the 4th century and is named Saint (Sveta) Sofia or Hagia Sofia. It gave the name to the city (formally known as Serdika and Sredets) during the Ottoman times. The church is quite an important one. Search for The Council of Serdica in 343 AD.
Bulgaria is a strong mix between East and West, but the Ottomans and Soviets destroyed many many buildings and the English destroyed many of the buildings in Sofia during the wars. We have an obsession with Germany simply because we were your allies during the wars and also based on you for economical reasons. Sofia looks a bit too soviet, but getting more modern. Plovdiv is the crazy mix of civilizations. Few people know that the 3rd largest synagogue is actually in Sofia after Amsterdam and Budapest. There is one which is renovated in Vidin by the Danube and looks very beautiful. I think Burgas is much better than Varna, but with a smaller population size but their town has really cool vibes. Finally, our former capital during the second Bulgarian empire is also very cool. It is not big anymore. We had 2 empires but conquerered by so many people simply because of geography. Also, Austria is an important trading partner, again for historical reasons. If you visit the city of Ruse, we call it the little Vienna because of the infrastructure. Sofia is actually derived from the old Hellenic name of wisedom because our alphabet is borrowed from the old Greek. Our president is a former professional army pilot. Compared to Latvia, we usually are probably a bit more liberal with Russians because they contributed to the liberation from the Ottomans and also the language is close in more written form. Russia considers Bulgaria us many time as the unofficial 16th Soviet state. Appreciate that you are able to read Cyrillic, which is where it was invented in Bulgaria. The trams are Czech, the newer trolleybuses are Polish and the newer metro line is German.
Thanks for all the infos; I figured that there must have been many more older houses in the past before the wars happened. We later visited the synagouge, it's a really beautiful, impressive building too. Compared to Varna, Sofia felt a lot more modern to me, especially in terms of infrastructure. Also I'd like to apologize for my country Austria for not letting you and Romania join Schengen; it's just a stupid political thing at the moment since we have elections coming up in autumn. It's nothing personal, actually Bulgaria is a very important market for a lot of Austrian companies. But stupid politicians are stupid I guess..
I am amazed you returned to Bulgaria. Although you should've visited Sofia during summer again when it's all green and there's always something going on in the parks. Also like 60% of the buildings in the centre were built in late 19th- early 20th century and more interestingly by Austrian and Czech architects. Almost no building in the central parts is from the communist period. Even these gray old ones are from the early 20th century. The national bank isn't a communist building, it's from 1935. So you could even say it's something like Third Reich architecture.
I quite enjoyed Sofia in Winter too; yes,, most cities look a bit more dull when there are no leafs on the trees and it's cold but we still had a great few days. I'm starting to like Bulgaria as a country; I'll for sure come back in the not too distant future ;)
Next time you should finish the trip you started in your previous vlogs. And explore the southern area of the coastline - go to Sozopol, Dyuni, Arkutino, Primorsko, Kiten, Sinemoretz, Lozenets, Rezovo etc.. I strongly suggest going to the beaches there , they're different than the ones you saw in the north. The climate and fauna in the south is different and feels more Mediterranean.
Next time when you visit sofia make sure to visit the military academy georgi rakovski wich fence is build with the barrels of the rifles that liberated bulgaria and the spiritual seminary(theological seminary)of sofia,also the journalist,chemistry and the biology faculties of sofia univercity,all this are litle hidden from the downtown but if you have enough time it is possible,the national bank is build before comunism it is in modernism style famous between ww1 and ww2,the bank dates from the 30s ,at this time there were not much money because of the wars and the details on the buildings arround europe were gone😂thats why it is a litle strange ,from the back side there are beautiful statues and inside is very unique,you can google all the buildings i told you about
Old beautiful buildings are deliberatley neglected and left to fall appart with years ,so they can be demolished and to build new luxury hotels or office buildings because most of them are in downtown, where square meter is arround 5000-6000 euros,so if you walk in sofia centre and you see some old lady that looks she live with 300euros a month this is not the case,cause she probably owns an apartment that worth millions😂other case is when a homeless person 😉put some of the buildings on fire ,like the case with the famous tzar stables in sofia,that spark a huge scandal,and about ivan vazov he is called the patriarch of the bulgarian literature and was nominated for nobel prize arround ww1,along with another bulgarian writer pencho slaveikov the guy on 50 lev bill,and the person on 10 leva bill doctor peter beron invented the first electronic device for recognising the gender of the baby in the 19th century and wrote the first bulgarian school textbook
The church at 7:53 is also from the 4th century and is named Saint (Sveta) Sofia or Hagia Sofia. It gave the name to the city (formally known as Serdika and Sredets) during the Ottoman times. The church is quite an important one. Search for The Council of Serdica in 343 AD.
Super video my mate! 😀 Greetings from Poland 🇵🇱
Thank you, cheers!
This building at 15:34 is the former royal palace, where the Bulgarian monarchs resided from 1879 to 1944.
Bulgaria is a strong mix between East and West, but the Ottomans and Soviets destroyed many many buildings and the English destroyed many of the buildings in Sofia during the wars.
We have an obsession with Germany simply because we were your allies during the wars and also based on you for economical reasons.
Sofia looks a bit too soviet, but getting more modern. Plovdiv is the crazy mix of civilizations. Few people know that the 3rd largest synagogue is actually in Sofia after Amsterdam and Budapest. There is one which is renovated in Vidin by the Danube and looks very beautiful. I think Burgas is much better than Varna, but with a smaller population size but their town has really cool vibes. Finally, our former capital during the second Bulgarian empire is also very cool. It is not big anymore.
We had 2 empires but conquerered by so many people simply because of geography.
Also, Austria is an important trading partner, again for historical reasons. If you visit the city of Ruse, we call it the little Vienna because of the infrastructure.
Sofia is actually derived from the old Hellenic name of wisedom because our alphabet is borrowed from the old Greek. Our president is a former professional army pilot.
Compared to Latvia, we usually are probably a bit more liberal with Russians because they contributed to the liberation from the Ottomans and also the language is close in more written form. Russia considers Bulgaria us many time as the unofficial 16th Soviet state. Appreciate that you are able to read Cyrillic, which is where it was invented in Bulgaria.
The trams are Czech, the newer trolleybuses are Polish and the newer metro line is German.
Thanks for all the infos; I figured that there must have been many more older houses in the past before the wars happened. We later visited the synagouge, it's a really beautiful, impressive building too. Compared to Varna, Sofia felt a lot more modern to me, especially in terms of infrastructure.
Also I'd like to apologize for my country Austria for not letting you and Romania join Schengen; it's just a stupid political thing at the moment since we have elections coming up in autumn. It's nothing personal, actually Bulgaria is a very important market for a lot of Austrian companies. But stupid politicians are stupid I guess..
I am amazed you returned to Bulgaria. Although you should've visited Sofia during summer again when it's all green and there's always something going on in the parks.
Also like 60% of the buildings in the centre were built in late 19th- early 20th century and more interestingly by Austrian and Czech architects. Almost no building in the central parts is from the communist period. Even these gray old ones are from the early 20th century.
The national bank isn't a communist building, it's from 1935. So you could even say it's something like Third Reich architecture.
I quite enjoyed Sofia in Winter too; yes,, most cities look a bit more dull when there are no leafs on the trees and it's cold but we still had a great few days. I'm starting to like Bulgaria as a country; I'll for sure come back in the not too distant future ;)
Next time you should finish the trip you started in your previous vlogs. And explore the southern area of the coastline - go to Sozopol, Dyuni, Arkutino, Primorsko, Kiten, Sinemoretz, Lozenets, Rezovo etc..
I strongly suggest going to the beaches there , they're different than the ones you saw in the north. The climate and fauna in the south is different and feels more Mediterranean.
Yeah, I'd love to go back there, maybe I can make it happen soon enough.
Next time when you visit sofia make sure to visit the military academy georgi rakovski wich fence is build with the barrels of the rifles that liberated bulgaria and the spiritual seminary(theological seminary)of sofia,also the journalist,chemistry and the biology faculties of sofia univercity,all this are litle hidden from the downtown but if you have enough time it is possible,the national bank is build before comunism it is in modernism style famous between ww1 and ww2,the bank dates from the 30s ,at this time there were not much money because of the wars and the details on the buildings arround europe were gone😂thats why it is a litle strange ,from the back side there are beautiful statues and inside is very unique,you can google all the buildings i told you about
Thanks for all the information, I really appreciate it!
The church you are not familiar with is the one that gave the city its name.
I see, thank you for letting me know.
We are either southern or Balkan but not eastern! 😅
Yes, I know now haha
The buildings, the flair and the climate are East European but not South European.
I agree! But in my previous Bulgaria everyone told me that they are not Eastern, but Southern Europe haha.
@@whr_vlogs I am Bulgarian and I never hear that 😏
the national bank is a great example of modernist/ranionalist architecture predating communism but okay
I didn't know that, thanks for letting me know.
Old beautiful buildings are deliberatley neglected and left to fall appart with years ,so they can be demolished and to build new luxury hotels or office buildings because most of them are in downtown, where square meter is arround 5000-6000 euros,so if you walk in sofia centre and you see some old lady that looks she live with 300euros a month this is not the case,cause she probably owns an apartment that worth millions😂other case is when a homeless person 😉put some of the buildings on fire ,like the case with the famous tzar stables in sofia,that spark a huge scandal,and about ivan vazov he is called the patriarch of the bulgarian literature and was nominated for nobel prize arround ww1,along with another bulgarian writer pencho slaveikov the guy on 50 lev bill,and the person on 10 leva bill doctor peter beron invented the first electronic device for recognising the gender of the baby in the 19th century and wrote the first bulgarian school textbook