Easy hikes and walks in Sofia-City Region

Cycle slow…

City speed recommended

A real highlight. A must-see.

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Red Apartment, an interactive museum dedicated to Bulgaria's communist past. Step into the shoes of an ordinary Bulgarian family in the 1980s and discover life during the last decade of socialism in Bulgaria. Located in the heart of Sofia, the Red Apartment offers insights into the everyday lives, challenges, and memories of a bygone world. OUR INSPIRATION The Red Apartment is inspired by the personal stories of people who lived through the socialist era. We wanted to create an authentic and intimate space that captures the essence of life in Bulgaria during this time. Every object, every room in the apartment tells a story and helps visitors understand the cultural and historical context of a time when life was simple yet full of unique complexities. WHAT TO EXPECT Entering the Red Apartment is like stepping back in time to communist Bulgaria in the 1980s. Visit an average family and discover what everyday life was like for ordinary Bulgarians during the Cold War. Work and leisure, school and holidays, food, drink, television, parties, and housework – what did it all look like during the times of Reagan and Gorbachev? Step inside and find out for yourself! https://redflatsofia.com

Architecture The first church had three naves, with three bell towers resting on eight-sided drums, and two bell towers. The church is surrounded on three sides by colonnades with arches topped with semicircular domes. After the liberation from Ottoman rule, Prince Dondukov-Korsakov presented the church with eight bells. A new bell tower was built for them outside the church building, facing southeast. In 1898, the church was rebuilt by the architect N. Lazarov.

The church is believed to have been built in the 10th century and, like other Sofia churches of the time, had a stone base and a wooden structure above it. In the second half of the 14th century, these wooden churches were made of stone. It is unknown why only the Hagia Nedelja remained wooden, and the church continued to exist in this form until the mid-19th century. In 1578, the German traveler Stefan Gerlach visited Sofia and provided a list of Sofia's twelve churches. Among them was the church with the Greek name Kiriaki. In the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, the church was also called Sveti Kral (Holy King) because it housed the relics of the Serbian King Stefan Milutin Urosh II, who had healing powers. The church suffered damage in the great earthquake of 1858, and in the early 1850s, the Sofia Diocese and the city parish built a new church in its place, designed by Master Ivan Bojanin, with funds raised by the Christian citizens of Sofia. Until the construction of the St. Alexander Nevsky Church monument, Hagia Nedelya Church was a cathedral. Exarch Joseph I is buried in the southern part. After the destruction of Hagia Nedelya Church as a result of the communist terrorist act against the Tsarist family on April 16, 1925, a competition for its restoration was announced. The competition was won by the architects I. Vasilyov and Dimitur Tsolov. It was completed in 1931 and solemnly consecrated two years later. The new building had five domes and a dominant bell tower on the west side. The exterior was decorated with rows of red tiles. The surrounding land was relocated to a lower level, placing the building on a terrace accessible via a stone staircase. The church, restored according to a design by the architects Vasilyov and Tsolov, is a single-room building with a kul dominating the entire naos. The bell tower rises above the vestibule. The exterior of the church is faced with tuff stone.

The Banya Bashi Mosque is the only Muslim temple in Sofia. It was built on the initiative of Kadi Seyfullah Effendi in the third quarter of the 16th century. This mosque is a magnificent example of the single-chamber mosques built during the so-called Golden Age of Ottoman architecture and art. The diameter of the dome and the length of the interior walls are 15 meters. In front of the mosque is an open antechamber with three pointed arches; it is covered with small hemispherical domes supported by four monolithic stone columns with stalactite capitals, which are very typical of Islamic architecture. To the right of the antechamber is the minaret, which harmonizes well with the body of the mosque. On the southwest wall is an extension, originally intended as the tomb of Kadi Seyfullah Effendi, but was later reused as a library and is now used as a service room for the mosque. The dome and the walls of the hall were painted in the 19th century. Adjacent to the mosque was a large double bath (sifte hamam in Turkish and banya in Bulgarian), which is associated with its name. Since 1998, the mosque has been designated an immovable cultural asset of national importance. Its care is entrusted to the District Mufti of Sofia. The building has undergone several renovations, the most recent of which was completed in 2018, and it has functioned in this form ever since.

On August 13, 1961, a wall divided Berlin, Germany, and thus Europe and the world. Bulgaria remained enclosed east of the wall until November 9, 1989, when the people tore it down. This fragment of the Berlin Wall is a gift from Berliners to the citizens of Sofia as a symbol of a reunified Europe and proof that Bulgarians are now free. Berlin, May 2006