The best road cycling routes in Vitosha

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.

I asked ChatGPT: "Who is Saint Nicholas?". The answer was a very appealing text with lots of information about the well-known and popular Bishop of Myra. Then I asked ChatGPT: "Who is Saint Nicholas FOR YOU?" The answer: "As an artificial intelligence, I have no personal convictions, feelings or belief systems. My answers are based on information I received during my training." How good that we humans exist, I thought. What would this world be without actions that are done out of personal conviction, without people who empathize and without the belief that this world is created for the good. It seems to me that the crucial question of today is: "Who is Saint Nicholas for YOU?" (Text: Tobias Wiegelmann)

The statue of Aleko Konstantinov is located on the "Vitosha" Boulevard and depicts the writer in full height, leaning against a pillar with signs of destinations described in his books. At his feet is a suitcase packed for the trip, in his hand he holds a book, and his gaze is fixed on Vitosha's "The Lucky One"

Part of the Panorama lake

Very beautiful sight to Vitosha mountain!

The Cathedral of Sweta Nedelja (Bulgarian катедрала Света Неделя) is the Cathedral of the Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Sofia of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Maker is a Russian Orthodox church. The church was built on the site of the Saray Mosque, which was destroyed in 1882, after the liberation of Bulgaria by Russia from the Ottoman Empire. It was built as the official church of the Russian Embassy, which was located next door, and of the Russian community in Sofia, and was named, as was the tradition for diplomatic churches, for the patron saint of the Emperor who ruled Russia at the time, Nicholas II of Russia. The five domes are coated with gold. Bron: Wikipedia