Well, I think we’ve seen Sofia at it’s finest. Yesterday’s walking tour was early on a Sunday morning, on a beautiful summer’s day, in the middle of the holiday season. So in the main there were only tourists about, the streets were not clogged with cars, and the smog was low. Gorgeous.
The city is encircled by mountain ranges, like a huge caldera, and there are hot springs underneath which charmed the Romans, but add a few million cars and the smog sits like a blanket over the city. Not so charming in the modern era, and then you add snow. However, none of that was in evidence for our visit, and it’s a rather nice city, with plenty of history, though I’m told it won’t be that charming in 6 months time.
Today we took a bus tour out to two of the city’s UNESCO listed sites – Boyanna Church, and the Rila Monastery. Both were really interesting, but had a zero tolerance for photos inside, so I can only give you a view from the outside.
The Boyanna Church is actually in one of Sofia’s outer suburbs, and survived the war and the communist era thanks to the King’s patronage. It has an original 11th century structure, a 13th century extension, then a further 19th century extension basically to protect it. It’s tiny – 7m x 7m, so only 10 people were allowed inside at a time with a guide, then only for a timed 10 minutes. We’re told that it’s chaos when 3 50-seater tour buses roll up at the same time, but that didn’t happen to us, although it still took 30 minutes to get our mini bus load through.
The walls are full of frescos and icons, and there’s not much time to contemplate them, as well as listen to the guide, but we tried to appreciate it as much as we could. Originally a private church, which the rich tended to have, as they paid for the construction and the priest. The garden was donated by the king as his queen fell in love with the place, and he was in love with the queen.
Then a couple of hours up into the hills south of Sofia to the Rila Monastery. An interesting lesson in consequences. When the communists came to power they tried to wipe away all vestiges of religion. They closed the monastery and sent the 500 monks away. But that just made the faithful and the monks all the more determined to cling to their traditions. When the communist regime fell, the monastery was re-opened and restored. The monks came back, and everything was back to normal despite the persecution.
However, with no threat on the horizon, the number of monks has dwindled to just 8, and the tourists are now propping up the place. A comfortable type of busy. Lots of rules about how you have to dress, and what you can and can’t do in the monastery, and an interesting lesson in which tourist nationalities believe that the rules don’t apply to them of course.
Did a tour with our guide which covered the salient points, then went back with our audio guide after a bite to eat, to get the official version. Founded in the 10th century, then constructed on this site in the 14th century, and finally re-constructed after the fall of the Ottoman Turkish Empire at the end of the 15th century, it’s an impressive complex. Lots of carvings and gold, and plenty of frescos and icons. Also houses the grave of the last king, who is revered for not dispatching his Jewish citizens to Germany despite the pressure to do so. He died of poisoning after returning from Germany, and it’s widely thought to be retribution.
Drove home on this lovely freeway. When we wondered why we had a freeway way down here, and checking the map, we found that we were actually closer to Thessaloniki in Greece than we were to Sofia. Just a different concept when you come from Australia.
Boyanna Gardens
Boyanna Church
3 Stages of Boyanna
Rila Monastery
Defensive Tower
Rila Monastery
Rila Monastery
Rila Monastery in the Hills
Outside the Monastery