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| City Guide - Sofia - City Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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City Overview Situated on an open plain between the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Rila Mountains to the south, Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, stands 550m (1804ft) above sea level. Owing to its altitude, the summers are moderately hot and the winters cold and snowy. The city is surrounded by a sprawling periphery of bleak, Socialist-era block housing - a formidable greeting for the first-time visitor. However, arrival in the centre reveals the true magic of Sofia: a city of tree-lined boulevards where East meets West. Mosques stand side by side Byzantine Orthodox churches, while imposing governmental buildings neighbour the florid works of nineteenth-century Russian and Viennese architects. History is animated by everyday life - as locals meet for coffee at open-air cafés, fast-food kiosks trade mouth-watering Turkish-inspired goodies and a gypsy girl sells flowers on a street corner while shoppers queue to board the city's rattling trams and trolley buses. Although Sofia dates back to Roman times, it is undoubtedly the 500 years of Turkish domination (1396-1878) followed by almost half a century of Communism (1944-1990) that have given the city the unique flavour it has today. Sofia only became the capital in 1878, following Bulgaria's liberation from the Turks and most of the city was planned after that date. Grand boulevards were constructed, cutting through the grid-plan quarters that had grown up around the oriental nucleus, Ottoman-imposed mosques were torn down as the Orthodox Church was reinstated. During World War II, Bulgaria became part of the Axis and Sofia was subsequently heavily bombed in British and American raids. With the close of the war in 1944, Russian soldiers took the capital and Bulgaria became part of the Eastern Bloc. Under Communist administration, Sofia enjoyed a period of rapid industrialisation: new factories and high-rise apartment blocks grew up to form extended suburbs and the city's population escalated as thousands migrated from rural areas. Although the 1980s saw a period of industrial decline, the main industries are the same now as they were in the 1940s and 50s - machinery, electronics, car assembly, textiles and food processing. In 1989, Bulgaria witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and then, in 1990, like many neighbouring countries, held its first free elections. In 1991, a new democratic constitution was drawn up but during the decade that followed economic growth was hampered by political instability, soaring unemployment, hyperinflation and rampant corruption. Today, visitors to Sofia will find a typical Balkan mix of Orthodox and Muslim cultures amid a crumbling Eastern Bloc society with an uncertain future. Mass privatisation has come hand in hand with a decline in living standards and, while there is fresh optimism at one end of the scale, there is extreme poverty at the other. A young ambitious professional will pull up outside one of the city's new chic cafés, but across the street a lonely pensioner roots through a dustbin, encircled by a group of stray dogs, all eager for a morsel. However, Bulgaria is slowly but surely gaining economic stability: foreign businesses are now eager to invest here and the city motto, 'Ever growing, never old', is as true today as it ever was. |
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