From Serdica to Sofia

Sofia’s a city with a rich history. Named after the Greek word for wisdom, it feels a little like if you sprinkled some soviet architecture into Sauchiehall Street. Laid back, with relatively empty streets, there’s none of the tourist buzz you usually find in capital cities.

Almost everyone’s had a stint in Sofia- the Ottomans, Byzantines, Greeks, Romans, Soviets and even the Vikings and Celts, and it shows in the buildings. The city is littered with open air exhibits, older than I can fathom. Under the foot of the former communist party HQ, lies the ruins of Serdica, the Roman name for Sofia.

My guide for the morning takes great care to point out that Bulgaria is a country of revolutionaries and warriors, then produces a photo of a shirtless Gerard Butler as he tells us Spartans originate from Thrace in Bulgaria, not Greece.

He whisks us through ancient times, the soviet era and eventually comes round to the topic of the EU, NATO and Ukraine. ‘If you want to remain without an army, you join NATO. If you want to remain without an economy, you join the EU’ he jokes. As for the war in Ukraine, it’s a difficult one for Bulgarians. ‘In our history we always say maybe with the Germans, never against the Russians. Both Russian and Ukrainian troops fought to liberate Bulgaria and so to Bulgarians it feels like a family conflict, we do not want to pick sides’Read more