Sofia

SOFIA (so-feah), capital of Bulgaria, in an upland plain, about 1,700 ft. above sea-level, between the Western Balkans on the north and Mt. Vita on the south. Pop. 287,976. Two small tributaries of the river Isker, the Perlovetz and the Eleshnitza or Boyana, flow respectively on the east and west sides of the town. Since 1880 the city has been entirely renovated in the "European" style. The oldest building in Sofia is the little round chapel of St. George in the Jewish quarter—originally a Roman bath. Of the principal mosques the large Buyuk Djamia, Tcherna Djamia or Black Mosque, formerly used as a prison, has been transformed into a church; the Banyabashi Djarnia, with its picturesque minaret, is still used by Muslim worshippers. Close to the last-named, in the centre of the town, are the public baths with hot springs (temperature 117° F). The old cathedral of Sveta Nedelya (formerly Sveti Kral), in which the remains of the Serbian king Stefan Urog II. are preserved, was wrecked by an infernal machine on April 16, 1925, but since rebuilt. The church of Saint Sofia (r2th century) contains interesting frescoes. The new cathedral of Alexander Nevski was built as a memorial to the Russians fallen in 1877-78. The palace, occupying the site of the Turkish konak was built by Prince Alexander in 1880-82, and enlarged by King Ferdinand. The city is well drained and has a good water supply; it is lighted by electricity and has an electric tram system. It contains breweries, flour-mills, tan neries, sugar, tobacco, cloth and silk factories, and exports skins, cloth, cocoons, cereals, attar of roses, dried fruit, etc. Sofia forms the centre of a railway system radiating to Constantinople (30o m.), Belgrade (206 m.) and central Europe, Varna, Rust chuk and the Danube, and Kiustendil. The climate is healthy ; owing to the elevated situation it is somewhat cold, and is liable to sudden diurnal and seasonal changes ; the temperature in Jan uary sometimes falls to 4° F below zero and in August rises to I00°. The population, which is mainly Bulgarian, was only 20,501

in 1881. It grew very rapidly after the Balkan and European wars, owing to the influx of refugees.

History.

The colony of Serdica, founded here by the em peror Trajan, became a Roman provincial town of considerable importance in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., and was a favourite residence of Constantine the Great. Serdica was burnt by the Huns in A.D. 447; few traces remain of the Roman city, but more than ioo types of its coins attest its importance. The town was taken by the Bulgarians under Krum in A.D. 809 ; the name Serdica was converted into Sredetz by the Slays, who associated it with sreda (middle), and the Slavonic form subsequently be came the Byzantine Triaditza. The name Sofia, which came into use towards the end of the 14th century, is derived from the early mediaeval church of St. Sophia. The town successfully resisted the attacks of the emperor Basil II. in 987; between 1018 and 1186, under Byzantine rule, it served as a frontier fortress. Dur ing this period Petchenegs were settled around Sofia; these are probably the ancestors of the modern sops (see PETCHENEGS ) In 1382 Sofia was captured by the Turks; in 1443 it was for a brief time occupied by the Hungarians under John Hunyady. Under Turkish rule the city was for nearly four centuries the residence of the beylerbey or governor-general of the whole Bal kan peninsula except Bosnia and the Morea. During this period the population was mainly Turkish; in 1553 the town possessed II large and ioo small mosques. It was occupied by Russian troops in 1829 and 1878. Though less central than Philippopolis and less renowned in Bulgarian history than Trnovo, Sofia was selected as the capital of the newly-created Bulgarian State in view of its strategical position, which commands the routes to Constantinople, Belgrade, Macedonia and the Danube.