Bulgaria
Sofia, Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo
Aug 22nd - Aug 28th, 2026
Bulgaria was one of the last few European countries that I had not been to, so it was high time that I visited this beautiful and historical country. I flew on a late-evening direct flight on Lufthansa from Munich to the country's capital - Sofia. I started my city tour the next morning at the impressive Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which was just around the corner from my hotel.
The Orthodox Cathedral is one of the largest church buildings in the world. It was constructed between 1882 and 1912 in the Neo-Byzantine style as a commemoration of the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, which liberated Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. The interior space can accommodate more than 5000 worshippers.
Sofia is an interesting city full of contrasts, but I wouldn't call it a beautiful city. The overall cityscape is dominated by wide Soviet-era boulevards and monumental postwar buildings, interspersed with beautiful baroque and neo-classical churches, ancient ruins and a lot of green parks. Sofia has one of the longest histories of any European capital. The area has been continuously inhabited for around seven thousand years, with many different civilizations leaving their marks. The oldest still standing building in the city is the small Church of Saint George, which was originally built as a Roman bath in the 4th century CE.
The Thracians were the first to establish a significant settlement here during the first millennium BCE. I visited the National Archeological Museum, which turned out to be fascinating and had some stunning ancient artifacts, particularly those found in ancient Thracian tombs, like this extraordinarily detailed silver amphora and the golden funeral mask, both from the 5th century BCE.
The Romans arrived in the 1st century CE and turned the settlement into a major city called Serdica, and made it the capital of the province of Dacia. After Rome’s decline the city of Serdica was settled by Slavic tribes in the 6th century, and became part of the First Bulgarian Empire in 809 AD. Control of the city continued to switch between the Bulgarians and Byzantines over the following centuries. In 1382 Sofia fell to the Ottomans and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries. The most significant surviving Ottoman monument is the Banya Bashi Mosque, built in 1566-67, which is located right next to the significant ruins of the Roman city, which were discovered during the construction of the Sofia metro in the 1990s.
Another fascinating ancient site in the city can be found under the St Sofia Basilica, which is located right next to Nevsky Cathedral. When you descend the stairs underneath the church you reach the Underground Necropolis full of Roman tombs and early Christian mosaics.
The city also has many beautiful buildings from the 19th and early 20th century like the Russian Orthodox Church or the Central Mineral Baths building, which now serves as the Sofia Historical Museum.
This is the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.
Bulgaria's twentieth century history was turbulent. The country found itself on the losing side in WWI and was forced to cede Western Thrace to Greece, which cut off its access to the Aegean Sea. During WWII Bulgaria aligned itself with Germany and declared war on Britain and the US. However, it also maintained relations with the Soviet Union, and refused to deport its Jewish population to German death camps, thus saving the lives of approximately 50,000 Jews. Shortly before the end of the war the communist Fatherland Front seized power in a coup, and essentially turned Bulgaria into a Soviet satellite state for the next four decades.
Following the collapse of communist rule in 1989, the country's post-communist transition proved difficult and was marred by economic collapse, hyperinflation and widespread corruption. Things have improved significantly since Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 (and the Eurozone earlier this year), which can be seen by many modern buildings in the city. Bulgaria, however, remains the poorest country in the EU.
The next day I had a Viator day trip booked, which took us to Rila Monastery. Located about two hours from Sofia in a deep forested valley, Rila is the country’s largest and most important Orthodox monastery. It was founded in the 10th century by followers of St. Ivan of Rila, and it became a major center of Bulgarian Christianity during the Middle Ages and especially during Ottoman rule.
Rila Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited cultural monument in Bulgaria. There were a lot of tour buses parked in front of it, but the crowds dispersed quite quickly in the large inner courtyard.
The hermit monk Ivan Rilski, who retreated to these mountains to live a solitary life of prayer, attracted a community of disciples around him, which eventually grew into the monastery. Ivan Rilski, who later became Saint Ivan of Rila, is the patron saint of Bulgaria. The monastery was burned and rebuilt several times over the centuries, and the buildings that visitors see today largely date from a reconstruction in the 19th century.
The centerpiece of the whole complex is the black and white striped Church of the Nativity with its beautiful brightly painted frescoes inside and outside.
On our way back to Sofia we stopped at a much smaller but much older and arguably much more significant UNESCO heritage site. Boyana Church, located in a quiet residential suburb, is a small chapel consisting of three parts, the original 10th century structure, a 13th century addition and an outer chapel from the 19th century. The building does not look particularly significant from the outside. What makes it extraordinary are the frescoes covering the walls of the 13th century section. Created by an anonymous Boyana Master, the human faces in these frescoes, which include 240 individual figures in 89 scenes, show a level of expressiveness and individuality that were far ahead of their time and display a level of sophistication, depth and realism, that was not achieved anywhere until the Italian Renaissance. Boyana’s 1259 paintings predate Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel frescoes of 1303–1305 by roughly 45 years.
Because of the extreme fragility of the frescoes, visitor numbers are very tightly restricted. They let only nine people in at a time, and you get exactly 10 minutes to admire the artworks. Unfortunately, photography was strictly forbidden inside the church, so here are a couple of pictures I've downloaded to give you a sense of the extraordinary richness of these ancient masterpieces.
Plovdiv
After two days in Sofia I rented a car and drove east to the ancient city of Plovdiv. One of the oldest continuously inhabited urban spaces in the world, the city has a history stretching back over six thousand years. I stayed in a beautiful hotel right in the center of the old town, surrounded by steep and narrow cobblestone streets (which you can only enter by car if you are staying in one of the old town hotels). I started my sightseeing at the well-preserved 2nd century Roman theatre, which was only a block away from my hotel.
Another reminder of the Roman presence in Plovdiv is the ruined stadium, which literally lies right underneath the main shopping street.
The city is built across a series of rocky hills, which I was able to appreciate better when I got this great view over the whole city from the Nebet Tepe hill. Nebet Tepe is also the hill where the ancient city was founded, with the earliest settlement here going back 4,000 years.
The neighborhood just below Nebet Tepe is where you find the magnificent 19th century National Revival houses. The Bulgarian National Revival was a period of socio-economic and artistic development, which started in the late 18th century under Ottoman rule. It was also an awakening of the Bulgarian national identity, which inspired the struggle for independence in the late 19th century. The period is remarkable for its characteristic architecture of brightly colored houses with elaborately painted facades.
The most impressive site in Plovdiv to me, however, was the Bishop's Basilica. I followed the Google Maps directions to the basilica, but when I found myself in front of what looked like a large industrial warehouse, I thought I must have gone to the wrong place. But it turned out that I was at the right place, as I stood right in front of the huge structure they had built over the site in 2021 to protect this fragile monument.
The Bishop’s Basilica of Philippopolis is a late Roman / early Christian church, built in the mid 4th century, whose floor is covered in one of the largest and best preserved mosaic carpets ever discovered from this period. The incredibly well-preserved mosaics stretch across hundreds of square meters in vivid colors and intricate geometric and floral patterns.
The existence and location of this incredible archeological site were completely unknown until 1982, when they were discovered during the construction of an underpass.
I had only one night in Plovdiv and continued the next morning towards the city of Veliko Tarnovo, but along the way I stopped to visit what is possibly the smallest UNESCO world heritage site in the world. The amazing Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak is a tiny burial chamber, approximately 2.65 meters in diameter and 3.25 meters high. Dating back to the 4th century BCE, the tomb contains these beautiful brightly colored murals. You don't get to actually visit the original tomb, which due to its fragility is closed to all visitors, but they have created a perfect replica for visitors.
I also visited a couple of other Thracian tombs nearby. This is the Ostrusha mound tumulus from the middle of the 4th century BCE.
Veliko Tarnovo
I reached Veliko Tarnovo in the late afternoon, which left me with just enough time to walk up the hill and visit the mighty Tsarevets Fortress.
Veliko Tarnovo served as the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1393, and was considered one of the great cities of medieval Europe and home to many artists and scholars. The ruins of the huge fortress sitting high above the river give a glimpse of the city's former importance. At its peak in the 13th and early 14th centuries, Tsarevets was not just a military fortification, but an entire fortified city containing the royal palace of the Bulgarian tsars, the Patriarchal Cathedral, and residences of the nobility. When the Second Bulgarian Empire fell to the Ottomans in 1393, the city lost its importance and Bulgaria remained under Ottoman control for the next five centuries. Today there is not much left of the fort other than ruins and the impressive outer walls.
The cathedral on the highest point was rebuilt in the 1970s. You can reach the top of the cathedral tower by elevator for a great view over the city and river valley.
I had dinner in the old town that night and watched a bright orange full moon rise over the old town.
I had the whole next morning to explore the rest of this beautiful city. The old town appears to cling to the side of a steep hill, with its medieval houses and church towers seemingly stacked on top of each other. Underneath the Yantra river winds around the city in a tight horseshoe bend.
I continued to walk down to the river and crossed the 18th century Vladishki Bridge. The nearby Church of Saint Demetrius is a twentieth-century reconstruction of an medieval Orthodox church.
The most important and genuinely medieval orthodox church is Holy Forty Martyrs Basilica, which was built around 1230 during the early parts of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The building was converted into a mosque during Ottoman rule in the 18th century, which unfortunately also meant that most of its murals and icons were destroyed.
Veliko Tarnovo really is a spectacular city of great historical importance, and yet it has not really been discovered by mass tourism. So, you don't have to fight the tourist crowds when you wander through the narrow medieval lanes, and visit its many monuments.
After checking out from the hotel I drove back the three hours to Sofia, where I had one more night, and I left the next morning for my flight to Azerbaijan.
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