Largo, Sofia

Serdica or Sardica is the historical Roman city that was located in today's Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The name is found in the Serdica Fortress in the center of the city, and the administrative subdivision of Serdika.

The Stolichna Municipality (Bulgarian: Столична община, romanized: Stolichna obshtina (also transcribed as Stolična obština), lit. 'Capital Municipality') is an obshtina (municipality) in Sofia City Province, Western Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative centre - the city of Sofia, which is also the capital of Sofia City Province and Sofia Province and the capital of Bulgaria as well. The municipality is located mainly in the Sofia Valley, and also in the foots and lower parts of the mountains of Stara planina and Vitosha, Plana, Lozen, Rila. It is home to 1,500,927 inhabitants from which 1.400 million live in Sofia (as of 2016).

The Church of St Petka of the Saddlers (Bulgarian: Църква „Света Петка Самарджийска“) is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It is a small one-naved building partially dug into the ground located in the very centre of both the modern and the antique city, in the TZUM underpass. The church features a semi-cylindrical vault, a hemispherical apse, and a crypt discovered during excavations after the Second World War. The walls are 1 m thick and made from brick and stone. The church was first mentioned in the 16th century and was constructed at the place of a former Roman religious building. It is today a monument of culture known for its mural paintings from the 14th, 15th, 17th and 19th century depicting biblical scenes. The church is dedicated to St Petka, an 11th-century Bulgarian saint. The Church of Saint Petka acquired its present name due to it being a patron of the saddlers in the Middle Ages, who performed their rituals in the church. The adjective samardzhiyski ("of the saddlers") was derived from the Ottoman Turkish word semerci, meaning "saddlemaker". According to one theory, Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski is buried in the church. Press reports from 1937 retelling the stories of those who carried out a reburial, which might have been for Levski and reports from the 1956 excavation speculating that bones found might have been those indicated by the 1937 press, led to the skeleton labeled "No. 95", being sent for professional examination. When Magdalina Stancheva museologist and head of the Archaeology Department at the Sofia Regional Historical Museum received the bones, she sent them to the laboratory run by Petîr Boev at the Archaeological Institute for examination. The bones were either destroyed by mice or lost. Nikolai Khaitov, a popular writer, accused Stancheva; archaeologists Georgi Dzhingov and Stamen Mikhailov; Krîstiu Miiatev, director of the Archaeological Institute; and Todor Pavlov, president of the National Academy of Bulgaria of participating in a conspiracy to prevent investigation into Levski's burial site and publicly accused Stancheva of mishandling the remains. Two commissions met over the controversy in the 1980s, and confirmed that there was no proof which could substantiate that the bones were Levski's, as the bones were missing.

The Church of Saint George (Bulgarian: Ротонда „Свети Георги“, romanized: Rotonda "Sveti Georgi") is a Late Antique red brick rotunda in Sofia, Bulgaria. Built in the early 4th century as Roman baths, it became a church inside the walls of Serdica, capital of ancient Dacia Mediterranea during the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. The Early Christian church is considered the oldest building in modern Sofia and belongs to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The building, a cylindrical domed structure built on a square base, is famous for the 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-century frescoes inside the central dome. Three layers of frescoes have been discovered, the earliest dating back to the 10th century. Magnificent frescoes of 22 prophets over 2 metres tall crown the dome. Painted over during the Ottoman period, when the building was used as a mosque, these frescoes were only uncovered and restored in the 20th century.

Serdika II Metro Station (Bulgarian: Метростанция „Сердика II“) is an M2 line station of Sofia Metro. It was put into operation on August 31, 2012 and the station became transfer station between the Red and Blue lines together with Serdika, however it is not a true transfer station (that role is filled by Obelya), but a tunnel-connection transfer station. Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov and the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso inaugurated the new section of the Sofia Metro, which was funded with EU money. The initial project name of the Metro Station was Sveta Nedelya Square, but this was changed by the city council shortly before the opening of M2 line.

The Statue of Sveta Sofia (Bulgarian: Статуя на Света София, romanized: Statuya na Sveta Sofiya) is a monumental sculpture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The statue, erected in 2000, stands in a spot once occupied by a statue of Lenin.Sophia was considered too erotic and pagan to be referred to as a saint. 24 feet in height, the copper and bronze statue by the sculptor Georgi Chapkanov, stands on a 48 feet high pedestal. Adorned with the symbols of power (crown), fame (wreath) and wisdom (owl), the crown is also a reference to the Goddess of Fate, Tyche, inspired by the old emblem of Sofia dating back to 1900.

The Central Mineral Baths (Централна минерална баня, Tsentralna mineralna banya) is a landmark in the city center of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, a city known for the mineral springs in the area. It was built in the early 20th century near the former Turkish bath (then destroyed) and was used as the city's public baths until 1986. Public baths have existed in Sofia since at least the 16th century. During the visit of Bohemian traveler Hans Dernschwam to Sofia in 1553–1555, Derschwam noted the presence of 1 large bath and 2 smaller baths on either side of the city. Dernschwam described the baths as follows: The baths are located on the square; there is a big quadrangular building in front by the entrance, with a round Greek-style dome on top, like the Pantheon in Rome. It is richly covered in white marble … The big water conduits that lead the water into the baths are made of potter's clay. Each tube is approximately one Viennese cubit long and the separate tubes go through each other. They are plastered up like I have seen in Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) too, in old buildings in Thorenburg (Turda). The current Central Mineral Baths building was designed in the Vienna Secession style, but integrating typically Bulgarian, Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox ornamental elements, by the architects Petko Momchilov and Friedrich Grünanger in 1904–1905 and approved on 30 January 1906, as projects by an Austrian (in 1889) and a French architect (in 1901) were declined. The raw construction was finished in 1908 and a Bulgarian company constructed the complex roof and the mineral water conduit. The baths opened on 13 May 1913, but the building was completely finished after 2 more years and a garden was arranged in front of the baths. Artists Haralampi Tachev and St. Dimitrov designed the building's ceramic majolica decoration.The north wing was damaged during the bombing of Sofia in World War II, but was restored several years later. The baths continued to work as public baths until 1986, when the building was closed due to its bad condition and the possible collapse of the roof. It was subsequently partially reconstructed and thoroughly cleaned and accommodates the Sofia Regional Historical Museum since September 2015.

Serdika Metro Station (Bulgarian: Метростанция „Сердика“) is an M1 and M4 lines station of Sofia Metro. It was put into operation on 31 October 2000. With the opening of Serdika II on 31 August 2012 the station became an interchange between the Red and Blue lines. However it is not a true interchange (such as platforms 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Canning Town station in London), but an interconnected station, in a similar manner to the Washington Metro's two Farragut stations.The station is named after the ancient city of Serdica, as it lies in the very centre of the hitherto unearthed ruins of that city. These are located about six meters (20 feet) below ground and, along with the opening of Serdika II station, a large section of the old city has been exposed and is in full view both around and inside the two stations. Serdika is one of only three metro stations in the world where the same line passes through the station twice in a pretzel configuration, the others being the Monument Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and Voorweg RandstadRail station on the Randstadrail in The Hague, Netherlands.

Banya Bashi Mosque (Bulgarian: Баня баши джамия, Banya bashi dzhamiya; Turkish: Banya Başı Camii) is a mosque in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The St Nedelya Church assault was a terrorist attack on St Nedelya Church in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was carried out on 16 April 1925, when a group of the Military Organisation of the Bulgarian Communist Party directed and supplied by the Soviet Military Intelligence blew up the church's roof during the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been killed in a previous communist assault on 14 April. 150 people, mainly from the country's political and military elite, were killed in the attack and around 500 bystander believers, who attended the liturgy, were injured.

The Church of St. Nicholas (Bulgarian: Свети Николай Мирликийски чудотворец) is an Eastern Orthodox Church in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. The church was built in the 13th century by Kaloyan the sebastocrator as a small family church on today's Kaloyan Street behind the Rila Hotel. It is assumed that the church was erected on the site of the surviving parts of the palace complex that had once stood there which was built during the Roman Empire and accommodated Constantine the Great. Today these parts are preserved and can be seen in the authentic underground walls of the temple.Each year hundreds of Sofians visit this small chapel to be blessed by the saints. Its feast day is on December 6.

The National Archaeological Museum (Bulgarian: Национален археологически музей, Natsionalen arheologicheski muzey) is an archaeological museum in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It occupies the building of the largest and oldest former Ottoman mosque in the city, originally known as Koca Mahmut Paşa Camii. The construction started in 1451 under grand vizier Veli Mahmud Pasha but due to his death in 1474 the mosque has been completed in 1494. The museum was established as a separate entity in 1893 as the National Museum directed by Czech Václav Dobruský with its headquarters in the former mosque that previously housed the National Library between 1880 and 1893. The museum was officially opened and inaugurated in 1905, as by then all archaeological exhibits previously kept all over the city were moved there, in the presence of Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria and Minister of Enlightenment Ivan Shishmanov. Several additional halls and administrative buildings of the museum were constructed in the following years, which continues to use the historic stone building of the old mosque despite the often unfavourable conditions, notably the humidity in the summer. The museum has five exhibition halls: Central Hall, Prehistory, Middle Ages, Treasure, and a special temporary exhibition. It is managed by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.