On the rails again: On my way back from Anatolia (1)

Sofia

After you leave the station in Sofia through an underpass with an enormous sculpture and drag your luggage up the stairs you end up in front of a tram stop and a wide main road impossible to cross as a pedestrian. Behind is a basically flat expanse without any construction. On the other side you notice some modern constructions.

Statue in front of the station in Sofia

Somewhere there, my hotel must be. I walk along the busy main road and arrive at another underpass. After descending the stairs I am in an unlit, cavernous structure covered in graffiti. Somebody has thought of embellishing it with a fountain, but it is dry,. There is nobody. In any western country I would get worried that there is somebody. 80% of the Bulgarians think that their surroundings is unsafe. In Sofia, with 1,600 prisoners, the incarceration rate is above 0.1%. Roughly 70% of all prisoners are part of the Romani minority. However, there are far less unpleasant encounters here than in cities of comparable size in western countries. I make my way up in the direction I think I have to go but again end up on the wrong side of the busy road.

Entrance to the first underpass

Eventually I find a gap in the traffic to pass the road and find my hotel in a quiet, shady cobbled side street lined with trees. I don’t have the impression that they have done anything on the pavement here in the last 100 years. But hotel Adria is modern. The window of the room opens to a garden where you can have breakfast or sit in the evening. I have stayed at worse places.

Graffiti and dry fountain in the second underpass

And I need a quiet spot to relax. In contrast to the night train to Istanbul, where I had secured a private compartment for myself, I had to share a compartment with three others for the journey to Sofia. The others were Ata, a Bulgarian of 25 living in Istanbul, and two 20 year old Turks. Both were on their way to Sofia to catch a cheap flight elsewhere. Ata wants to fly to Bari, then on to Marseille and Mallorca. For the two Turks it is their first time abroad. From Sofia they want to fly to Milan to spend their first vacation.

Waiting room in Haflaki station

All three of them are incredible nice guys. I had had an early dinner before leaving for the station. Now I realize that you can order dinner including water and beer from the conductor. Ata and his two new friends want to share everything with me, “It is custom like that”, they say. I am not hungry, I hope I do not annoy them.

Queue for luggage check in Haflaki

The train left Istanbul Haflaki station at 8 pm. It was dark and we had already gone to sleep when the train reached the border. There was a wake-up call to and I would have fallen asleep again when one of my fellow travelers would not have come back to wake me up. Again, everybody had to get out to line up for the passport control. In the line in front of me a French girl is so sick that she almost collapsed. At least they did not want to check the luggage this time.

Trains waiting at the platform in Haflaki

After the Turkish border control the train already was considerably late. It took quite a while until we were woken up again, this time by the Bulgarian border police who collected our passport but left us in our bunks.

Night stop for passport control in Edirne

After we had got back the passports everybody went to sleep again. In fact, I slept quite well and woke up later then usual. The others were still asleep. I discovered that there was an entirely empty compartment at the end of the carriage and moved there to be able to sit down and look outside. Between Plovdiv and Sofia this train passes the Balkan mountains on a spectacular line. They are busy rebuilding it, so maybe it will loose some of the attraction in the future. At the moment it offers views of the mountains, the gorges of the balkan and – it is very very slow. Eventually we arrived in Sofia about 2 hours late.

Couchette carriage of the Sofia express

Like the entire area Sofia originally was part of the Thracian empire. A first destruction by Philip II of Macedon is recorded in 339 BC.

Layers of history: Roman ruins and 16th century mosque

In 29 BC the area of Serdica, as it was called, was conquered by the Roman Republic. In contrast to most major European capitals Serdica or Sofia is not near a major river or the coast. The reason for the Romans to come and stay here might have been the presence of natural hot springs. There are still around 40 in town. In the city center the water exits the springs with a temperature of 37 degrees. The locals come with big plastic containers to bring their natural mineral water home. Later the Roman emperors Aurelian (215–275) and Galerius (260–311) were born in Serdica. For the emperor Constantin it was his favorite town. Nevertheless he decided to choose Byzantium as Roman capital.

Locals bottle mineral water

Like in Istanbul, older buildings in Serdica or Sofia were replaced and covered by new construction. Only recently many of the Roman remains have been made accessible due to the construction of a metro line. Now the "Complex Ancient Serdica" covers the eastern gate of Serdica, the foundations of Roman housing and the eastern gate. The former amphitheater is hidden on the ground floor of a hotel.

Saint George rotunda church hidden behind socialist construction

While the western Roman Empire declined the city was a goal for raids of Huns, Visigoths, Avars, and Slavs. The invasion of the Huns in 447 devastated the city for a century. Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, who restored much of the old Roman empire and laid the foundations for the Byzantine empire, also rebuilt Serdica.

Basilica de Santa Sofia which gave the name to Sofia

Several churches built during the Byzantine rule survived until today. The orthodox "Saint George" rotunda church is from the 4th century. The Basilica of Saint Sofia from the 6th century gave the city its name. Like in Istanbul, Sofia was not a female name but stood for “wisdom”. This was a fact which apparently was unknown to the city counsel. In 2004 they erected an enormous statue of St. Sofia on a column in the city center. Not only does it refer to Sofia as a sensual crowned female but in addition she carries the pagan symbols of an owl and a wreath. As a statue she replaced Lenin, who had fallen into disgrace.

The new Sofia statue that replaced Lenin

In the following centuries Serdica was disputed between the Byzantine and the Bulgarian empire. Even the guide cannot say precisely where the Bulgarians had come from. However, in 809 Khan Krum incorporated it as Sredets into the first Bulgarian empire. In 1018 the Byzantines came back until 1194, when it was the turns for the Bulgarian Empire again.

The Roman town and Socialist Baroque

As the only county in the EU the Bulgarians use cyrillic writing. Fortunately, for example in most of the stations a Latin script translation is also provided. In fact, the first cyrillic alphabet was developed during the 9th century in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I. Therefore, kyrillic writing is not originally Russian, as one might think, but Bulgarian: the Russians adapted to Bulgaria. It is used by about 250 million people, also in Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, was adopted by Russia and during the Soviet times introduced to satellites as far away as Mongolia.

The last remaining mosque

Another confusing local tradition is that in Bulgaria, nodding and shaking of a head has a different meaning. Whereas everywhere, also in the surrounding countries shaking your head means no, in Bulgaria it means yes. The whole thing is getting even more confusing since some people when they talk to a foreigner, remember that nodding means shaking and adapt to the foreigners interpretation, leaving everybody completely muddled. It is better to use the spoken words, “da” for “yes” and “ne” for “no”.

St. George Rotunda and Stalinist Baroque

Eventually, in 1382, the Ottomans conquered the area. For 500 years until 1836, Sofia was the capital of Rumelia Eyalet, the Ottoman Empire province in Europe. During the Turkish rule, christian churches were converted to mosques. Eventually the city counted more than 30 mosques. Only one, from the 16th century, survives today. It was built by Sinan, the great architect of Süleyman I the Magnificent. The churches converted from mosques were turned into churches again after Bulgarian rule was restored in 1878. Around the central square, today, the remaining mosque, a medieval orthodox church, the orthodox cathedral and the synagoge from 1906, the biggest in Europe, remind of the tradition of religious freedom in Bulgaria.

St. Petka Samardjiyska above the Roman ruins and below Stalinist Baroque

The layers of history can be seen at the metro station in the center. Underground and unearthed are the remains of the Roman city from the first centuries AD. On these foundations and partially built with materials taken from the antique town is the medieval orthodox temple of St. Petka Samardjiyska. On the top in the background the 16th century mosque. Although there seem to be other opinions I find that the antique remains have been included well into an underground pedestrian passage.

The Synagoge

In the 19th century the return to Bulgarian rule was the result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The Bulgarian residents of Sofia revolted and the Ottoman commander Suleiman Pasha threatened to burn the city. Foreign diplomats Leandre Legay, Vito Positano, Rabbi Gabriel Almosnino and Josef Valdhart refused to leave and that saved the city. Ar the time, however, Serbica of Sofia was so run down that it just had about 11000 inhabitants left.

Neo-Baroque buildings and the Alexander Nevski cathedral

Times have changed. When Russia threatened to invade Ukraine in 2022 the Western states recalled all their nationals and withdrew all their personal and diplomats. Consequently the Russians found neither resistance nor observers and could attack and destroy Ukraine without implications.

Alexander Nevski

The symbol of Sofia, the cathedral of Alexander Nevski, is a monument commemorating the Russian help for Bulgarian independence in the 19th century. Alexander Nevski was a Russian orthodox saint who had nothing to do with Bulgaria. Not far from the cathedral, the statue of the Russian Tsar Alexander also reminds of the Russian help to gain Bulgarian sovereignty and independence

Tsar Alexander, the godfather of Bulgaria

It is hot and I was walking around in the sun for hours. Going into a cool, pleasantly incense smelling and dark orthodox church is returning to a womb. Believers in orthodox churches are supposed to stand. There are only few seats without backrest and I sink down on one, enjoy the atmosphere and doze away. I am woken by a worried looking girl who asks me whether everything is alright with me. Yes, I feel much better now, thank you for building this church.

The former royal palace

The new state of Bulgaria needed a ruler. Like in Romania, they eventually found one in Germany. Otto von Bismarck and Tsar Alexander agreed on Alexander von Battenberg, a cousin of the Tsar. However, he had to abdicate and was replaced in 1887 by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Under his rule, the capital of the newly found Bulgarian kingdom, Sofia, started to flourish. Many Foreign and foreign-educated Bulgarian architects contributed to built a new city enter in Neo-Baroque, Neo-Rococo, Neo-Renaissance, Neoclassicism and Vienna Secession style.

Art-Deco in Sofia

Close to Alexander Nevski cathedral the king got his rather modest palace. Next to the palace there was a royal garden, which now is one of the favorite hangouts of the locals. Bands play in the evening and all kinds of activities are organized.

Building of the University

In the city center, close to the other cathedral, a big market hall was built. It was run down during the communist times but is recently restored to its former glory to house one of the western trading chains.

The market hall

Across the square there is the former bathhouse, built to offer the opportunity of a bath to the citizens of Sofia. It now houses the historic museum of the city.

Former bath house, now Museum of Sofia

The last Bulgarian Tsar was Boris III. Already in 1925, the Communist party supported by the Soviet Union tried to take power in Bulgaria and one means was to dispose of the king. One attempt was staged on 16th April 1925. The communists had assassinated general Konstantin Georgiev on the 14th of April in preparation of a bigger plan. The funeral of the general was to take place in the cathedral. Days before the communists had stacked the roof of the cathedral with explosives. While many of the leaders of Bulgarian military and politics attended the funeral in the church the bomb went off. The dome of the cathedral collapsed. 150 people were killed. However, the king was not there. Our guide explains that the reason was one of the characteristics of Bulgarians: he was late. However, he attended a ceremony celebrating his survival of another, different attempt to end his life.

Cathedral where the bomb attack took place

The main avenue constructed in the time of Bulgarian renaissance in the 19th century is Vitoshka boulevard. It is now a pedestrian zone and swarms with people. Street cafes line both sides. In the background are the peaks of the Vitoshka mountains, still with patches of snow remaining.

Street cafes in Vitosha Boulevard

The monthly minimum wage in Bulgaria is 500 €. The average income in Sofia is 1500 €. It is surprising that still the pedestrian zone is busy and the big number of cafes everywhere is well visited. Sofia is booming. There are many foreign visitors. One of the reasons might be this availability of cheap flights. In the guided tour is a group of Croatians, who came since a new, direct flight to Zagreb was introduced. There are groups of Americans and the street cafes house tables with heavily drinking British who stare at the screens displaying the first matches of the European soccer championship.

One of the cafes

It is incredibly hot. I sit down to have a drink in one of the cafes. They play this type of music which probably is called lounge and where you usually only hear the bass. I ask myself who wants that kind of entertainment. The guests? The waiters? The owners to attract guest? But they have delicious, cold, self made lemonade here. Why my neighbor drinks that outdated sugary black brown product I don’t know. I also don’t know how the waitresses can move as fast as they do in this heat without collapsing. How do they feel after work?

In the beginning of the second world war Boris III tried to keep neutral. However, in 1941 the Germans wanted to assist their Italian allies who were in trouble in Greece and demanded passage. Consequently, Bulgaria declared a symbolic war on the US and UK on 13th december 1941 because these were the countries as far away as possible and hopefully unaware about existence and location of Bulgaria as such. Boris III also resisted the German demand to send the Jewish population to concentration camps by resorting to a tactics of delay and manana. Eventually Bulgaria was the only country in the German occupied area which did not participate in the genocide.

Typical street in Sofia

However, meanwhile, the US and UK had found out where Bulgaria was. In late 1943 and early 1944 Sofia was symbolically bombed and a big part of the city center with 13.000 houses was destroyed.

Another typical street in Sofia

What happened in Bulgaria after 1944 is not taught anywhere. The museum of Sofia retelling its history dedicates a big part to Alexander von Battenberg, Ferdinand I and Tsar Boris and displays their thrones. After their time history in Bulgaria stops. When I participate in a guided tour the guide (Nicola) recalls that nothing was taught at school and at university only if you participate in very special classes. There is a museum of totalitarian art in Sofia, but it is strictly collecting art, it is not about politics. History starts again after membership with NATO and the EU.

The theater

The time of communism in Bulgaria can be exactly defined as from 9th September 1944 until 10th November 1989. On that date in 1944 the Red Army invaded Bulgaria. There was no resistance. However, 20.000-40.000 people disappeared or were killed as supposed supporters of the previous regime. Another 3000 were officially convicted and sentenced to death. Tsar Boris III had died in 1943. His son, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was 6 years old at the time. In his place, a triumvirate of regents took over. They were all also sentenced to death when the communists took over.

Courtyard of the president's office built during Stalinist era

The first communist leader of Bulgaria was Georgi Dimitrov. He had been an active communist from early on and had to go in exile. In Moscow he became a close ally of Josef Stalin. However, in 1949, during a visit in Moskow, 67 year old Dimitrov died. An autopsy was never published. There are theories about differences in opinion with Stalin about the role of Macedonia or Yugoslavia, but nobody will ever find out what actually happened.

The government buildings of Stalinist baroque

Eventually Dimitrov was succeeded by Todor Zhivkov, who ruled Bulgaria for 35 long years from 1954 until 1989.

Tsar Boris III had been very popular in Bulgaria. The communist regime needed to have a symbol replacing him. A good example for them was the Mausoleum for Lenin in Moscow. Immediately after Dimitrov’s death a Mausoleum was constructed for him in Sofia. It had to be finished quickly since his embalmed body was to be shown there after his return from Moscow. They managed to construct it in 6 days.

Throne of Tsar Boris III and his wife

The massive destruction of the city center in Sofia due to allied bombing also gave a reason to built a new city center in Stalin baroque. The party head quarter with a red star at its point faced a statue of Lenin on what was to be called Lenin square. The red star is long gone and Lenin was replaced by the statue of Saint Sofia. Lenin square is now independence square. Every age needs its symbols.

To the right the former communist party headquarters

In a park an enormous monument was constructed in 1954 to thank the Soviet Union for liberating Bulgaria from fascism. The inscription said “the Bulgarian people are thankful for the liberating Red Army”. On top there was a giant Russian soldier holding a rifle in one outstretched arm. At his feet a Bulgarian family in awe.

The remainders of the monument to the red army

They are busy demolishing the monument after long discussions. The statue on top is gone. The reliefs at the base had been the object for several artistic attempts of repainting. All were removed quickly after protests of the Russian embassy. However, one, which had repainted the figures of the relief into symbols of capitalism like Superman, Captain America, Ronald McDonald and Santa Claus has become iconic and is sold as t-shirts in souvenir stands.

Different colorful reincarnations of the relief on the monument

Another new building was the Rila Hotel. It is still there. Hidden behind the hotel is the tiny 13th century orthodox church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It is basically hidden between modern, communist era construction.

Church hidden behind new socialist construction

For the communists it was difficult to accept another religion. However, religion was not forbidden in Bulgaria. The churches stayed open. However, it could be bad for your career or privileges if you were seen attending a service. Nevertheless, Bulgarians tended to go to church at Easter and Christmas. The party reacted by sending spies and police into the street on these occasions. They did not do anything but intimidate and make church goers uncomfortable. As an accompanying measure, the only television station of Bulgaria at the time, which used to broadcast only state sanctioned eastern block productions, adapted their programs on Easter and Christmas. Only on these occasions they showed popular western movies. And how can a church compete with Clint Eastwood or Claudia Cardinale?

Alley of the hidden door

Like in other Eastern Block countries the Bulgarian secret service controlled everybody. The service was closely affiliated to the Russian KGB. A joke said: “when you are sitting at the table with 4 people, one must be a spy. And if it is not the others, it must be you.” A little door under what is now an Irish pub led to an underground labyrinth of investigation and torture rooms beneath the building of the secret service.

The hidden door where suspects and opponents of the regime were brought in for interrogation and torture

Suspicious or convicted people were sent to labor camps. With two exceptions, the camps were temporary and set up at locations were public works were going on. When the works were finished the survivors were moved to another project.

The former headquarters of the secret service

Nicola emphasizes that Communism also had its positive aspects. The literacy rate went up to 99%. Health care was at a high standard. Gender equality was high, but excluded the high ranks of politics. There was little unemployment. If you obeyed to the regime and did not object the limitations of your freedom you were well taken care off. The good education gave many Bulgarians, doctors, engineers and scientists a chance to emigrate to the west after the communist regime collapsed. A brain drain resulted.

The Rila hotel in socialist style

Sofia has a museum where this time is documented: “The Red Flat” shows how everyday life was in Communist Bulgaria. The communist era was the time where the family was most important. And it still is. Instead of sending sick or old people to care institutions they are taken care of by the family. A tradition which was completely lost in the western society.

Old woman selling flowers in the pedestrian zone

Before 1944 Bulgaria was essentially an agricultural society. The communist government promoted 5 year plans of fast industrialization. After 1990 it turned out that most of the industry was not competitive. 90% of companies closed. The ruins are visible everywhere. The workers ended up in the streets, unemployed, a thing they did not know before.

Street with Vitosha mountains in the background

Industrialization came with an increasing degree of urbanization. Huge housing projects had to be built. The standard size of an apartment was 72 square meter. Nikola stresses that the housing was not badly built. It was just monotonous. In contrast to other countries Bulgarians actually were allowed to own their houses or apartments as long as they did not exceed a size of 120 square meters. As a result, 90% of Bulgarians today life in their own property, one of the highest percentages in Europe next to Romania.

Vitosha Boulevard and the mountains in the background

In 1981 the last and most enormous building of the communist era in Bulgaria was opened on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of Bulgaria: the palace of culture is one of the largest cultural centers in the world. In addition to the visible structure above the ground and the gardens there is a cavernous underground structure. Like the tunnels under the mausoleum and under the secret service this underground world is not accessible...

The palace of culture

Every year on May 1st the communist leadership was presiding a parade passing the front of Dimitrov’s Mausoleum. However, in 1986, none of the rulers was there. The crowd was watching the parade in slight drizzle without the officals. On April 26th, at 1.23 in the morning, the catastrophe at the reactor in Chernobyl had happened. Sofia is not very far from Chernobyl. A cloud of fallout was moving west. Radioactive dust could come down with the drizzle. The communist rulers opted for safety and staid inside. There was no news about the incident at that point. The crowd did not know anything. But they would soon find out. And that could have been another reason that trust in the government was lost and 3 years later the collapse of the communist rule was coveted.

One of the typical tram built for all the countries of the eastern block during the communist era. In Sofia they even have two different gauges.

On November 10th 1989, one day after the wall in Berlin had fallen, the Bulgarian party committee held one of their regular meetings which were usually broadcast live on television. Todor Zhivkov was there, expecting the usual approval. Somebody got up and started to talk to him: ”Thank you for your work, comrade. But now you have deserved some rest.” That was the moment the communist regime had died in Bulgaria and reality TV was born.

Crossing of the tram lines with different gauge

In contrast to their leader the Bulgarian communist party was well prepared. They renamed into BSP, Bulgarian Socialist Party and won the next elections. Like in neighboring Romania the wild 90’ies started, where everybody who knew how to do it tried to grab his share. The Bulgarian mafia was born. In 1997 the country had a hyperinflation. If you got your salary in the morning you had to spend it immediately, otherwise you didn’t get anything for the money in the afternoon. 17 banks went bust. Eventually a currency board was introduced and the Lev was linked to the German Mark.

Monument for the fall of the Berlin wall with plates listing the names of victims of the communist regime

To add to the comedy, the son of the last Tsar of Bulgaria, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, showed up in Bulgarian politics and won the presidential elections in 2001.

Statue in front of the arts gallery

One of the first things they did after the fall of the communist regime was to remove symbols. Lenin and the red star were gone easily. However, also the Dimitrov mausoleum had to disappear. They tried to blow it up six times. It stayed put. It was built to resist the biggest of blasts. Eventually it was removed little by little. It took much longer than to built it.

When they started the demolition it turned out that the mausoleum had been built on an extensive maze of secret underground tunnels. One, wide enough for a small truck to drive through, went all the way to the Vitoshka mountains. The tunnels connected all the important buildings of the communist organization. In case of a riot or attack they could have left undetected.

Statue for the president killed by being hit with an ax

Now there is a park. The space where the mausoleum used to be is used for temporary exhibition of art works. The present is a black band with white letters. It reads “we are in between the future that has already begun and the past which is about to happen.”

The former location of the Mausoleum

Like other people Nikola sees the turn to the positive for his country in the membership in the NATO established in 2004 and the EU in 2007. Things are getting better and in some aspects Sofia is one of the boomtowns in Europe. Like in other countries the past is seen nostalgic by some and traumatic by others.