Sofia is very much an unknown. It’s merely the name that sounds familiar: Sofia, wisdom. A few years ago, a statue of the city’s patron St Sophia was erected on a plinth formerly occupied by Lenin. Crowned in gold, the beautiful barefoot figure has watched over the traffic at the heart of the Bulgarian capital ever since.
Sofia may be a chaotic city, but it is not hectic. With its wide open spaces, areas of green and shady avenues, it has a rather sleepy feel. Although the most important buildings in the centre have received a facelift, there is much here that seems almost accidental, provisional, a little run-down and slovenly. Sofia is not a city that you simply must see, Sofia is a city you have to feel.
Writer: Gero Günther; Photographer: Peter Neusser
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