SOFIA. A Crossroads City/ History and Museums

At first glance this seemingly ordinary city, which acquired its present architectural appearance in the twentieth century, gives away nothing to reveal that it is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Indeed, Sofia hides its treasures and keeps its secrets well. This is also expressed in its coat of arms whose motto, "Ever Growing But Never Ageing, " seems to have found the secret of eternal youth. It is almost impossible to imagine, for example, that the present streets in the centre of Sofia lie over the remains of a 7,000-year old civilization or that the Thracian Serdi tribe founded the city more than 2,500 years ago. After the culture of Antiquity, Sofia "acquired blessings " (as Patriarch Euthymius put it in the fourteenth century) in the Middle Ages as well, when it became famous as a "glorious Bulgarian city within Europe. " During the ages of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the city was under foreign rule. This introduced the pointed minarets of mosques into its skyline and the nuances of an entirely different culture into Bulgarian mentality. The Liberation (1878) brought Sofia the joy of being chosen as capital of newly restored Bulgaria.