Settling back into life in Sofia (map), I had several days to explore the centre and environs at leisure.
Yes, that is a tram in the background
Some of the more interesting buildings included the Russian Church, consecrated in 1914 on the site of an earlier mosque. All five domes are golden, and gleam in the sun, after a recent restoration. The interior, alas, still awaits similar treatment.
Russian Church
Another is the Synagogue, the largest in this region, which again dates to the early twentieth century (1909), and is in Moorish Revival style.
Synagogue
As so often, the archaeological museum did not allow photography, but the National Historical Museum just outside Sofia did. As befits a Communist showpiece, it is solid, massive, and concrete. Despite the height of the ceilings, it is also quite gloomy inside, but that perhaps just set off the treasures inside all the more.
18th c Artophorion
Some of the more spectacular include the Panagyurishte treasure, a collection of nine golden vessels weighing more than six kilogrammes in total, including seven rhyta, drinking cups with bases shaped like the forepart of animals, and an amphora shewing a young Heracles killing the two snakes Hera sent to kill him.
Bull Rhyton
Amphora
No comments:
Post a Comment