500px Photo ID: 107675873 -

Diana Bojilova / 500px

Sofia City Garden

Sofia


This small, central park, bounded on its northern end by ul Tsar Osvoboditel, is favoured by Sofia's chess-playing pensioners. It's home to the National Theatre, and until 1999 held the mausoleum of Bulgaria’s first communist ruler, Georgi Dimitrov.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Sofia attractions

1. Sofia City Art Gallery

0.08 MILES

The chunky building at the southern end of the City Garden park is an art gallery staging rotating exhibitions of mostly contemporary Bulgarian and…

2. Archaeological Museum

0.1 MILES

Housed in a former mosque built in 1496, this museum displays a wealth of Thracian, Roman and medieval artefacts. Highlights include a mosaic floor from…

3. Ethnographical Museum

0.12 MILES

Displays on regional costumes, crafts and folklore are spread over two floors of the former royal palace, and many of the rooms are worth a pause…

4. Royal Palace

0.12 MILES

Originally built as the headquarters of the Ottoman police force, this is where Bulgaria’s national hero Vasil Levski was tried and tortured before his…

5. President's Building

0.14 MILES

The Bulgarian president’s office isn't open to the public, but the changing of the guard ceremony (on the hour) is a spectacle not to be missed; for the…

6. Party House

0.16 MILES

This domineering Stalinist monolith, built in 1953, was once the headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party. It is now used as government offices and…

7. National Museum of Natural History

0.16 MILES

You can almost sense the ghosts of generations of school parties dutifully trooping through the musty halls of Bulgaria's oldest museum, founded in 1889…

8. Sveti Georgi Rotunda

0.17 MILES

Built in the 4th century AD, this tiny red-brick church is Sofia's oldest preserved building. The murals inside were painted between the 10th and 14th…