Sofia

Sofia's great landmark is a neo-Byzantine cathedral with gold and green domes, built between the 1880s and 1912 as a memorial to the Russian soldiers who died in the war of 1877–78 that ended Ottoman rule in Bulgaria. It is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the Balkans, and inside it is dark, vast and hushed, lit by candles and chandeliers, with walls of murals, onyx and marble, and a richly carved iconostasis. In the crypt, a branch of the National Gallery keeps a superb collection of Orthodox icons from across the country, dating from the medieval period to the nineteenth century.

TipEntry to the cathedral itself is free; the crypt icon gallery is ticketed and closed on Mondays. Come for a sung service on a Sunday morning, when the choir is the best reason to visit, and look for the antiques and icon sellers in the square outside.

Just across the square from Alexander Nevsky, this plain red-brick basilica is far older and, for many, more moving. The present church dates mostly from the sixth century, the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, on the site of several earlier churches and a Roman cemetery, and in the fourteenth century its name passed to the whole city. Under the Ottomans it became a mosque, and earthquakes toppled its minaret; restored as a church in the twentieth century, it is now simple and light inside. Steps lead down to an underground museum, where walkways pass over early Christian tombs and mosaic floors.

TipOutside, by the east wall, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by a stone lion; the grave of the poet Ivan Vazov lies beside the church.

Hidden in the courtyard behind the Presidency and the Sheraton hotel, this small round church of red brick is the oldest standing building in Sofia, built by the Romans in the fourth century, possibly as a bathhouse or ceremonial hall, and later turned into a church. Inside, the dome holds several layers of frescoes painted between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, including a ring of prophets that once lay hidden under Ottoman plaster when the building served as a mosque. Around it are the foundations of Roman streets and buildings from the old city.

TipTime your visit to catch the changing of the guard outside the Presidency, on the hour, by soldiers in nineteenth-century uniform with plumed caps.

When the metro was dug under the city centre, engineers kept hitting Roman Serdika, and rather than bury it again the city put it on show. At the Serdika metro interchange and in the open-air complex of the Largo, between the Presidency and the former party headquarters, you can walk among streets paved with large stones, the foundations of houses, baths and an early church, and the bases of the city's east gate. The site, known as Ancient Serdika, is free to wander and lit at night, a striking sight with modern trams and the Banya Bashi minaret in the background.

TipPart of the remains can be seen through glass in the metro station concourse itself, so look down as you change lines.

The only working mosque in central Sofia dates from the sixteenth century and is traditionally linked to the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. Its name means "many baths", for the thermal springs here, which have drawn people since Roman times. Across a small garden stands the Central Mineral Baths, a handsome early-twentieth-century building of yellow and black stripes that now houses the Sofia History Museum, with displays on the city's growth since Roman times. Outside, public taps run with warm mineral water, and locals queue with plastic bottles to fill up.

TipVisitors can enter the mosque outside prayer times if dressed modestly; women should cover their heads. The water from the taps is drinkable and warm, at around 40°C.

Opposite the mosque on Maria Luiza Boulevard, Sofia's covered market hall opened in 1911, a neo-Renaissance building with a clock tower and decorations that blend Byzantine and Bulgarian motifs. It is more of a shopping centre than a raw market today, with cafés and food stalls alongside sellers of cheese, honey, wine and preserves, but it is a good place to buy Bulgarian products and see the architecture of early independent Sofia. A short walk away, the women's market, Zhenski Pazar, is the real thing: crowded, cheap and full of fruit, vegetables and spices.

TipHead to Zhenski Pazar in the morning, and look out for jars of lyutenitsa, the roast pepper and tomato relish, to take home.

Sofia's main pedestrian street runs south from the church of Sveta Nedelya towards the Palace of Culture, with the mountain it is named after filling the view at the end. It is lined with shops, cafés and restaurants that spill out onto the street in summer, and it is where the city comes to stroll in the evening. Side streets nearby hide many of the best bars and small restaurants, and the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, in its neoclassical building and park, is a few blocks east.

TipThe terrace cafés directly on the boulevard are pricier; walk a block either side for better value.

At the southern end of Vitosha Boulevard, the NDK is a vast, angular conference and concert centre opened in 1981 to celebrate thirteen hundred years of the Bulgarian state. Love it or loathe it, it is one of the defining buildings of late communist Europe, and it still hosts concerts, film festivals, exhibitions and fairs. The long park in front, with fountains and skateboarders, is one of the city's most popular meeting places, and the views of Vitosha from here are excellent.

TipCheck the NDK programme for the Sofia Film Fest and other events; the park is at its liveliest on summer evenings.

In the leafy suburb of Boyana, at the foot of Vitosha, a small medieval church holds one of the most important collections of medieval painting in Europe. Its frescoes, dated to 1259, show saints and donors with a warmth and individuality of expression that was unusual for their time: the portraits of the local ruler Kaloyan and his wife Desislava are especially lifelike. The church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979. It is part of the National History Museum, and visits are kept short and in small groups to protect the paintings.

TipBuy tickets at the desk on site, and expect a wait in summer, as only a few visitors are allowed in at a time. The National History Museum, in a former government residence nearby, makes a good pairing.

Vitosha is Sofia's backyard: a granite dome covered in pine and beech forest, crossed by marked trails and protected as the oldest nature park in the Balkans, founded in 1934. Its summit, Cherni Vrah, the "black peak", rises to 2,290 metres, and on a clear day the view takes in Sofia, the Rila and Pirin mountains and much of western Bulgaria. Most people start from Aleko, a ski and hiking area high on the north side that can be reached by road, and walk up to the summit in about two hours. Lower down, the Golden Bridges are a river of giant boulders through the forest, and the Boyana waterfall is a popular walk from the suburbs.

TipLift services from the Simeonovo and Dragalevtsi sides have had long closures in recent years, so check which are running before you go. Weather changes fast at the top, so bring a warm layer even in summer.

High in the north-west Rila mountains, about two hours' drive south of Sofia, seven glacial lakes lie in a staircase of cirques between 2,100 and 2,500 metres, each with its own name: the Tear, the Eye, the Kidney, the Twin, the Trefoil, the Fish Lake and the Lower Lake. It is the most visited mountain landscape in Bulgaria. From the resort of Panichishte, near the spa town of Sapareva Banya, a chairlift lifts walkers to the Rila Lakes hut, and from there a well-marked loop climbs past the lakes to a ridge where most of them can be seen at once. Allow four to six hours for the round walk.

TipThe chairlift normally runs in summer and early autumn only, and queues build at weekends; arrive early, on a weekday if you can, and bring cash for the ticket. Snow can linger near the upper lakes into July. The area lies in Rila National Park: stay on trails and don't swim in the lakes.

Bulgaria's largest and most famous monastery sits in a forested valley deep in the Rila mountains, founded in the tenth century by the hermit St John of Rila and kept alive through centuries of Ottoman rule as a centre of Bulgarian language and faith. Most of what you see was rebuilt after a fire in 1833: tall, striped residential wings with wooden balconies enclose a courtyard where the church of the Nativity stands, its porches covered in brilliant frescoes of saints, sinners and the Last Judgement. The fourteenth-century Hrelyo's Tower is the oldest surviving building. It became a World Heritage Site in 1983.

TipEntry to the monastery and church is free; the museum, with its tiny, intricately carved wooden cross, is ticketed. Dress modestly, and walk for twenty minutes up the valley to the cave of St John for a quieter moment. Simple rooms in the monastery itself can be booked for an overnight stay.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, is about two hours east of Sofia, and its finest monument is the Roman theatre of Philippopolis, built in the second century AD into the slope between two of the city's hills. Its marble tiers, for several thousand spectators, look down over the stage building to the plain beyond. It was buried and forgotten until a landslide uncovered it in the late 1960s, and today it hosts opera, concerts and festivals again in summer. Elsewhere in the centre, part of the Roman stadium curves beneath the main pedestrian street, beside the Ottoman Dzhumaya Mosque.

TipPlovdiv was European Capital of Culture in 2019, and the lively Kapana quarter, the "trap", of narrow streets full of galleries, bars and cafés, is the place to eat and drink.

Above the Roman theatre, the cobbled lanes of the old town wind over the hill of Nebet Tepe, where Thracians first settled thousands of years ago. They are lined with the elegant houses of nineteenth-century merchants, painted in bold colours, with upper floors jutting out over the street on wooden brackets. Several are open as museums, including the Regional Ethnographic Museum in the Kuyumdzhiev House, and others hold galleries and guesthouses. Climb to the ruins on top of Nebet Tepe at sunset for a view over the city's hills.

TipA combined ticket covers several of the old town's house museums; the cobbles are rough, so wear sensible shoes.

In a high valley of the Sredna Gora hills, about two hours east of Sofia, this small town looks much as it did in 1876, when it was the place where the April Uprising against Ottoman rule broke out. Its streets of cobbles and stone bridges are lined with brightly painted houses behind high walls, built by wealthy wool and livestock traders, and several are open as museums dedicated to the town's revolutionaries and poets. Every five years it hosts a huge national folklore festival on the meadows above the town, with thousands of singers and dancers in costume.

TipKoprivshtitsa makes a peaceful overnight stop between Plovdiv and Sofia. The railway station is several kilometres from the town, so check for a connecting bus, or drive.