Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-26
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
ABOUT SOFIA

| scene OF the principal occurrences IN
! the recent coup d'etat hat replaced
the peasant government with a more
moderate regime, is the subject OF
the following bulletin from Washing
ton, ID. O., headquarters Of the Ma
tional Geographic Society:
SOFIA might be compared to q
plot of weeds plowed under to give
place to a well-ordered garden says
the bulletin. "A town existed on the
same site throughout the 500 years
during which Bulgaria remained IN
subsection to Turkey; but 1t was a
struggling, unkempt affair of narrow,
crooked alleys, alternately mud n
dust, lined by squalid structures that
were little better than novels.
Prom Medieval Village 10 Modern
CITY
with Russia's liberation Of Bull
garia from Turkey in 1887, however,
a new era began for Sofia. Slowly
at first and more rapidly later, alleys
were transformed into streets and
~boulevards, while modern structures
crowded out ramshackle huts. The
rend was steadily from the medieval
village that represented the Turkish
idea Of less important towns, to the
modern Western city. Recently freed
Bulgaria set her face definitely to-
ward the west and especially gave
expression to her longings to be con-
sidered European through the re-
shaping of her capital.
THE start toward the new Sofia
was made by the first ruler of the
principality, Alexander of Batten-
berg. who built the royal palace. 1t
is not ornamental but a substantial
edifice far in advance of any struc-
ture of the old Turkish town. Much
more rapid transformations were
made under King or Tsar Ferdinand
during the last years of the nine
teenth century. He had large Sec
tions of the Turkish 'slums' torn
down and replaced with five-story
brick and stucco dwellings.
some factor that has counted
heavily in giving Sofia a modern
Western aspect is the fact that under
500 years of Turkish repression there
was little chance for Bulgarian
architectral art to live. Western ar
chitects and landscape gardeners con-
sequently were called in. The re-
sulting city of today, built for sub
stantiality, has much the aspect Oh
a modern French city of medium
size. 1t has grown in recent years
to have q population of more than
$50, 600 and is still on the increase.
Occasional Minaret Points. to Past
THE few touches that bind Sofia
to the past come when through a
vista of modern business buildings
perhaps over the tops of changing
electric tram-cars-one catches u
glimpse of a slender minaret of some
mosque that has survived the relig-
ious cataclysm that turned Moslem
'Rumelia' into Christian Bulgaria
Several of the smaller mosques are
still used by the few thousand Mos
lem inhabitants of Sofia One, the
large Mosque of Buyuk Djamia, is
now used as a national museum and
library. Another former mosque,
Tscherna Djamia, is used as a place
Of worship by the Orthodox Church
(Christian,) which is the state re-
ligion of Bulgaria.
Modern ecclesiastical architecture
has given the city a number of fine
edifices of which the leading n is
the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky,
costing a million and a quarter dol
lars, built as a memorial to the war
of liberation. Other fine buildings
that have sprung up to replace the
of Turkish days are the palace
of the Holy Synod, the Parliament
House, the Bulgarian National Thea
tire, and the magnificent public bath,
a worthy follower of the baths built
in the city to utilize the same hot
springs when the region was a part
of a Roman province. This bath is
said to be the finest structure of the
sort in the world.
Sofia was founded by Trajan as
the Roman colony of Serdica or r
dica about the beginning of the Sec
.nd century after Christ. The Bull
garians later called the place Sre-
detz, but by the fourteenth century
it had taken the name of an old
church, which, in a ruined condition,
today. Like the more famous
5ancta Sophia of Constantinople. this
church was often called
Saint Sophia a blatant error since
such saint has ever existed. The
names of the Bulgarian capital and
the great church-mosque of Constan-
both are traceable to 'Sancta
Sophia" meaning Holy Wisdom
Ancient Sardica had its contacts
with the early Christian religion, as
did many of the old cities of the
East. The Council of Sardica,
held in 343 A. D., made one of the
earliest recognitions of the Primary
Of the Bishop of Rome. and so help
ed to build up the Papal institution"