Dragalevtsi Monastery

The Boyana Church is a complex of three buildings from different periods. The first is the eastern church, built in the 10th century. This first church was enlarged in the middle of the 13th century with the second two-storey building built next to it. The third church was built at the beginning of the 19th century. The church has one of the most important collections of medieval paintings in Europe with frescoes from the 13th century. In 1979 it was included in the World Heritage List.

The former mosque is the oldest building of its kind in Sofia. The mosque with its squared plan has nine domes of equal diameter. They are supported by pointed arches and covered with leaden sheets. The middle ones are higher and ‘the entire space, through a special system of domes and arches, is an absolutely symmetrical construction, and it’s on this symmetry, harmony and equality among all its parts, that the major artistic effect is due. During the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878) the mosque was turned into a hospital. Later it was a library, museum and printing house, and since 1892 it has housed the National Archaeological Institute With Museum .

The Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker, known as the Russian Church, is one of the most emblematic buildings in the city. Its construction began in the late 19th century and was originally designed as a chapel at the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria. The temple almost immediately lost its role after the Russian Revolution in 1917.