A Guide to the History and Architecture of Sofia (Book Two)
70 sites, 300 photos, and postcards

The streets and squares of Sofia are like an open-air museum, where various architectural styles intertwine, and behind the facades of the buildings lie intriguing and instructive—sometimes astonishing and salacious—stories of both a personal and public nature.

In *More Historical Routes: Sofia*, Zdravko Petrov continues the work he began in his first book on Sofia, describing another 70 streets, squares, complexes, and individual buildings scattered along two new routes through the central part of the capital—the first running from Graf Ignatiev Street to Positano Street, and the second—from Lion Bridge through the Women’s Market district to the magnificent building of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

In this book, you will discover where the homes of prominent Bulgarian ministers, generals, mayors of Sofia, industrialists, financiers, teachers, doctors, and lawyers were located. You will learn the names of the architects who shaped the cityscape of the capital.

You’ll turn the pages of the stories of: a baroness from Lower Saxony; the Kanazirski family; the Arsovs of Papradishte; Prince Alexander I’s “little palace”; the artist Ivan Milev; the mosque of Sofou Mehmed Pasha; Petko and Ekaterina Karavelov; the “Charles-Jean” affair; the Slaveykov family; the first insurance cooperative; the Gutenberg sculpture in Sofia; the building with the eagle; the assassination attempt on attorney Dobrinovich; “The Long Tavern”; the arches of Lion Bridge; the Arie brothers’ perfume factory; the weekly market (Women’s Market); one of the heroes of the Eighth Coastal Regiment; the Džapunov family; the Jewish buildings on “Exarch Joseph” Street; the Peevs’ chocolate factory; the lost section of “Maria Luisa” Street; Džumaliev’s mill and Batolov’s watermill; the Romanian church; the builder of the “Bulgarian Phoenix” Society; the Yuchbunar Bank; the building known as the “American skyscraper” in the late 1920s…

The author of the book, Zdravko Petrov, is the founder of the “Historical Routes” project (historicalroutes.bg), through which he organizes cultural and educational tours of historical and cultural landmarks in downtown Sofia and reveals interesting facts about the architecture and history of the city’s most beautiful houses and public buildings. He has already developed three itineraries: “Sofia’s Homes,” “Sofia’s ‘Palaces,'” and “Women’s Market.”

“This is a project that traces the various periods in the city’s development and presents them not in isolation, but within the unity of their existence and impact. Every ‘piece of the puzzle of history’ has its own specific place in the capital’s landscape. And even though some of these ‘pieces’ may not always be to our liking, they, too, are part of history and provide us with knowledge and memory,” says the author.