History of the town

The capital of the Republic of Bulgaria is a unique city that grows but never ages, with a history spanning more than 7,000 years.

Emerging around a hot mineral spring at the crossroads of key routes connecting Western Europe with Asia Minor and the Middle East, as well as the Baltic with the Aegean Sea, the city of Sofia has witnessed and remembers much. Its millennia-long continuity is a distinction shared by very few European cities.

Since 45 AD, the territory inhabited by the Serdi was incorporated into the newly established Roman province of Thrace. The city initially flourished as the center of an administrative district in the province of Thrace, and by the end of the 3rd century, it became the capital of the newly created province of Dacia Mediterranea. In the second half of the 2nd century, between 176 and 180 AD, during the joint reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, the city was fortified with a defensive wall.

The Bulgarian Khan Krum (803–814) recognized the strategic importance of the city, besieging and capturing it in the spring of 809. However, its definitive integration into the First Bulgarian Kingdom can be attributed to the reign of Khan Omurtag (814–831). Following the conquest of the northeastern Bulgarian lands, including the capital Preslav, by the Byzantine Empire in 972, Sredets (as Sofia was then called) became the temporary capital of the Bulgarian state. The city retained its significance even during the period of Byzantine rule from 1018 to 1194. During the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, Sredets experienced prolonged economic and cultural prosperity (1194–1382), growing into a fully developed medieval city.

The name "Sofia" was first mentioned in 1376. In 1382, following a three-month siege, Sofia fell to the Ottoman conquerors.

After the city's liberation from Ottoman rule on January 4, 1878, Sofia was unanimously chosen as the capital of the restored Bulgarian state by the First Constituent National Assembly on April 3, 1879.

Throughout its centuries of development, Sofia has consistently played a pivotal role in the history of the Bulgarian lands as a central hub and natural crossroads linking East and West, as well as the northern countries to those south of Bulgaria. A city unlike any other, Sofia continues to grow without aging, with a history spanning more than 7,000 years.