Church of St. Sophia

Another building in Sofia, preserved from the end of the antique period, is the Church of St. Sophia of which further mention will be made. The excavations undertaken many years ago around, and pariicularly in the church itself, established that the present building, which is a vaulted basilica with a cupola, was built only in the 6th or 7th century A. D. on the site of two smaller 4th or 5th century churches, which had been consecutively destroyed by the invading Huns and Goths. This was a cemetery church situated outside the city walls. The floors of both the older churches were covered with beautiful mosaics. Numerous graves were found around the churches at the time, as well as masonry tombs, some of which were richly decorated with mural paintings. The necropolis is Early Christian and dates back to the 3th or 6th century. There are also graves of the 10th to 14th century.

Although very rarely, certain ancient buildings were preserved for a long time, and even up to the present day in certain other towns. Thus, for instance, even to this day the ruins of a big building, called the Roman tower, are to be seen in Varna; its walls bear traces of having been built and re-built many times at later dates. Passages of tremendous length now form deep basements beneath this building. It was probably a big public building or fortified palace of the 3rd century A. D. which was later partly destroyed, only parts of it being used in the Middle Ages and preserved to the present day travel bulgaria. In Plovdiv the remains of Trimontium’s (the Town of Three Hills) walls have been preserved on Djambaz Tepe; they show traces of extensive repairs at a later date. However, the walls of the former Roman city of Augustae — today known as Hissarya Spa near Levskigrad, are in the best state of preservation.

The southern city gate, known as the «Camels» impresses the approaching traveller with its colossal body, rising on the road leading to the town, although it has lost the two square towers that formerly flanked it, and its upper part. Its plan, and particularly its superstructure, with a tower in the centre, brings to mind the images of city gates found on the coins that were minted in the cities of Thrace and Moesia in the 2nd and 3rd centuries B. C Far more important ruins of the old Roman fortifications were preserved up to the 19th century at many places in the Bulgarian lands, particularly along the Danube. The ruins of Trajan’s Gate in the Ihtiman Pass were particularly imposing; however, as absolutely nothing was done to preserve these ruins before the Liberation from Ottoman bondage and in the years immediately following it, a large part of them was completely destroyed.

The town of Pomorie

One of the most interesting and massive monuments of funeral architecture in the period of Roman rule has been preserved under a mound near the town of Pomorie (ancient Anchialo). The tomb is distinguished both by its plan and its size, as well as by its construction and the original disposition of its space. It consists of a covered vaulted passage, 22 m., long, flanked on both sides by square chambers; the passage leads to the funeral chamber, which is round and has a diameter of 11.60 m., with a brick column in the centre, 3.5 m. in diameter, hollow on the inside with an opening on the south side opposite the passage, and at its top.

The space between the column and the walls of the tomb forms a ring-shaped corridor, 4.05m. wide, 5.50m. high, and semi-cylindrically vaulted, with the column supporting the inner side of the vault, and thus forming a funnel-shaped extension. The tomb is a real mausoleum. Despite the new manner of construction and the new architectural conception, certain elements of the architecture of the old Thracian cupola tombs have, nevertheless,, been preserved in it. The mausoleum may be dated back to the 4th century A. D.