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Sofia History
The Thracian tribe Serdi, who settled here nearly 3000 years back, was the first inhabitant of Sofia. Their Roman conquerors named it Serdica, a walled city that reached its zenith under Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century. Migrating Slavs began to filter into the city in the seventh century, becoming the dominant force in the region after Serdica's capture by the Bulgar Khan Krum in 809. The city continued to flourish under the Bulgarians, although few medieval cultural monuments remain, save for the thirteenth-century Boyana church. Five centuries of Ottoman rule began with the city's capture in 1382, during which time Sofia thrived as a market centre, though little material evidence of the Ottoman period remains save for a couple of mosques. Economic decline set in during the nineteenth century, hastened by earthquakes in 1852. Sofia was a minor provincial centre at the time of the Liberation in 1878, when defeat of the Ottoman Empire by Russian forces paved the way for the foundation of an independent Bulgarian state. Sofia was chosen to become the new capital of the country in preference to more prestigious centres (such as Târnovo in central Bulgaria) because of its geographical location: situated on a wide plain fringed by mountains, Sofia combined defensibility with the potential for future growth. It was also thought that it would occupy a central position in any Bulgarian state which included (as was then hoped) Macedonia. The city’s mopre frentic growth started during the time of second World War, "socialist construction", and a veneer of Stalinist monumentalize was added to the city centre in the shape of buildings like the Party House, a stern-looking expression of political authority. Sofia's rising population was housed in the endless high-rise suburbs (places with declamatory names like Mladost - "Youth", Druzhba - "Friendship", and Nadezhda - "Hope") that girdle the city today.
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