St. Petka church in Sofia, Bulgaria

One of the cities we went to in Bulgaria was Sofia and it was just incredible!

We stumbled across this church and although the underground murals were closed off, I did get to enter one of the rooms.



Here is what wiki says about it:



The Church of St Petka of the Saddlers (Bulgarian: Църква „Света Петка Самарджийска“) is a medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

It is a small one-naved building partially dug into the ground located in the very centre of both the modern and the antique city, in the TZUM underpass. The church features a semi-cylindrical vault, a hemispherical apse, and a crypt discovered during excavations after the Second World War. The walls are 1 m thick and made from brick and stone.

The church was first mentioned in the 16th century and was constructed at the place of a former Roman religious building. It is today a monument of culture known for its mural paintings from the 14th, 15th, 17th and 19th century depicting biblical scenes.

The church is dedicated to St Petka, an 11th-century Bulgarian saint. The Church of Saint Petka acquired its present name due to it being a patron of the saddlers in the Middle Ages, who performed their rituals in the church. The adjective samardzhiyski ("of the saddlers") was derived from the Ottoman Turkish word semerci, meaning "saddlemaker".


Here are some photos I took outside the church.













The building itself:








A photo from the entrance room downstairs and after I took it a woman came out and said NEH NEH NEH which I assume meant no pics so this is the only one.









A map so you can situate Sofia - it is quite far inland. Varna is on the Black sea Coast which merits a story for another day.






This is right up my alley. I love history and this beaut was right in the middle of the pedestrian only walkway. So fun!