Survivor
In antiquity Sofia was known as Serdica, after a Thracian tribe in this region. This 4th century building--the oldest surviving building in Sofia--was built during the reign of Constantine the Great, who was so fond of the city that he considered moving his capital here before settling on Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul. There is not complete agreement on the original purpose of the building, but it seems most likely that it was part of a royal bath complex, then later became a baptistry and then the Church of the Rotunda Saint George (or Sveti Georgi) in the early middle ages.
In a pattern typical in the Balkans, when the Ottomans took over in the 14th century they converted it into a mosque and plastered over its ancient Christian frescoes. The Ottomans were expelled in the late 19th century, and in the decades that followed the plaster was removed from hundreds or even thousands of regional churches/mosques, revealing ancient and medieval frescoes that were often amazingly well-preserved.
After WWII, when the communists took over, they typically sought to diminish the role of religion in public life. Sometimes they just demolished churches, but they rarely did so with the most historic ones, fearing international condemnation and domestic backlash. In the case of Sveti Georgi they constructed an enormous government building that encloses it on four sides and completely sealed it off from the view of all those who did not enter into the complex.
The Church of the Rotunda Saint George, AKA Sveti Georgi, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Survivor
In antiquity Sofia was known as Serdica, after a Thracian tribe in this region. This 4th century building--the oldest surviving building in Sofia--was built during the reign of Constantine the Great, who was so fond of the city that he considered moving his capital here before settling on Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul. There is not complete agreement on the original purpose of the building, but it seems most likely that it was part of a royal bath complex, then later became a baptistry and then the Church of the Rotunda Saint George (or Sveti Georgi) in the early middle ages.
In a pattern typical in the Balkans, when the Ottomans took over in the 14th century they converted it into a mosque and plastered over its ancient Christian frescoes. The Ottomans were expelled in the late 19th century, and in the decades that followed the plaster was removed from hundreds or even thousands of regional churches/mosques, revealing ancient and medieval frescoes that were often amazingly well-preserved.
After WWII, when the communists took over, they typically sought to diminish the role of religion in public life. Sometimes they just demolished churches, but they rarely did so with the most historic ones, fearing international condemnation and domestic backlash. In the case of Sveti Georgi they constructed an enormous government building that encloses it on four sides and completely sealed it off from the view of all those who did not enter into the complex.
The Church of the Rotunda Saint George, AKA Sveti Georgi, Sofia, Bulgaria.