City Garden (Sofia)

City garden in the morning with an Art Nouveau stall selling foreign press.

The City Garden ( Bulgarian Gradska Gradina ) is the oldest and centrally located public garden in Sofia , the capital of Bulgaria , existing since 1872. To the north of it is Tsar Liberator Boulevard , to the west is the street of Prince Alexander Battenberg and to the south is the street of Joseph Vladimirovich Gurko.

Originally established in the last years of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the City Garden was radically transformed immediately after Bulgaria gained independence in 1878 and Sofia was chosen as its capital, next year under the leadership of city architect Antonin Kolar and on the initiative of interim governor Peter Alabin . The network of alleys was reorganized, new plants were added, as well as a low wooden fence, a coffee shop and a kiosk for musicians. The garden first bore the name of Alexander II , the Russian emperor and initiator of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 , which led to the independence of Bulgaria.

Until the end of the 19th century, the City Garden was repeatedly rebuilt and developed. Among the famous gardeners who worked on it were Karl Betz, Daniel Neff and Ilya Todorov, who shaped the appearance of the garden, preserved until the outbreak of World War II .

The construction of the now demolished Mausoleum of George Dimitrov , which began shortly after the establishment of the communist regime in Bulgaria after the end of the war, was accompanied by numerous fundamental reorganizations, such as in 1951 and 1959, carried out by Sugarev and Robev, and in 1976 and 1978 by Agur. This led to the reorientation of the garden not towards the former royal palace, as it was before, but towards the Ivan Vazov National Theater . The new composition often came into conflict with the original layout, and the City Garden lost its territory and key architectural elements at that time.

Nowadays, the City Garden is not only a popular resting place for residents of the Bulgarian capital, but also a favorite place for chess lovers, who can be regularly seen in a small garden in front of the National Theater. It was also the place where a group of about 300 people, led by writer Aleko Konstantinov, gathered on August 27, 1895 to climb Mount Cherni Vrykh , the highest peak of the Vitosha massif, which is considered the birth date of tourism in Bulgaria .