Hotels near St. Sofia Church and Sveta Nedelya

St. Sofia Church, right next to Alexander Nevsky, is a 6th-century Byzantine basilica built during the reign of Emperor Justinian I over the ruins of two earlier 4th-century churches. It is the church that gave the whole city its name after the 14th century, and its plain red-brick exterior conceals a surprisingly austere interior with fragments of the original opus sectile floors and a 6th-century mosaic. Underneath sits a large underground necropolis with tombs, foundations, and a mosaic floor from around 350 AD, opened as a paid museum with clearly signed English panels.

800 metres south-west, the Sveta Nedelya Cathedral sits in the middle of the roundabout that acts as Sofia's zero point for road distances. The current neo-Byzantine building was consecrated in 1933 after the earlier church was blown up in the 1925 St. Nedelya assault - a Bulgarian Communist Party terror attack that killed 150 people including 15 generals and injured 500 more, and remains the deadliest terror attack in Bulgarian history. Both churches are free to enter and daily Orthodox liturgies at 08:00 and 18:00 are open to all.

Pro Tip: Buy the 6-lev combined ticket for the St. Sofia crypt and necropolis at the desk to the left of the main entrance - the underground level is genuinely unusual and the ticket also includes access to the small museum of medieval Sofia through the same door.