๐ง๐ฌ Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the eponymous valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has many mineral springs, such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths. It has a humid continental climate. Being in the centre of the Balkans, it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and closest to the Aegean Sea.
Known as Serdica in Antiquity and Sredets in the Middle Ages, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. The recorded history of the city begins with the attestation of the conquest of Serdica by the Roman Republic in 29 BC from the Celtic tribe Serdi. During the decline of the Roman Empire, the city was raided by Huns, Visigoths, Avars and Slavs. In 809 Serdica was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire by Khan Krum and became known as Sredets. In 1018, the Byzantines ended Bulgarian rule until 1194, when it was reincorporated by the reborn Bulgarian Empire. Sredets became a major administrative, economic, cultural and literary hub until its conquest by the Ottomans in 1382. From 1530 to 1826, Sofia was the regional capital of Rumelia Eyalet, the Ottoman Empire's key province in Europe. Bulgarian rule was restored in 1878. Sofia was selected as the capital of the Third Bulgarian State in the next year, ushering a period of intense demographic and economic growth.
Sofia is the 14th largest city in the European Union. It is surrounded by mountainsides, such as Vitosha by the southern side, Lyulin by the western side, and the Balkan Mountains by the north, which makes it the third highest European capital after Andorra la Vella and Madrid. Being Bulgaria's primate city, Sofia is home of many of the major local universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies. The city has been described as the "triangle of religious tolerance". This is due to the fact that three temples of three major world religionsโChristianity, Islam and Judaismโare situated within one square: Sveta Nedelya Church, Banya Bashi Mosque and Sofia Synagogue. This triangle was recently expanded to a "square" and includes the Catholic Cathedral of St Joseph.
Sofia has been named one of the top ten best places for start-up businesses in the world, especially in information technologies. It was Europe's most affordable capital to visit in 2013. In 1979, the Boyana Church in Sofia was included onto the World Heritage List, and it was deconstructed in the Second Bulgarian Empire, holding much patrimonial symbolism to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. With its cultural significance in Southeast Europe, Sofia is home to the National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria, the National Palace of Culture, the Vasil Levski National Stadium, the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the National Archaeological Museum, and the Serdica Amphitheatre. The Museum of Socialist Art includes many sculptures and posters that educate visitors about the lifestyle in communist Bulgaria.
The urban area of Sofia comprises Sofia City Province and parts of Sofia Province (Dragoman, Slivnitsa, Kostinbrod, Bozhurishte, Svoge, Elin Pelin, Gorna Malina, Ihtiman, Kostenets) and Pernik Province (Pernik, Radomir), representing 5.16% of the country territory. The metropolitan area of Sofia is based upon one hour of car travel time, stretches internationally and includes Dimitrovgrad in Serbia.
1Economy Sofia is the economic hub of Bulgaria and home to most major Bulgarian and international companies operating in the country, as well as the Bulgarian National Bank and the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The city is ranked 62nd among financial centres worldwide. In 2015, Sofia was ranked 30th out of 300 global cities in terms of combined growth in employment and real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the highest one amongst cities in Southeast Europe. The real GDP (PPP) per capita growth at the time was 2.5% and the employment went up by 3.4% to 962,400. In 2015, Forbes listed Sofia as one of the top 10 places in the world to launch a startup business, because of the low corporate tax (10%), the fast internet connection speeds available โ one of the fastest in the world, and the presence of several investment funds, including Eleven Startup Accelerator, LAUNCHub and Neveq.
The city's GDP (PPS) per capita stood at โฌ29,600 ($33,760) in 2015, one of the highest in Southeast Europe and well above other cities in the country. The total nominal GDP in 2018 was 38.5ย billion leva ($22.4ย billion), or 33,437 leva ($19,454) per capita, and average monthly wages in March 2020 were $1,071, the highest nationally. Services dominate the economy, accounting for 88.6% of the gross value added, followed by industry 11.3% and agriculture 0.1%.
Historically, after World War II and the era of industrialisation under socialism, the city and its surrounding areas expanded rapidly and became the most heavily industrialised region of the country, with numerous factories producing steel, pig iron, machinery, industrial equipment, electronics, trams, chemicals, textiles, food. The influx of workers from other parts of the country became so intense that a restriction policy was imposed, and residing in the capital was only possible after obtaining Sofianite citizenship. However, after the political changes in 1989, this kind of citizenship was removed.
The most dynamic sectors include Information technology (IT) and manufacturing. Sofia is a regional IT hub, ranking second among the Top 10 fastest growing tech centres in Europe in terms of annual growth of active members. The sector employs about 50,000 professionals, 30% of them involved in programming, and contributes for 14% of the city's exports. The IT sector is highly diverse and includes both multinational corporations, local companies and start-ups. Multinationals with major research, development, innovation and engineering centres in Sofia include the second largest global IT centre of Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, VMware, Robert Bosch GmbH, Financial Times, Experian, etc. Several office and tech clusters have been established across the city, including Business Park Sofia, Sofia Tech Park, Capital Fort and others.
Manufacturing has registered a strong recovery since 2012, increasing the exports three-fold and the employment by 52% accounting for over 70,000 jobs. Supported by the city's R&D expertise, Sofia is shifting to high value-added manufacturing including electrical equipment, precision mechanics, pharmaceuticals. There are 16 industrial and logistics parks in Sofia, some sprawling to towns in neighbouring Sofia Province, such as Bozhurishte, Kostinbrod and Elin Pelin. Manufacturing companies include Woodward, Inc., producing airframe and industrial turbomachinery systems, Festo, producing microsensors, Visteon, development and engineering of instrument clusters, LCD displays and domain controllers, Melexis, producing micro-electronic semiconductor solutions in the automotive sector, Sopharma, producing pharmaceuticals, the largest Lufthansa Technik maintenance facilities outside Germany etc.
1Sofia is rated Beta โ by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions to the world economy.
Sofia is the #84 city in the world according to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) which evaluates and ranks the competitiveness of the major financial centres of the world according to a wide range of criteria โ Human Capital, Business, Finance, Infrastructure and Reputation.
Sofia is rated C by the Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) which evaluates and ranks world cities in the context of economic competitiveness. C cities are international gateway cities. Sofia was ranked #26 by the Nomad List which evaluates and ranks remote work hubs by cost, internet, fun and safety. Sofia has a population of over 1,238,438 people. Sofia also forms the centre of the wider Sofia metropolitan area which has a population of over 1,678,041 people. Sofia is ranked #121 for startups with a score of 4.755.
To set up a UBI Lab for Sofia see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Sofia is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Film see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities
Twin Towns, Sister Cities Sofia has links with:
๐ฉ๐ฟ Algiers, Algeria ๐ฏ๐ด Amman, Jordan ๐น๐ท Ankara, Turkey ๐ท๐ด Bucharest, Romania ๐ญ๐บ Budapest, Hungary ๐จ๐ณ Changning, China ๐ช๐ธ Coslada, Spain ๐ถ๐ฆ Doha, Qatar ๐ป๐ณ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ๐บ๐ฆ Kyiv, Ukraine ๐ต๐น Lisbon, Portugal ๐ช๐ธ Madrid, Spain ๐ท๐บ Moscow, Russia ๐ซ๐ท Paris, France ๐บ๐ธ Pittsburgh, USA ๐จ๐ณ Qingpu District, China ๐ท๐บ Saint Petersburg, Russia ๐ด๐ฒ Salalah, Oman ๐จ๐ณ Shanghai, China ๐ฑ๐ง Sidon, Lebanon ๐ฌ๐ช Tbilisi, Georgia ๐ฎ๐ฑ Tel Aviv, IsraelUNESCO Creative Cities for Film include: ๐ณ๐ฌ Asaba ๐ฒ๐ฐ Bitola ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Bradford ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Bristol ๐ฐ๐ท Busan ๐ฎ๐ช Galway ๐ณ๐ต Kathmandu ๐ฎ๐ณ Mumbai ๐ฒ๐ฆ Ouarzazate ๐ง๐ท Penedo ๐ฉ๐ช Potsdam ๐จ๐ณ Qingdao ๐ฎ๐น Rome ๐ง๐ท Santos ๐ง๐ฆ Sarajevo ๐ง๐ฌ Sofia ๐ฆ๐บ Sydney ๐ช๐ธ Terrassa ๐ช๐ธ Valladolid ๐ฆ๐ท Vicente Lรณpez ๐ณ๐ฟ Wellington ๐ฏ๐ต Yamagata ๐ต๐ฑ ลรณdลบ
๐บ๐ธ East Lansing 42.733
๐ช๐ธ Miranda de Ebro 42.683
๐บ๐ธ Janesville 42.683
๐ช๐ธ Ponferrada 42.667
๐บ๐ธ Rochester Hills 42.65
๐ฑ๐น Marijampolฤ 23.35
๐ท๐ด Petroศani 23.367
๐ฌ๐ท Chalkidiki 23.5
๐ฑ๐น Radviliลกkis 23.55
๐ท๐ด Tรขrgu Jiu 23.267
๐ต๐ฑ Bielsk Podlaski 23.189
๐ต๐ฑ Krasnystaw 23.167
๐ต๐ฑ Biaลystok 23.156
Locations Near: Sofia 23.3244,42.6972
๐ง๐ฌ Pernik 23.038,42.61 d: 25.3
๐ง๐ฌ Vratsa 23.56,43.211 d: 60.3
๐ท๐บ Dimitrovgrad 22.778,43.015 d: 56.8
๐ง๐ฌ Blagoevgrad 23.095,42.017 d: 78
๐ง๐ฌ Montana 23.237,43.414 d: 80
๐ง๐ฌ Kyustendil 22.683,42.283 d: 69.9
๐ท๐ธ Pirot 22.588,43.158 d: 78.9
๐ง๐ฌ Pazardzhik 24.333,42.2 d: 99.5
Antipodal to: Sofia -156.676,-42.697
๐ต๐ซ Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 17137.7
๐น๐ด Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 17061.5
๐ฆ๐ธ Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16581.7
๐ผ๐ธ Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 16494.6
๐บ๐ธ Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 13072.1
๐บ๐ธ Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 12963.4
๐บ๐ธ Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 12947
๐บ๐ธ Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 12944.3