The first of its kind interactive guide of Sofia with GPS has recently started to function. The E-STORY mobile application offers a tour not only in space, but also in time. We met with Nadezhda Todorova, an expert in languages and literature and a VIP guide, who knows several languages, but is also a patriot. She was the one who gave the idea for the application.

“The idea was born during a travel to the town of Koprivshtitsa. After we had got out of Zlatitsa, we swerved into a small side road which took us straight into the mountain. We ended up on a plain meadow with huge brick walls in the middle. Those turned out to be the remains of the early-Christian Elenska Basilica, built up some 1,700 years ago. The legend, related to it, is splendid – it took us deep back into the depths of our millennia-old mythology. However, we couldn’t imagine the exact outlook of the ancient settlement, nor the one of the basilica itself. Then I thought that modern technologies could assist us,” Nadezhda says.

There is still no reconstruction of the Elenska Basilica. However, the pilot project gives us the image of the Knyaz Alexander Battenberg Square downtown Sofia over 6 different epochs. It gives us details on the main landmarks in the capital city along the route from the Sveta Nedelya Square to the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. We can also understand where a treasure has been buried, what’s underneath the building of the Central Bank, where did the money donated for the university’s construction come from etc. The application contains not only photos of the existing sites, but also 3D recreations. It is available in three languages at the moment – Bulgarian, English and Russian, with the idea of their number to increase. A second route is also being prepared – from Lion’s Bridge to the National Palace of Culture. The app also envisages a coffee break and a list of cafes along the route will be included. The app is for Android only so far, but if possible it will be developed for IOS as well. Prof. Diana Gergova is a consultant of the project – she is a historian and an archaeologist with international expertise and recognition, a leading European expert in the field of late prehistory. The team asks the Sofia Municipality for cooperation, especially at this important point when Bulgaria is to take over the presidency of the European Council and significant interest is expected to be shown towards Sofia. As Nadezhda Todorova says, the scheme developed might be implemented across other towns and villages. We might also cooperate with lots of European cities, as the cultural inheritance of our continent has many layers at many spots. Not all of those layers are visible, but they are all significant and deserve the attention of curious travelers,’ Mrs. Todorova says and adds:

“I would be happy if everyone who has headed somewhere, looks into his or her phone as well, thus traveling not only through space, but also through time, as the feeling of a place is not only what you see. It also has the scent and taste of local cuisine, the sound of the foreign language. Then when you come back through different epochs you begin to understand why things happened this way. E-STORY gifts you with a travel back in time,” Nadezhda Todorova says in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev