Many books have been written about the Bulgarian capital, telling about both its remarkable history from antiquity to the present day and the memories of various travellers who visited the city. An important place among them is occupied by dozens of memoirs written by representatives of the capital's bohemian scene, as well as books such as "Three Hundred Thousand's Sofia and Me Between Two Wars" by journalist and fiction writer Dragan Tenev, "Sofia's Secrets" and "What the Great Bulgarians Ate and Drank" by literary researcher Petar Velichkov, as well as countless curious stories, united in several books about the history of Sofia by Viktor Topalov. In his role as a kind of tour guide and radio host in the show "Legends of Sofia" on the BNR Radio Sofia program, he takes his listeners on a journey along the tracks of emblematic personalities and places that have left a bright mark on the history of the capital city.

Once a year, on his specialized page dedicated to bohemian life in Sofia, Viktor conducts a kind of survey of his audience – which are the oldest establishments in Sofia that are still operating today? As of 2024, their number is just 6.

"The oldest of them are about 100 years old,” Viktor Topalov tells Radio Bulgaria. “We have several restaurants from the 1920s, a few from the 1930s. Naturally, the city still hides many secrets and it is possible that in some of the outer districts there is still an establishment that has been operating since then. Ultimately, however, we are not one of the capitals that can boast of having preserved such cultural centers. The most famous of them have long closed their doors and the buildings of others no longer even exist."

One of the emblematic establishments at the beginning of the 20th century was the "Bulgaria" restaurant, part of the complex of the same name in the center of the city, built in 1937. It is an example of modernism in Bulgarian architecture in the interwar period. Today, only the Bulgaria concert hall is operating from the entire complex, but Topalov, like many Sofia residents, hopes that in the future it will regain its full splendor and that people will be able to enter the cafe and hotel again. Very close to the place that was known as the center of the aristocratic and intellectual elite of Sofia was another famous establishment - The Writer's Cafe.

"The place that we know as the ‘Writer's Cafe’ is the pastry shop ‘Tsar Osvoboditel’. It was located on the corner of the streets 'G.S. Rakovski' and 'Tsar Osvoboditel' in a two-story building. It opened in 1908, but closed in 1946. In 1977 its building was demolished. Today, in this place, which is between the Russian Church and the Military Club, there is simply a green area."

As part of the event "Bohemian Conversation: Old Sofia Beer Halls", the curious have the opportunity to find out the location and which personalities visited places such as the Alkazar Restaurant, the Battenberg, Dalbok Zimnik and Cherven Rak beer halls, the City Casino, Sredna Gora and Balkan inns.

Unfortunately, none of them exist anymore, but our guest told us some curious stories related to them:

"The Alcazar Restaurant was located on the site where the Bulgaria complex was later built. The Battenberg beer hall had a rather long history. It was located right next to the St. George Rotunda, in the backyard of the Presidency. It took this name because for several years, the bones of the Bulgarian prince were stored in the rotunda before his mausoleum was erected. The beer hall was an extremely beautiful place, but unfortunately, during the Second World War, this part of the city was most seriously damaged,” researcher Viktor Topalov recalls. “Today, the entire area is occupied by Independence Square with the buildings of the Party House /today's building of the National Assembly/, the Council of Ministers, the Presidency, a hotel and a department store. All these were built in the 1950s, on the site of a number of interesting hotels, cinemas, shops and beautiful little streets."

The tour in search of the history of the drinking establishments in Sofia is part of a new beer festival, which will be held in front of the Central Sofia Market Hall and will bring together lovers of the drink on the longest day of the year - June 21.

Read also:

• Victor Topalov reveals the secrets of Sofia

• "Beer is art, not a product for mass consumption"

Author: Yoan Kolev

Publication in English: Alexander Markov

Photos: Bohemian Sofia, Facebook/ Viktor Topalov