Tucked into the courtyard of the Sheraton Hotel in central Sofia, the Saint George Rotunda is the oldest building in the Bulgarian capital — a circular red-brick church that has quietly outlasted empires, religions, and entire civilizations. Built by the Romans in the early 4th century, originally as a bathhouse, it was later converted into a Christian church and then, under Ottoman rule, into a mosque. Each of those chapters left its mark: fragmentary frescoes in layered strata cover the interior dome, some dating back to the 10th century and representing multiple artistic periods stacked one over another like geological sediment. It is, in miniature, a physical archive of Sofia's identity.
Religious Place