🇧🇬 Sofia, Bulgaria A mosque in Bulgaria!?

Discovery Report < Worldwalker 2023/09/08 07:05 🇧🇬 Sofia, Bulgaria [A mosque in Bulgaria!? Banya Bashi Mosque built by a famous Ottoman architect] When you come out of the subway station in the center of Sofia, you can see the minaret of an Islamic mosque a little way ahead. It's Moscow's "Banya Bashi Mosque". Its presence is strange ~ 😲 You may think, "A mosque in Bulgaria!?", but Bulgaria is also a neighboring country of present-day Turkey, and has a history of being ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It was built in the late 16th century under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and was designed by the famous court architect Mimar Sinan. The door was closed, so I approached it several times, and the moment the door opened, I went inside the mosque. The inside is quite modest. It is adjacent to a small park, and next door is the Sofia History Museum, a building of European architecture, creating an incredible contrast. This museum was previously a hot spring bathhouse! Bulgaria was also influenced by the Ottoman Empire in terms of food culture, so there are kebab shops everywhere, and they serve dishes similar to Turkish cuisine. Bulgaria is not very familiar in Japan, but it is surprisingly interesting ~ #mosques