Sofia Synagogue
The third-largest Sephardic synagogue in Europe, a Moorish-Venetian jewel completed in 1909 and the spiritual home of the Bulgarian Jews who were saved from the Holocaust.
Moorish-style dome of the Sofia Synagogue
What to expect at Sofia Synagogue
The Sofia Central Synagogue was consecrated in 1909, designed by Austrian architect Friedrich Grünanger in a Moorish-Venetian style with a striped facade, three domes and a central chandelier weighing 2,200 kilograms — the largest in Bulgaria. It seats 1,300, though the community today numbers only a few thousand. The building is best understood alongside a remarkable story: in 1943, when the pro-German Bulgarian government agreed to deport its 48,000 Jews to Nazi camps, protests by parliamentary deputies, Orthodox bishops and ordinary citizens forced the plan to be cancelled. Every Bulgarian Jew survived the Holocaust — a rescue almost unique in occupied Europe.
You enter through the small forecourt on Ekzarh Yosif Street, past airport-style security. The main sanctuary is breathtaking after the plain exterior — an octagonal space rising to a striped dome, painted arabesques on every surface, the Aron Kodesh containing three Torah scrolls at the eastern end. On the ground floor, a modest but moving museum of Bulgarian Jewish history covers the 1943 rescue in detail, with photographs, decrees and the letter of Bishop Kiril of Plovdiv threatening to lie down on the deportation train tracks.
Come Monday to Friday morning; Saturday is closed for Shabbat and Sunday hours are short. The security check is thorough — bring photo ID. The Zhenski Pazar market is directly behind the synagogue, an ideal lunch stop for cheap Bulgarian and Turkish food under $5. Combine with the mosque, Rotunda and Sveta Nedelya for the four-religions walk. Photography is permitted inside without flash.
Questions about Sofia Synagogue
$3 for adults, $1 for students. Includes the small museum.
No — the modest fee funds building maintenance.
About 45 minutes including the museum on the ground floor.
Closed Saturdays for Shabbat, and Jewish holidays. Sunday hours end at 13:00.
No booking, but bring photo ID for security.
Serdika on Lines M1 and M2, a five-minute walk west through the market area.
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