in the city and is one of the most famous of
its landmarks, although the city was named for her several centuries
after the church was built. As the capital, the city has most of the
nation's administration and has become the educational and cultural
center of the country. It retains much charm and beauty, in spite of its
rapid growth. From its hundreds of small parks and thousands of trees,
it claims the right to call itself the garden city.

Plovdiv is the second most important city. It is older than Sofia,
having been established in the fourth century B.C. by Philip of Macedon;
it was first named Philippopolis after him. On the plain and astride the
route from Belgrade to Istanbul, it has been exposed to all who have
passed that way, for good or ill, and this is reflected in its violent
history. It has been captured and devastated in turn by Greeks, Romans,
Goths, Huns, and Turks. It was also ravished on four different occasions
by Christian armies during the Crusades.

Plovdiv has continued to be an important commercial city, having more
rail lines radiating from it than Sofia. It also has a university and
some of the country's most important museums and art treasures. The old
town center is typically Macedonian and, although it was severely
damaged by an earthquake in 1928, part of it has been termed a national
monument, to be reworked only for its restoration.

Veliko Turnovo, situated astride a mountain stream on the northern
slopes of the central Stara Planina, was the fortress capital of the
medieval Second Bulgarian Kingdom. It was also the site of the first
constituent assembly held as the country was liberated from the Turks,
and the Turnovo Constitution was adopted there in 1879. It remains an
artistic and cultural center, and some of its fine examples of Bulgarian
renaissance architecture have survived.

Varna and Burgas are the chief Black Sea ports, and Ruse is the only
major Bulgarian port on the Danube River. Burgas is a young city,
growing to most of its size in the late 1800s, and it was a more
important port than Varna until the 1950s. Varna, however, attracted the
naval academy, has become the naval base, and has acquired most of the
shipbuilding industry. Ruse has also grown rapidly. In addition to its
river trade, the first bridge across the river between Bulgaria and
Romania was built just north of the city.

A number of new towns have been built since World War II, in some cases
from the