Sofia Zoo

Worth a detour

Founded on 1 May 1888 in the garden of the royal palace, and moved out to thirty-six hectares in Lozenets in 1982 — the oldest and largest zoological garden in this part of Europe. Over a thousand animals across some 220 species, fifty-odd of them endangered. On a hot Sofia afternoon it is mostly a shaded walk, which is a fair reason to go.

Story

Background

The zoo began as a princely institution, decreed in the first decade after Bulgaria became a state and housed at first in the grounds of the royal palace in the middle of town. It outgrew that long before it was allowed to leave, and only moved to its present thirty-six hectares south of the centre in 1982, where it finally had room.

It draws well over half a million visitors a year and is on the Bulgarian Tourist Union's list of hundred national sites, which tells you it is a fixture of Bulgarian childhood rather than a stop on an international itinerary. The grounds are large, mature and genuinely pleasant to walk; the standard of the enclosures is uneven, and some of them are clearly of their period.

One useful thing: the Zoopark stop outside is where bus 66 to Vitosha begins, running on weekends and holidays up to the Aleko area on the mountain, and where the 64 to Boyana and Dragalevtsi and the 93 and 98 start as well. If you are heading up the mountain later in the day, this is the place you will be standing anyway.