Things to Do in Sofia Synagogue

Main sanctuary visit

Stand beneath the 31-metre cupola and let your eyes adjust to the filtered gold. Brass chandeliers the size of wagon wheels hang over pews that still bear carved pencil graffiti from 1932. The air smells faintly of cedar chests and old paper. If the caretaker is feeling chatty he'll flick a switch so the electrolier blooms like a mechanical sunflower.

Small Jewish History Museum upstairs

Climb the tight spiral - the iron handrail wobbles slightly - and you'll reach two rooms packed with silver rimonim, Sephardic ketubot, and a photo wall of Sofia's pre-war shopkeepers. The parquet creaks underfoot. Someone has placed dried lavender in the corner cases so the whole space smells like a grandmother's dresser.

Sephardic memorial courtyard

Slip out the side exit into a cobbled pocket garden where marble plaques list vanished congregations. Ivy has pushed through the cracks. In summer bees drone around a small stone menorah. The traffic rumble feels miles away even though you're twenty metres from the boulevard.

Kosher bakery on Ekzarh Yosif Street

Follow the smell of sesame and anise to a blue-shuttered storefront three blocks north. Women haul trays of bulemas - spiral pastries stuffed with pumpkin - while the radio plays 1980s chalga hits. You'll bite through flaky layers still warm enough to burn your tongue.

Shabbat service observation

Arrive Friday evening to hear the cantor's baritone bounce off the dome, accompanied by the soft shuffle of prayer shawls and a faint metallic rattle as the chandeliers vibrate with bass notes. Even non-Jewish visitors are welcomed. Men need to borrow a paper yarmulke from the wicker basket by the door.

Lozenets quarter - leafy streets, ten-minute stroll south, cafés full of diplomats' dogs

Moskovska Street art-hostel belt - gritty but convenient, 4-blocks north

Rotunda of St George zone - business hotels inside Roman ruins, surprisingly quiet at night

Slaveykov Square - booksellers by day, beer gardens by night, seven minutes on foot

Zone B-5 behind the synagogue - Soviet blocks turned Airbnb, tram clatter but rock-bottom rates

Oborishte - mansions turned boutique stays, uphill walk rewarded with cooler air