{"id":202,"date":"2007-11-25T20:37:34","date_gmt":"2007-11-25T10:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/?p=202"},"modified":"2007-11-25T20:37:34","modified_gmt":"2007-11-25T10:37:34","slug":"the-central-baths-tsentralnata-banya-sofia-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/the-central-baths-tsentralnata-banya-sofia-bulgaria","title":{"rendered":"The Central Baths (Tsentralnata Banya) &#8211; Sofia, Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"float: right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-1009507070974015\";\r\ngoogle_alternate_ad_url = \"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/google_adsense_script.html\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-06-30: TSBlog 300x250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"2928184950\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"FF6600\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"339933\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Behind the TZUM shopping mall there are a number of interesting historical sites, one of these being the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/DSC_2725.jpg.html\" title=\"Central Mineral Bath, Sofia, Bulgaria\">Central Mineral Bath<\/a>s. With its colorful ceramic mosaics on the facades, it is a landmark in the center of Sofia.\u00a0 Project design commenced as early as 1889 and submissions by an Austrian architect in 1889 and another by a French architect in 1901 were <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/28080-2\/DSC_2725.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Central Mineral Bath, Sofia - Bulgaria\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Central Mineral Bath, Sofia - Bulgaria\" \/>declined.\u00a0 The successful design by architects Petko Momchilov and Friedrich Gr\u00fcnanger in 1904-1905 was approved in January 1906, incorporating the Vienna Secession style but at the same time also integrating typically Bulgarian, Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox ornamental elements.\u00a0 (In 1897, a\u00a0group of young artists led by Gustav Klimt broke away from classicism\u00a0and formed the Vienna Secession. These artists and architects rejected academic traditions and sought new modes of expression.) The building&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/IMG_7918.jpg.html\" title=\"Central Baths - Sofia, Bulgaria\">ceramic majolica decoration <\/a>were designed by Haralampi Tachev and St. Dimitrov.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/28090-2\/IMG_7918.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"The Central Bath, Sofia - Bulgaria\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"The Central Bath, Sofia - Bulgaria\" \/>The base construction completed in 1908 and a Bulgarian company constructed the complex roof and the mineral water unit. It was opened to the public in 1911 as a public bath with separate facilities for men and women but the officially opening took place on 13 May 1913.\u00a0 It took then another two years before the building was completely finished and a garden installed in front of the Baths.<\/p>\n<p>During World War II, the north wing suffered damage during the bombing of Sofia.\u00a0 It\u00a0was restored several years later and\u00a0continued to work as public baths until 1986, when it was closed due to its bad condition and concerns about the stability of the roof.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is currently being refurbished and will eventually house the first City Museum dedicated to the History of Sofia as well as be used\u00a0as a\u00a0hydrotherapy center.\u00a0 Apparently locals queue everyday to collect the warm mineral water at the tapped springs in the park area.\u00a0 There are some benches in the garden where you can sit and enjoy the atmosphere and we did just that, whilst we consumed the snack that we bought from the nearby Halite food market.<\/p>\n<p>Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Behind the TZUM shopping mall there are a number of interesting historical sites, one of these being the Central Mineral Baths. With its colorful ceramic mosaics on the facades, it is a landmark in the center of Sofia.\u00a0 Project design commenced as early as 1889 and submissions by an Austrian architect in 1889 and another [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-things-to-see-in-sofia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - 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