site.btaOutgoing Culture Minister Bachev Sees New Central Sofia Cultural Venue in Serdica Amphitheatre Site

Sofia will get another cultural venue in the heart of the city, Outgoing Minister of Culture Marian Bachev said on Wednesday. Bachev noted that he wants the site to be a lively, well-attended space, especially in the summer, giving both tourists and Sofia residents another chance to engage with art.

Bachev said the property was acquired through a swap with the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH). He added that the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria agreed that assets and land should be acquired for the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, including 19,571 sq m intended for storage, production facilities and rehearsal space. The site includes 18 buildings with a total built-up area of 4,279 sq m. Bachev added that his team also secured properties for a new repository for the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library.

Bachev said the Roman Theatre and Amphitheatre of Serdica restoration project was included in the 2026 capital programme, with EUR 770,000 set aside, but work could not begin until Bulgaria has a 2026 budget. He added that the project would follow the Cultural Heritage Act and would aim to create an open-air summer stage in the city centre. Once funding is in place, he said the work would take between nine months and a year and would require expropriation procedures for some privately owned plots.

Bachev said the Ministry of Culture handed over part of the pier at St. St. Kirik and Julita Island near Sozopol to the Ministry of Transport and Communications because no repairs have been carried out there for decades and the ministry lacks the capacity and funding to restore the pier so that a vessel used by the Centre for Underwater Archaeology can dock there. He added that the centre expects to operate a second vessel after receiving UNESCO category 2 status and that the ministry would focus on work linked to the centre, now upgraded into the Institute for Underwater Heritage. Bachev said the island’s buildings are in poor condition, with strengthening work already under way at the Old Sea School building, and added that repairs would support tourism and cultural activities, while extra funding for archaeological digs on the island was provided for a second consecutive year.

Bachev said the Council of Ministers also decided to send an agreement between the Ministry of Culture and UNESCO, signed days earlier, to the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria for ratification. He added that the deal would provide a stable basis for developing underwater archaeology and underwater cultural heritage over the next eight years and would support Bulgaria’s role as a regional hub for the Black Sea basin and the Lower Danube region. Bachev said UNESCO culture chief Ernesto Ottone backed the category 2 upgrade and added that joint work by the ministry and Bulgaria’s Permanent Mission of the Republic of Bulgaria to UNESCO helped speed up the process by around two years. He also linked the progress to Bulgaria’s chairmanship of the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris in July 2025, when the UNESCO headquarters hosted the exhibition On the Waves of the Black Sea through the Ages. Bachev said he discussed a possible visit to Bulgaria this year with UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany, adding that El-Enany’s familiarity with Irina Bokova also contributed to his positive attitude towards Bulgaria.

Archive data from the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage (NINKN) show that the existence of an amphitheatre in ancient Serdica was documented as early as 1919. The Ministry of Culture said that between 2004 and 2010 archaeologists uncovered parts of the amphitheatre and explored remains of an earlier public building beneath the arena, the Roman theatre of Serdica. The ministry added that research so far suggests the Serdica amphitheatre is the largest such building discovered on the Balkan Peninsula and that the combination of an amphitheatre and an earlier Roman theatre at the same site has been documented only in Sofia.