Downtown Sofia Underpass Demolished over Archaeology Finds

Sofia's Chief Architect, Petar Dikov (l) attended the breaking ground ceremony for metro station II-8 from the second segment of the capital's subway. Photo by BGNES

The northern part of the underpass in downtown Sofia near the shopping mall, known as Central Department Store (CUM) will be taken down before New Year's Eve.

The statement was made by Sofia's Chief Architect, Petar Dikov, who was present at the ceremony of laying an icon of St. Ivan Rilski inside the tunnel at metro station II-8 from the second segment of Sofia's subway. The tunnel's construction started Thursday.

The tunnel is on "Knyaginya Maria Luisa" Boulevard between CUM and the central covered market known as the Halls.

Part of the old pedestrian underpass would be demolished to preserve the precious archeological finds, which were discovered during metro construction works. The finds have several layers and currently the one from the Roman Empire is being dug out

Dikov says the tunnel is not only an important part of the capital's infrastructure, but it is unique because its construction project had been altered four times in order to accommodate the subway station and still preserve the archeology finds.

For this reason, the tunnel will have the longest vertical section in Europe – 258 square meters. It will be 110 meters long.

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