Sofia Registers 5.7% More Tourists in January-June 2015

Vrana Palace, on the outskirts of Sofia, has been increasingly popular among tourists over the past few years. Photo by BGNES

There have been at least 485 200 tourists arriving in Bulgaria's capital Sofia over the first six months of this year.

This is 5.7% up compared to 2014, official data shows.

Some 284 000 of them were non-Bulgarian citizens, while the rest came from the country, the Bulgarian News Agency reports, citing a state-owned tourism company.

June was the month that saw the biggest surge in tourists, mainly from Germany, the UK, Italy, Israel and France, alongside neighboring countries.

Among the most visited places in Bulgaria's capital are the St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Boyana Church, and Vitosha.

The Saint Sofia Church's underground museum, showing some of the results of intensive archaeological excavations, has also been drawing increasing interest from tourists, along with the Vrana park, a former residence of the Bulgarian Tsar (at the time the country was a monarchy) and a renowned recreation area located on the outskirts of Sofia.

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