Statue of St. Sofia
square "Independence"
A golden crown is placed onto her head – symbol of authority. With her right hand, she holds a laurel wreath that symbolizes victory and with her left one she grasps antique coins – symbol of prosperity. The owl landed onto the arm is symbol of wisdom and knowledge, reference to the name of the goddess Sofia – the goddess of wisdom. It reminds us of antique mask – her face and her skin are covered with gold and her eyes are not thick.
It is placed at the location where in antiquity the main Western gate of Serdika was located (at present, Sofia) and during the communist times the statue of the Soviet communist leader and ideologist Lenin was placed and then dismantled in 1991, almost immediately after the fall of the communist regime. The new statue was placed in honour of the occurrence of the new millennium.
Its authors are the Bulgarian artists, the sculptor Georgi Chapkanov and architect Stanislav Konstantinov.
