Borisova Gradina Park (Prince Boris's Garden)

At the time of its establishment, the park was simply a measure of urban green space, where residents could even bring their livestock here to graze. In 1879 a significant part of the territory of the present-day park was turned into a Russian cemetery. This caused public outrage and very soon, in 1882, by order of the city, it was closed.

The mayor of Sofia at that time, Ivan Hadjienov, proposed to create a nursery in the city, from which plants and flowers could be taken for this and neighboring gardens. After months of careful research, Hadjienov found the right person to carry out his plan - the Romanian court gardener - the Swiss Daniel Neff. It was he who sketched the first ideas for the garden and organized a nursery.

Initially, 10,000 saplings with rich species composition were planted. In two years, the nursery area increased by 14 thousand square meters, by which time there was already an aquarium for fish and ducks. The garden also extends southwest to the site of the old Levski playground and a large lake was also built within it in 1889. A radical change in the botanical composition of the gardens and forts. Street filling in the capital took place in 1888, when, at the suggestion of Prince Ferdinand, most of the acacia trees were replaced by forest oak, maple, ash, birch and others. By 1890, a considerable number of species of conifers, black pine, and spruce had been brought from Mount Rila and exotic species such as redwood, cedar, ginkgo and others were also planted in the garden. .

On January 9, 1895, in honor of the heir to the throne, Prince Boris, then only 1 year old, the nursery was officially named - "Prince Boris's Garden". In 1899, the large lake at the entrance, named "Ariana", was enlarged and rebuilt. The flower garden has also been expanded, and new alleys are being built for pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists. On the site of a former marsh, another smaller lake was created, called Ribno (later Lake Lily). By 1900, Borisova Garden was more than 500 hectares in size.

In 1906, Joseph Fry, a passionate Alsatian flower lover, was appointed gardener of the city. He rearranged the garden according to his own plan, developing further Neff's ideas. It was he who first developed the idea of the annual flower exhibitions held here.

Since 1920, busts of famous Bulgarians have been placed in the garden. The first is by Ivan Vazov on the 70th anniversary of the writer. Gradually, the number of bust monuments increased and included some of the most famous Bulgarian patriots, such as Vasil Levski, Hristo Botev, Georgi Rakovski, Marin Drinov and many others.

Gradually, a number of sports facilities began to be built in the park such as: the Scout playground (on the site of today's summer stage), the Armenian playground (on the site where the duck pond is located), the field tennis, track, Yunak stadium. Thus, by 1933, the sports facilities in the park occupied an area of 177 hectares.

During his many years of activity as a city gardener, Yosif Fry transformed the then "Knyaz Boris Tarnovski" garden into a magnificent park, whose beauty and space rivaled those of the palace parks. electricity in Evksinograd and Vranya.

After Fry, two horticulturists Georgi Nikolov (1933) and Georgi Duhtev, appointed as "Gardens and Parks" in 1934, made great contributions to the arrangement of the park. An important moment for the formation of different areas in the park was the construction of the "Japan corner" in 1940. The cherry blossom trees were sent directly from Japan as an expression of friendly feelings of the Japanese towards the Bulgarian people.

In the second half of the twentieth century, children's playgrounds, summer stages and theatres, reading rooms, tennis courts, monuments, horse farms were built in Borisova Gradina Park. In the years when the communist regime came to power, the park was renamed "Freedom Park". It was not until 1989, when the regime fell, that the park was able to return to its original name.

Today, Borisova Gradina Park is known as the "lungs of Sofia" because of the huge green area it occupies in the heart of the capital and is also a monument of garden art and a park of national importance. family. Over the years, Borisova Garden has become a favorite place for walking and recreation for generations of Sofia residents and is renowned as the most beautiful and popular park in Sofia. Its alleyways hold memories of the footsteps of some of the artists who found their inspiration here, of secret encounters and kisses, of children's carefree buzz and passion. hot football. And there is hardly a citizen of the capital who has never had any memories with this park.

Website : borisovagradina.com