Vrana Palace – Tsar Ferdinand's Favourite Residence
Vrana Palace – Tsar Ferdinand's Favourite Residence
Bulgaria
28/04/2021
Just 11 km from the centre of Sofia, tucked away on the outskirts of the city and hidden behind tall, century-old trees, lies one of the masterpieces of Royal Bulgaria – Vrana Palace and its park. Many people who live in Sofia have no idea it even exists, while others know about it but have never been, even though it opened to visitors back in 2013.
Vrana Park is one of my favourite weekend spots for a stroll near Sofia, thanks to the peace and quiet here and the distance from the hustle and bustle of the city – and perhaps also because of the splendour that still lingers here, even though royal life at the palace came to an end more than 70 years ago.
The park is perfect for families, especially if you have little ones, as there are wide meadows and paths where children can run around to their heart’s content. In fact, I found out about Vrana Park and Palace a few years ago from friends of mine – a young family who often spent sunny weekends there. Since then, this beautiful aristocratic park has become one of my own favourite places for a walk.
A residence of the Bulgarian tsars
The story of this place goes back to the days of Ottoman rule, when the Turkish estate of “Chardakliya” stood here, owned by Osman Pasha, the governor of Sofia at the time. After the Liberation, Hadzhi Bone Petrov bought it from the pasha’s heirs. Later, because of financial difficulties, he mortgaged it to the Bulgarian National Bank and it was put up for public auction. The auction was won by Prince Ferdinand I’s court apothecary, and the prince later bought the estate for 56,000 gold leva. The name “Vrana” – or “Vranya”, as it was called back then – was chosen by the prince himself. Being a passionate ornithologist, he decided to name the palace after the first bird to land on its roof. And, as is typical of the Sofia plain, a whole flock of crows – vrani in Bulgarian – settled on the palace.
The Vrana estate was created in 1899 on the site of the former Ottoman estate of Chardakliya. It was intended as an out-of-town summer residence for the royal family. The estate included a 950-decare park, a 1,000-decare farm and two buildings (the main palace and a two-storey hunting lodge), which together make up the palace complex. The park was laid out on the model of Western European landscape parks, and that feel is still there today.
The palace complex consists of two buildings linked by a covered passage. The first, a two-storey hunting lodge designed by architect Georgi Fingov, was completed in 1904. I’ll dwell a little longer on the second – the palace itself, built between 1909 and 1912. Ferdinand personally commissioned architect Nikola Lazarov to design it. The palace’s architecture is highly distinctive: an elaborate take on Byzantine architecture blended with motifs from National Revival monasteries. Landscaping plays a key role here too – a flower parterre with embroidery-like patterns of carpet bedding and a fountain frame the square at the entrance. Sadly, the royal Vrana Palace building is still closed to visitors, as restoration work on the interior is ongoing.
[blockquote align=”none” author=”From “Foxy Ferdinand” Stephen Constant“]
“Despite the stunning beauty of Euxinograd, Tsar Ferdinand’s favourite residence was Vrana Palace, some ten kilometres south-east of Sofia, (…) on uncultivated land, a harsh place where tall nettles grew in abundance. Within a few years he had turned it into a botanist’s dream.”
[/blockquote]
After Tsar Ferdinand I abdicated in 1918, the palace passed to Tsar Boris III, and after his death to Tsar Simeon II.
Not every day at the palace was a sunny one, though. During the Second World War, Vrana was the target of a deliberate Allied bombing raid. 36 bombs completely burnt out the upper part of the palace, where Tsaritsa Giovanna was living at the time with her children, Simeon and Marie Louise. They took shelter in the bunker built next to the palace and, luckily, escaped unharmed.
After the referendum to abolish the monarchy, organised by the Communists on 8 September 1946, Vrana Palace was used by members of the political and state leadership of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Leaders Georgi Dimitrov, Vasil Kolarov, Valko Chervenkov and Todor Zhivkov all lived there for a time. Later the residence was used to host foreign guests, official events and so on.
After the fall of Communism, Vrana was returned to Tsar Simeon II and his sister Marie Louise of Bulgaria. In 1998 they donated the park to Sofia Municipality on condition that it be open to all Bulgarians.
And so, in early June 2013, the Vrana park-museum opened its doors to visitors. The park is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 4pm, and a group sets off every half hour with an expert guide. Tickets cost 5 leva, with various discounts for children, pensioners, families and groups.
A park in the Western European style
To this day, Vrana feels like something deeply personal – created not just for royal show, but as the fruit of one man’s interest and passion: Tsar Ferdinand’s. He was a keen botanist and ornithologist, and the park’s wealth of species, above all its plants, owes a great deal to that passion. While the park was being created, plants and animals were brought in from all over the world to turn the estate into a true royal residence. Today the park is home to 821 species of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants from 118 families and 435 genera. Some of them are extremely rare and as old as the park itself.
The zoo
In royal times, the Vrana estate was not only a true botanical garden but a zoo as well. In 1905 the first animal collection was set up, with deer, llamas, roe deer, camels, yaks and even baby elephants. As well as entertaining the royal children, the elephants were put to heavy farm work, even ploughing. Pheasants and other birds also graced the estate, and wild ducks, wild geese and black and white swans were released onto the lily pond.
The lily pond is one of the park’s highlights today, but in royal times there were many more ponds, streams and other water features in the area. Sadly, most of them have since dried up because of a lack of upkeep over the last half-century.
Author
Vilislav Alkantara
Hello to all of you who love to travel not so much for the destination as for the journey itself.
Author
Vilislav Alkantara
Hello to all of you who love to travel not so much for the destination as for the journey itself.
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Balkan Nomad
Travels, stories, and inspiration from the road.
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