site.btaFollowing Facelift, Sofia Landmark Reopens as Supermarket, Art Stage

Sofia's Central Market Hall (Tsentralni Hali in Bulgarian) will reopen on May 23 after a year-long overhaul as a marketplace and an art stage.

The upcoming launch of the retail space was unveiled by the property owners and investors, Kaufland Bulgaria, to the news media on Wednesday.

Sofia's first modern covered market for food products was unveiled back in 1911. Its facade combines the then rare Neo-Byzantine and Secession styles. In 1988 it was closed for remodelling and renovation. In 1995 it was designated a cultural landmark of national importance. In 2000, it opened again after Israeli company Ashtrom set up a joint venture with Sofia City Hall and invested in the preservation of the building. In 2021, German retailer Kaufland made steps to purchase Central Market Hall and announced plans to restore the landmark to its original glory.

The basement of the landmark building will accommodate an art stage and a children's book shop on 500 sq m (the city's largest) amidst ruins of the northwestern corner round tower of Roman Serdica's 3rd - 4th c. AD fortress wall and a Roman bath.

"The idea is to organize brisk cultural activities in the basement space. Basically, we seek to develop an open stage for culture, arts and educational projects as from the beginning of June," said Kaufland Bulgaria Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility Manager Kremena Georgieva. In her words, almost every day something will be happening at the Central Market Hall. Access to the 70-seat culture space will be totally free and unrelated to the retail area. Architect Maria Popmarkova takes credit for the conceptual design. 

"The Archaeological Museum and young designers have helped us prepare several exhibits recreating the Roman heritage," Georgieva said. 

"Prof. Yordanka Kandilkova chairs a public council that will be our partner, so as to make sure that the cultural pursuits inside Halite are really best suited for this space," the Kaufland executive explained. The public council also includes Sofia Regional History Museum Director Veneta Handzhiiska-Yankulova, journalists Daniel Nenchev and Konstantin Valkov, A to Jazz Festival founder Petar Dimitrov, and Free Sofia Tour co-founder Stefan Ognyanov.

"We extend an open invitation to artists and managers to present their projects inside the space. Once approved, the projects will get the auditorium, facilities and communication support free of charge. We will establish several grants for the projects that score the most points," Georgieva said.

"This is a win-win partnership between business and cultural values," said Prof. Kandilkova, who is a qualified architect. "Business has wisely realized that cultural values make it different, identifiable and unique. This is a successful model for the preservation of cultural assets."

"We began our partnership a little over two years ago when the team implementing the Central Market Hall project approached us with an invitation to join the effort to socialize the archaeological remains in the basement. From then on, things evolved into a rather more comprehensive partnership," Assoc. Prof. Handzhiiska-Yankulova said.  

"We found a lot of new and forgotten things about the building, rummaging in the Museum's archives - heaps of period photographs that will now be displayed in the new space for everybody to enjoy," she added.