St. Alexander Nevsky Square

Sofia's largest ceremonial space is really a setting for a building: the neo-Byzantine cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky, raised between 1882 and 1912 to designs by Alexander Pomerantsev in memory of those who died in the war of 1877–78, its gilded domes visible from across the city. The scale of the church has given the capital one of its few places capable of holding a very large audience under the open sky, and the square is used accordingly for open-air galas — among them an evening with José Carreras, Sonya Yoncheva and Plácido Domingo.