MM Park Bulgaria

Description

Bulgarian pennant with the coat of arms of the city of Sofia.

Manufacturer / main description

Bulgarian pennant with the coat of arms of the city of Sofia, 1928 model.

The capital of Bulgaria takes its name from one of its symbols: the Basilica of Saint Sophia, meaning Divine Wisdom. Another symbol is its coat of arms, whose history is equally interesting.

Although the Tarnovo Constitution then in force prohibited the creation of new coats of arms and other distinctions, the Sofia Municipal Council decided to have a coat of arms designed. The reason was the participation of the Bulgarian capital in the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris. The project was personally approved by Prince Ferdinand I, but the very short deadlines disrupted the city’s work and posed a serious challenge to the mayor of the time, Christo Popov, and his experts, including the artist Haralampi Tachev.

After gathering enough information about all the elements needed to compose a coat of arms, Tachev began preparing the artistic design. The shield of his coat of arms is divided into four parts, in which he placed symbols of Sofia based on information collected about the history of the city from Antiquity to the modern period.

Haralampi Tachev (1875-1944) and the 1900 design for the coat of arms of Sofia
In the upper left is the goddess of the city Ulpia Serdica, whose image comes from a coin from the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus. In the upper right is the Basilica of Saint Sophia, from which the present name of the city of Sofia derives. In the lower left is Mount Vitosha, regarded by Haralampi Tachev as the age-old witness to the historical upheavals of these lands. In the lower right is represented the temple of Apollo Medicus with a statue of the god. He was one of the deities associated with health and among the gods venerated in Serdica. In the centre of the shield, Tachev placed a smaller shield with the image of a lion, based on a medallion discovered in the former Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo. This shield within the shield symbolizes the connection between the two capitals of Bulgaria.

The artist also added a mural crown, an element reserved for city coats of arms. Haralampi Tachev later made two further modifications to this coat of arms.

In 1911, the city motto “It grows, but does not age” was added beneath the shield.

In 1928, a band bearing the motto was added, together with laurel branches that have remained to this day.

In the 1940s, the Bulgarian artist Boris Angelushev proposed a simplified version of this coat of arms.

In 1974, a major modification occurred during the communist era, when a five-pointed star was added and the elements of the shield were strongly stylized.

In 1991, the coat of arms was restored to its 1928 version.