Sofia is the capital city of Bulgaria. It is located in the west of the country and has a population of 1,222,000.
The origins of modern Sofia lie in prehistory; the site was a centre of Thracian civilisation and later was the Roman city of Serdica. A thriving medieval centre, it is thought to have been called Sofia (Greek: 'wisdom') since the fourteenth century; it was formally renamed after liberation from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. In 1879 Sofia became capital of the newly formed Principality of Bulgaria.