“Lozenets” is one of the neighbourhoods Sofia is rightly proud of. The quality of life in it is self-evident, but apart from the excellent residential real estate, dozens of restaurants and pretty, surprisingly quiet streets named after trees and flowers and inhabited by more cats than people in the daytime, this neighbourhood differs from the others with its peculiar structure as well. From the north to the south, approximately following the line of “Sveti Naum” boulevard, it is divided into two clearly separate parts – “Dolen” (Lower) and “Goren” (Upper) “Lozenets”. “Dolen Lozenets” borders the city centre, divided from it by the “Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi” boulevard with the Perlovska river running along it (called simply “the Canal”.) “Goren Lozenets” is situated at an altitude of about a hundred metres higher, reaching the neighbourhood “Hladilnika” to the south. (“Nikola Vaptsarov” boulevard might be considered the borderline between the two, but as with all borderlines between elite and not-so-elite Sofia neighbourhoods, this one is also open to interpretation.) But this is not all. Because “Lozenets” is also divided from the west to the east – along the line of “Cherni Vrah” boulevard – which makes for a total of four “quadrants”, like on a “Ludo” playing board. The easter section – let us call it “Old Lozenetz” – borders on the “Borisova Garden”, and the western section – say, “New Lozenets” – reaches “South Park”. We will circle back to the parks in a moment, and now it is time for some…
HistoryAs late as the beginning of the 20th century, “Lozenets” was not a neighbourhood at all but agricultural terrain outside the city. The so-called “Roman Wall” which nowadays stands in the very heart of the neighbourhood, opposite the University of Architecture, was in fact not built by the Romans but in the 16th century, to be used as a ceremonial prayer spot by Muslims before they left for Mecca – in other words, in those times it stood at one of the roads leading out of the city. 
In Ottoman sources, the area was called Korubaglar or Kurubaglar, both containing the word for “vinyard” which is the root of the Bulgarian name “Lozenets” as well. The famous traveller Evlia Chelebi, who in the 17th century invested 40 years of his life to tour and describe all the lands of the Ottoman Empire, made a special mention of the vinyards and cherry trees of the future neighbourhood. By the 1920’s, “Dolen” and “Goren Lozenets” were already outlined, together with the so-called “Journalists’ Neighbourhood” (around today’s “Journalist” square). Many public figures, writers and scientists settled in it, and the small apartment blocks which replaced their houses still bear placards with their names. In 1944, “Lozenets” suffered a heavy toll by the Allied bombers, but it has been just fine ever since.
This place would not be enough even to list them, and besides, we do not wish to deprive the future residents of the neughbourhood planning to invest in renting or buying real estate in “Lozenets” of the unique pleasure of strolling around and discovering for themselves such treasures as the old Water Tower 
(on “Galichitsa” street, now a centre for contemporary art) or the fairytale cottage on the “Vishneva” tram stop. The neighbouring portion of “South Park” which reaches north to “Bulgaria” boulevard and east to “Cherni Vrah” boulevard in an equally happening place. (Over the years, there have been various attempts to name it something else, but it seems most people still call it “The Dogs’ Garden”.)There, you can find the small but tidy shopping mall in “Lozenets” (called “Park Centre” or simply “the mall opposite Hemus hotel”), the national museum “Earth and People” (if you like minerals or cats), the criminally underrated “Sofia Arsenal” (a contemporary art museum) and “Toplocentrala” (a centre for contemporary art, also used as a location for open air events). And speaking of open air events, perhaps the most popular of them in this part of “Lozenets” is the yearly festival “A to Jazz” which unites jazz enthusiasts with people equally enthusiastic about picnics and shuttlecock.
Unlike most of Sofia’s other elite neighbourhoods, “Lozenets” is truly well-connected in the transportation sense – served by the boulevards listed above, various tram lines and the M2 line of the Sofia metro. Just as well, because it welcomes a lot of people. The neighbourhood boasts three large hotels (in addition to the two already mentioned, there is “Marinela”, popularly called “The Japanese Hotel”), several leading hospitals, several top schools (economics, mathematics, fashion) and several departments of the Sofia University, with the latter faced by the compound of the Orthodox Seminary. And many, many, many restaurants. We are certain to miss other remarkable places, but we need to start somewhere: “Ahora”, „JAZU“, „Habib Beirut“, „Pod Lipite“, „Panchetata“, „Petrus“, „Umami“, „Kandahar“, „OXBO“, „Bankovich“… A whole life may not be enough to fully explore the gourmet scene in “Lozenets” – but on the other hand, a life spent in “Lozenets” meets most criteria of a life well lived.
