Sightseeing Sofia – Banya Bashi Mosque, Molla Efendi or Kadi Seyfullah Mosque are all names of the only functioning mosque in Sofia. Once there used to be 70 mosques in Sofia, today though this is the only one left. A Muslim temple, a sightseeing Sofia, the mosque had been initiated and sponsored by the kadi of Sofia at that time. That was Kadi Seyfullah Efendi. The mosque had been built in memory of his dead wife.
Until the XVIII century centre of the European Ottoman possession was Sofia. Soon it became a big administrative and commercial centre. Many businessmen and travelleres from different regions of the empire visited the city. Sofia developed very quickly. Ottomans estimated the merits of Sofia more than a century later, after Constantine the Great exclaimed that Sofia was his Rome. There used to be over 100 mosques, a Kervansaray, bedestens, madrasas, libraries, marble baths…
Sightseeing Sofia – Up to the Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman rule (1878), centre of Sofia used to be Banya Bashi Square. All the main streets got together there. There used to be the carsi (the shopping street) and the Mineral Baths. There was a fountain, stalls. Even there used to be a pavillion where they would give free cold mineral water for drinking. On the square one could see the graves of two notable donors of Sofia, Emin Dede and Molla Seyfullah Efendi.
