One million euro will be sufficient to unearth, preserve and display a significant number of archaeological valuables dated from the second century BCE and still remaining underneath the Sveta Sofia basilica in the Bulgarian capital, zagrada.bg reported.

According to architect Lyubinka Stoilova from the municipal company Stara Sofia (Old Sofia), there were 95 unique tombs with wall paintings and floor mosaics that could be exposed to the public through separate halls and several footbridges.

At this point, the archaeological layer is accessible only by specialists.

Together with the remnants of four earlier churches, two of which have multi-coloured Roman mosaics, the tombs discovered in the basement are said to have been the east necropolis of Serdika, a name used by the Romans to identify an earlier Thracian settlement.

The hunt for finances has taken the company more that two years, Stoilova has said, as quoted by zagrada.bg.

Stara Sofia has applied for financing from the Regional Programme for Cultural and Natural Heritage in South East Europe. Field specialists from the European Union have already visited the site, and the municipal company is preparing a grant proposal, hoping to soon start the preservation and exhibition of the artefacts.

Archaeological research in the Sveta Sofia basilica began in 1893, and in 1927 the building was declared a historical monument. In 1955, the church was given the statute of an architectural and archaeological monument of culture with national significance.

Source: zagrada.bg
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