Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Sofia scupltures adorned with gifts on Christmas

Photo: Ivan Shishiev - Sketches of Sofia

For the fifth consecutive year, the Sketches of Sofia initiative have delighted Sofia's residents with gifts placed at the city's statues. Every year, photographer Ivan Shishiev and his wife buy books for Sofia residents, wrap them up and place them at the statues in the city. The sculptures of Aleko Konstantinov, Pencho and Petko Slaveykov, Yan Bibiyan and the devil Fut, etc. dawned with books. 

This year, Shishiev surprised the capital's residents with 30 books by Charles Dickens, Terry Pratchett, Peyo Yavorov, etc. 

"We believe that a book gives meaning and has the power to create a future. And there is no better gift than the future," says the photographer.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Responsibility, Unity and Security – German impulses for the future of Europe

Under the motto "Responsibility, Unity and Security" on November 5 and 6, 2025, a German-Bulgarian seminar for journalists and public figures was held in the Hyatt Regency Sofia Hotel. The organizers were the European Academy in..

published on 11/7/25 4:05 PM

Balkan developments

The European Commission praise s Montenegro’s progress toward EU  membership North Macedonia needs decisive action and reforms to begin negotiations with the EU, according to the European Commission’s annual report on the progress of..

published on 11/7/25 12:32 PM

"In the Light of Fireflies" - an exhibition about self-immolations in Bulgaria in 2013

In the summer of 2014, photographer Philippe Bazin and philosopher Christiane Vollaire traveled around Bulgaria, investigating a series of self-immolations in the country that happened in 2013. They filmed over 30 locations, conducted..

published on 11/6/25 7:40 PM