Today, architecture students from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia are presenting new proposals for integrating the remains of the Roman Villa Rustica into the city's modern urban environment.

Their aim, reports BNR’s Radio Sofia, is to show how traces of the past can be woven into the fabric of the contemporary city. The remains of the Villa Rustica — an ancient Roman villa complex discovered in Sofia's Poduyane district in 1967, form the centrepiece of their work.

The students have developed concepts and designs illustrating how the archaeological site could become an accessible public space connecting the capital's ancient heritage with its modern urban life.

The remains preserve traces of life from nearly two millennia ago. The ansient residential and farm buildings — once part of a thriving Roman villa and farmstead covering around 1.2 acres — now lie beneath modern apartment blocks. Among the green spaces between the blocks, visitors can still glimpse the remains of the villa’s distinctive mausoleum. Archaeological evidence suggests that, after the Gothic incursions when the villa was destroyed and abandoned, Thracian settlers moved in and transformed the mausoleum into a sanctuary and burial ground.

The initiative is backed by the local district administration. District Mayor Kristiyan Hristov has said that he wants to transform the site into 'an orderly, accessible and living part of the neighbourhood' — a space where history is woven into everyday life.

Editor: Diana Tsankova

Posted in English by E. Radkova