Description of the attraction
The tomb of Alexander I Batenberg, the first autonomous ruler of Bulgaria after the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, is located in the center of Sofia. This is a historical-architectural and cultural-national monument. The entrance to the mausoleum is free.
Prince Alexander I is the son of the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who, in turn, was the Russian Empress Maria Alexandrovna's brother. He was born in Italy in 1857. As a teenager, he graduated from the German cadet school. Later he volunteered for the front to participate in the Russian-Turkish war. After the expulsion of the Turks in 1879, Alexander Batenberg was elected prince of the Bulgarian principality thanks to the protectorate of the Russian autocrat Alexander II. During the same period, the state of Bulgaria began to recover. However, in 1886, Prince Alexander renounced the throne and left Bulgaria, moving to Austria, where, since 1889, as a major general, he was enlisted in an infantry regiment. The departure of the ruler was connected with the pressure that Russia put on the internal policy of the Bulgarian state. The name of the former ruler also had to change - he began a new life as Count Hartenau. I got a family, children (who, by the way, were named by Bulgarian names - Vera-Tsvetana and Krum-Asen).
The prince died in 1893 in Austria. According to the decision of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, as well as the dying wish of the prince himself, his body was taken for burial in Sofia. The coffin with the remains of the ruler of Bulgaria was kept in the church of St. George until 1987, when the mausoleum was completed.
The author of the project is the Swiss architect Mayer Jacob. The 11 m high building is made in the old Greek architectural style, the crown height is 1.7 m. The interior decoration of the mausoleum belongs to the artist Kharalambi Tachev, and the sarcophagus is polished Carrara marble. The remains of the prince are buried in the dungeon of the tomb.
