The Serbian Soldiers' Cemetery in Sofia is an interesting place of remembrance of the First World War. They are located in the Central Sofia Cemetery Park. Today they are well maintained. There are also directional signs to them, so they are not difficult to find.
Emergence of the Serbian Soldier Cemeteries
During the First World War there were tens of thousands of Serbian prisoners of war and internees from the Serbian territories occupied by Bulgaria. This issue is not well studied in historiography. Certainly, however, not a few of them died in the country. Therefore, after the end of the First World War, negotiations between Sofia and Belgrade began for the establishment of Serbian war cemeteries in Bulgaria. One of the results of these negotiations was the establishment of the Serbian Soldiers' Cemetery in Sofia. Later, the Bulgarians managed to convince the Serbian side to exhume all Serbian dead on the territory of the country and rebury them in Sofia. In connection with the apparent improvement of relations between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after 1934, this was agreed in 1936, but there was no time to implement it. World War II broke out and Serbian graves around the country were left without maintenance.
The fate of the cemeteries over the years
Serbian soldiers who died in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), prisoners of war and internees during the First World War (1915-1918) are buried in the Serbian Soldiers' Cemetery in Sofia. The area of the memorial complex is 1200 sq. m.
At the top there are 480 graves with wooden crosses. In 1923 the memorial complex was in a very bad condition, looted by the Sofia poor. Thanks to the Serbian poet Milan Rakic, who was ambassador in Sofia, data on the buried were collected. The number of the buried rose to 638. Serious funds were also raised for a new look of the memorial complex. It was opened in 1928 on Vidovdan, i.e. 28 June. The design was by the Belgrade architect Dusan Mirosavljevic. The present-day appearance of the Serbian soldiers' cemetery dates back to that time. The memorial complex has been renovated several times since then. The Serbian Embassy in Sofia regularly lays wreaths and organizes commemorative ceremonies.
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