Old and new meet in Sofia

SOFIA: Perched on a column and dressed in a flowing robe, Sofia sits high above the traffic, watching her city. She sees its Soviet-style block architecture and the golden cupolas on the churches. She takes in her stone-lined arcades, the gleaming high rises and the streets laid over ruins from ancient Roman times.

The sculpture shares more than a name with the Bulgarian capital where she sits at a traffic intersection. Like the city, the statue's young face tells of youth and the future. But her location keeps visitors grounded in the city's rich history.

Guide Venteslav Nikolov waits around the corner. A towering man, he points to a fountain.