A day of museums in central Sofia: six stops from machines to modern art

Sofia keeps most of its museums close together. Five of the six on this walk stand within a few streets of each other in the very centre, and the sixth is a short way to the north-west, which is why the day starts there and runs east.

Six museums is a full day, and it only works with an early start and a plan. This one puts two museums before lunch and the rest after, and it ends at the largest art collection in the country. Three of the buildings are part of the attraction: a bathhouse, a mosque and a royal palace. If you run short of time, the Natural History Museum is the stop to drop.

Start at the National Polytechnic Museum, because it opens at 09:00, an hour before everything else on the route. Founded in 1957, it is the country's museum of science and technology, and its displays cover transport, clocks and watches, photography and cinema, radio and television, and early computers. Look for the 1928 Ford Model A among the vehicles.

It is the least known stop of the day and the best one for children or anyone who prefers machines to paintings. Allow about an hour. It is open Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 17:00.

Sofia grew around its hot springs, and the striped Central Mineral Baths are the grandest reminder of that. The bathhouse opened in 1913, designed by Petko Momchilov and Friedrich Grünanger in a mix of Vienna Secession and Bulgarian and Byzantine ornament. Since 2015 it has housed the Sofia History Museum, which makes it the right place to get your bearings in the city's story before the more specialised collections of the afternoon.

Allow an hour to an hour and a quarter inside, then stop at the public taps in the little park beside the building, where locals fill bottles with warm mineral water. The museum is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 between May and October, and Tuesday to Sunday for the rest of the year.

Break for lunch before the afternoon's museums. The Central Market Hall, a covered market from 1911, is just across from the baths, with food stalls and small eateries inside. Eating here keeps you on the route: the next stop is a short walk south.

The National Archaeological Institute with Museum fills the former Buyuk Mosque, built at the end of the 15th century and the oldest surviving Ottoman-era building in Sofia. It opened to visitors as a museum in 1905.

The collection runs from prehistory through the Thracians, Greeks and Romans to medieval Bulgaria. Ask for the treasury, where the Valchitran gold treasure is displayed. Allow about an hour and a quarter. The museum is at 2 Saborna Street, open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 between May and October, and Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 from November to April.

A few steps east stands the former royal palace of the Bulgarian monarchs, opened in 1882. Since 1953 it has been shared by two institutions: the National Gallery, which calls its part of the building The Palace, and the National Ethnographic Museum.

The rooms are as much the attraction as what hangs in them. Check at the door what is on show, and allow up to an hour. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00.

Almost next door, at 1 Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, the National Museum of Natural History is a change of subject after history and art. Prince Ferdinand founded it in 1889, which makes it the oldest museum in Bulgaria, and it is now part of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Expect minerals, fossils, insects, birds and mammals. It suits families and anyone who needs a break from paintings. Treat it as optional: go in only if you still have a good two hours before the galleries close, because the last stop deserves the time more.

Finish at Kvadrat 500, the National Gallery's largest building, which opened in 2015. It brings the national collections of Bulgarian and foreign art under one roof: about 1,700 works in 28 halls on four levels. This is where to see Bulgarian painting from the late 19th century onwards alongside European and non-European art.

Allow an hour and a half, and do not leave it too late. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00; the ticket desk closes at 17:30 and the gallery at 18:00.

Taken together, the six stops show how Sofia sees itself: a city built on hot springs, layered over Thracian, Roman and Ottoman pasts, with a royal chapter and a serious art collection. If a full day is more than you want, the three that cover the most ground are the Mineral Baths for the city, the Archaeological Museum for the deep past, and Kvadrat 500 for the art.