The Roman Wall is the popular but incorrect name for an early Ottoman-era architectural monument in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Part of a 16th or 17th-century Islamic religious building, it now stands in the middle of a small marketplace in the Lozenets neighbourhood.
The Roman Wall is a rectangular structure of straight rows of bricks and stones. It exhibits a characteristic Ottoman construction method of surrounding the large cut stones with sets of bricks. The wall is situated with an east–west orientation and features two windows, with a mihrab niche in between. A notched brick cornice decorates the top of the wall.
The Roman Wall was built in the 16th or 17th century, the time of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. The wall's exact purpose is unclear, though it is agreed that it performed an Islamic religious function. It may either be the preserved part of an eminent Ottoman Turk's tomb, or it may have formed part of a namazgâh, an open-air religious structure where the imam would perform a prayer for those embarking on the Hajj.
In the late 19th century, after the reestablishment of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1878, the Old Wall remained as a lone marker in the abandoned Turkish graveyard. In 1957, the wall underwent a reconstruction and was enlisted as a monument of culture.
References:The church of the former Franciscan monastery was built probably between 1515 and 1520. It is located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old Rauma. The church stands by the small stream of Raumanjoki (Rauma river).
The exact age of the Church of the Holy Cross is unknown, but it was built to serve as the monastery church of the Rauma Franciscan Friary. The monastery had been established in the early 15th century and a wooden church was built on this location around the year 1420.
The Church of the Holy Cross served the monastery until 1538, when it was abandoned for a hundred years as the Franciscan friary was disbanded in the Swedish Reformation. The church was re-established as a Lutheran church in 1640, when the nearby Church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed by fire.
The choir of the two-aisle grey granite church features medieval murals and frescoes. The white steeple of the church was built in 1816 and has served as a landmark for seafarers.