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North of the Largo, bul. Knyaginya Mariya Luiza was the "most horrible street in Europe" for Arthur Symons when he was here in 1903, a "kind of mongrel East" existing "between two civilizations ? a rag-heap for the refuse of both". Though it has been considerably cleaned up since then you can see what he was getting at, if only in the dilapidated mixture of buildings that line the northerly sections of the street. However the southern end is marked by one of the most graceful ensembles of buildings in the city, most eye-catching of which is the Banya Bashi mosque : a "Sultan-style" edifice with one large dome and a single minaret, built in 1576 by Hadzhi Mimar Sonah, who also designed the great mosque at Edirne in Turkey. In 1960, Bernard Newman noted "scarcely enough Turks in Sofia to make up a congregation", and in subsequent years the mosque fell into disuse as the Communist regime turned against the country's Muslim population. Now it is once again open for worship, the discreet call of the muezzin occasionally wafting above the heads of bemused city-centre shoppers. As its name suggests, the mosque stands near Sofia's mineral baths , which occupy a stately mock-oriental building overlooking the rear of the park. Derelict for many years, it's in the process of being restored with money donated by the EU, and will one day house the Museum of Sofia, which currently has nowhere to exhibit its vast collection. The square of park lodged between the mosque and the baths has a slightly scruffy feel, although it has long been one of the capital's prime strolling grounds and meeting points. In the inter-war years it was notorious as the place where freelence hitmen used to assemble in the hope of landing a well-paid armed robbery or assassination job. Nowadays people lounge on benches gossiping and spitting sunflower seeds or fragments of kebapcheta , or come with jugs to collect mineral water from public taps.
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