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Facing the Banya Bashi mosque is the market hall or Halite (daily 7am-midnight), an elaborate pre-World War I structure crowned by a clock tower, recently reopened to the public after years of neglect. Inside, a glass roof held up by cast-iron pillars stretches above two storeys of stalls selling clothes, booze, and a mouth-watering range of local delicatessen products. A couple of salad bars and canteen-style eateries make this a good place to stop off for food between sightseeing. Immediately to the west lies the Sofia synagogue (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-1pm; ring the bell and wait for the caretaker to emerge), a fanciful structure seemingly upheld by its dome, which might have been conceived by a Moorish Leonardo with a premonition of airships. Designed in 1909 by Friedrich Gruenanger, the Viennese architect also responsible for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church's Theology Faculty, the synagogue was intended to symbolize the Jewish contribution to the country's burgeoning capital, blending in with the nearby mosque, market hall and bath house to create an impressive assemblage of downtown buildings. Tsar Ferdinand's presence at the opening ceremony was a clear demonstration of how much the Jewish community - which made up one fifth of the capital's population at the time - was valued by the regime. Until World War II Sofia's Jews occupied an overcrowded maze of narrow streets that stretched from here along what is now the Largo to the east. The area was turned to rubble by Allied bombing, although the vast majority of Sofia's Jews survived the war, emigrating to Palestine in large numbers in the late 1940s. The synagogue's superbly restored interior is dominated by an enormous brass chandelier weighing over 2000kg, which hangs from a broad octagonal dome. Much of the ceiling space around it is painted to resemble a blue, star-filled sky, all framed by flowing, Art-Nouveau-inspired friezes. On the southern side of the synagogue, the pedestrianized ul. Pirotska darts westwards past nineteenth-century apartment blocks, nowadays colonized by clothes boutiques and electrical goods stores. Tastefully cobbled, and with flowerbeds and cast-iron lampstands running down the middle, it's one of central Sofia's more attractive shopping streets. The junction of Pirotska and ul. Stefan Stambolov marks the southern extent of the Zhenski pazar or Women's Market, an intensely crowded affair where you can find everything from fruit and vegetables to fake designer-label tracksuits and car parts. Peasants from the surrounding countryside arrive here early each morning to sell their produce, and it's one of the few places in Sofia where the pulse of the Balkans of old can still be felt. Beyond lies one of Sofia's older quarters , with rutted cobblestones and low houses built around courtyards: a far cry from the modern housing estates that girdle the town.
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