St. Stephen Bulgarian Church, Istanbul

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The Bulgarian St Stephen Church (Turkish: Sveti Stefan Kilisesi), also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, is a Bulgarian Orthodox church in Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey, famous for being made of cast iron. The church belongs to the Bulgarian minority in the city.The richly ornamented church is a three-domed cross-shaped basilica. The altar faces the Golden Horn and a 40 m-high belfry, the six bells of which were cast in Yaroslavl, rises above the narthex. Initially, a small wooden church was erected on the shore of the Golden Horn between Balat and Fener squares, where the current church is located. After the original wooden structure suffered from a fire, the larger current building was constructed at its place. An iron frame was preferred to concrete reinforcement due to the weak ground conditions.After one and a half years' work, the church was completed in 1898 and inaugurated by Exarch Joseph on 8 September that year. The main skeleton of the church was made of steel and covered by metal boards. All the pieces were attached together with nuts, bolts, rivets or welding. In terms of architecture, the church combines Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque influences. #altar #ancient #austria #balat #balkan #baroque #basilica #belfry #bell #bulgaria #cathedral #church #cross #faith #fener #golden_horn #gothic #iron #istanbul #neogothic #old #orthodox #religion #steel #temple #turkey #wien #Yaroslavl