Tag: Iron Church

A Cast-Iron Church In Istanbul

by Sean McLachlan

This church on the shoreline of Istanbul looks ornate yet pretty normal – that is until you go up and take a closer look. The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church isn’t made of stone but rather of cast iron. It’s a rare survival of a 19th-century craze in prefab cast-iron churches.Also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, its parts were cast in Vienna in 1871 and shipped down the Danube in a hundred barges to be assembled in Istanbul. This building marks an important time in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Bulgaria and Greece were both ruled by theOttoman Empire. Bulgarian Christians were under the domain of the Greek Patriarch, but the Bulgarians complained that he favored Greeks over Bulgarians. So the Sultan granted the Bulgarians their own Exarch, giving them a religious independence that they have to this day.
If you’re in Istanbul, head on over to this church, pull a coin out of your pocket and tap it against the wall. You’ll hear a loud ding ding ding that proves it’s really metal! Needless to say, iron buildings need love and care. Currently the building is undergoing restoration work so that it can amaze visitors and churchgoers for generations to come.

Liverpool can boast two cast-iron churches, St. Michael’s and St. George’s, although they are only partially iron. For the full prefab effect, you need to go to Istanbul.

April 23, 2013
Bulgaria Campaigns to Restore Istanbul Iron Church

The Bulgarian “Saint Stephen” Church in Istanbul, Turkey, is the only cast-iron church in the world. Photo by wikipedia

A number of schools and organizations across Bulgaria are taking part in a large-scale donation campaign titled “Let’s Preserve the Bulgarian St. Stephen Church in Istanbul.”

The Bulgarian Church in Istanbul is celebrating Tuesday the day of its patron.

The campaign is organized under the initiative of the Foundation “Bulgarian Orthodox Temple St. Stephen in Istanbul.”

The goal is to collect enough funds to fully restore the Church’s iconostasis, which had not been touched in the last 113 years.

The restoration includes applying of a new gold leaf, accurate reconstruction of the damaged segments of the iconostasis, cleaning and preservation.

The project will be carried out by Turkish specialists in the restoration of historic monuments, while Bulgaria will send an expert in the field as observer. The amount needed to implement all stages of the restoration of the iconostasis is estimated at EUR 75 000.

The Church was inaugurated in 1898 by Exarch Joseph and marks the beginning of the Bulgarian exarchate. It is also the main worship place of Bulgarian Christian Orthodox in Turkey.

The St. Stephen Day mass is traditionally attended by high-ranking Bulgarian clergy, by Orthodox Bulgarians, living in the city, and Bulgarian tourists.

Last year, the dome of the church was gold-plated thanks to a donation of Bulgarians from Plovdiv. Bulgarians living in Istanbul now say the church is the only one in the city having a gold-covered dome.

Four years ago, St. Stephen was declared the most beautiful church in Turkey. Architects call it a unique building. It is also the only cast-iron church in the world.

Right before Christmas 2010, the Istanbul City Hall announced it will use municipal funds to repair the temple.

via Bulgaria Campaigns to Restore Istanbul Iron Church: Bulgaria Campaigns to Restore Istanbul Iron Church – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

December 28, 2011
Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul: Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul

Thousands of Bulgarians celebrated Easter in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday into Sunday with the mass traditionally held at the St. Stefan church.

The building of the Bulgarian Iron Church in Istanbul was filled with people wishing to attend the Easter Mass Saturday into Sunday. Photo by BGNES

The service at the church near the Golden Horn, known also as the Iron Church, began at 11 pm Saturday and was delivered by Bishop Teodosiy, who arrived, with three other clergy, from Bulgaria.

Many worshipers also traveled from Bulgaria to Istanbul to attend the Easter Mass there. The building and the yard were filled with people. At midnight sharp the church bell announced the resurrection of Christ while Teodosiy blessed the attendees.

People greeted each other with the traditional “Christ Is Risen,” and went around the church three times in observance of the Easter ritual. They also exchanged colored eggs and the Easter bread called kozunak.

A mass was also served at another Istanbul church – St. Ivan Rilski, of the Bulgarian eparchy in Shishli because the Iron Church can no longer accommodate all the worshipers. The mass was served by the priest of Bulgarian churches in Istanbul, Father Angel.

Those who attended the services at St. Stefan were also in for a pleasant surprise – a giant colored egg made from plaster was mounted in the yard. The egg, about 1.5 meter-high, placed in a basket, and lit inside with beams of different colors, is said to have been a splendid site.

The idea for the egg belongs to the Bulgarian community in Istanbul and is made as a special gift and memory for their fellow countrymen and women, who come each year to celebrate Easter together with them near the Golden Horn.

The celebrations in Istanbul also marked the 151st anniversary of “Bulgarian Easter” which led to the restoration of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

On April 3 1860 Ilarion Makariopolski refused to mention the Greek Patriarch’s name in an Easter service. This led to the struggle between the Bulgarians, led by Neofit Bozveli and Makariopolski, and the Greeks intensifying throughout the 1860s. By the end of the decade, Bulgarian bishoprics had expelled most of the Greek clerics, thus the whole of northern Bulgaria, as well as the northern parts of Thrace and Macedonia had effectively seceded from the Patriarchate.

The Ottoman government restored the Bulgarian Patriarchate under the name of “Bulgarian Exarchate” by a decree (firman) of the Sultan promulgated on February 28, 1870. The original Exarchate extended over present-day northern Bulgaria (Moesia), Thrace without the Vilayet of Adrianople, as well as over north-eastern Macedonia.

After the Christian population of the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid voted in 1874 overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%), the Bulgarian Exarchate became in control of the whole of Vardar and Pirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian Exarchate was partially represented in southern Macedonia and the Vilayet of Adrianople by vicars. Thus, the borders of the Exarchate included all Bulgarian districts in the Ottoman Empire.

via Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul: Hoards Celebrate ‘Bulgarian Easter’ in Istanbul – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.Iron

April 25, 2011
Patriotically-minded Bulgarians Renovate Iron Church in Istanbul

The domes of the Bulgarian St. Stephan church in Istanbul, commonly known as the Iron Church, will shine as new. Thirteen Bulgarian patriots from Plovdiv collected a generous donation of 40,000 euro to make a miracle come true. The biggest dome is covered with titanium alloy used in spaceships building. It is more durable than even gold. The initiators of the project alighted on the idea ten years ago as the unique cast-iron church facing the Golden Horn was in a deplorable condition. It has not been renovated or reinforced for decades.

The consecration service was performed by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

Eli Kumanova

via Arts&Culture – Patriotically-minded Bulgarians Renovate Iron Church in Istanbul – Standart.

November 29, 2010