Bulgarian St Stephen Church
Encyclopedia
The Bulgarian St Stephen
Church , 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 Bulgarians of the Ottoman Empire
used to pray at the churches of the Phanar
Orthodox Patriarchy, but due to nationalistic movements, Bulgarians were allowed a national church in the 19th century, the Bulgarian Exarchate
.
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 (near Eyüp
district), where the current church is located. A house was donated by the statesman Stefan Bogoridi
and it was reorganized as a wooden church. It was inaugurated on 9 October 1849 and became an important site of the Bulgarian National Revival
. The Ottoman
royal decree of 28 February 1870 establishing the Bulgarian Exarchate was first read in the church.
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. The construction plans were prepared by Hovsep Aznavur
, an Armenian
of Istanbul origin. An international competition was conducted to produce the prefabricated parts of the church, won by an Austria
n company, R. Ph. Waagner. The prefabricated parts, weighing 500 ton
s, were produced in Vienna
in 1893-1896 and transported to Istanbul by ship through the Danube
and the Black Sea
.
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.
St. Stephen was the product of 19th century experimentation with prefabricated iron church
es. The British, who invented corrugated iron in 1829, manufactured portable iron churches to send to far-flung colonies like Australia
. The Eiffel Tower
's creator, French engineer Gustave Eiffel
, designed iron churches that were sent as far as the Philippines
and Peru
. Now St Stephen is one of the world's few surviving prefabricated cast iron churches.
On December 27, 2010, Saint Stephen's feast day, a celebratory mass was held at the church in honor of its patron saint. Attending were the Vratsa metropolitan Kalinik, bishop Naum, Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Holy Synod, and representatives of the "St. Stephen Church" Foundation. Honoring the celebration the dome of the church was gold-plated using funds donated by the Bulgarians of Plovdiv
.
In addition to the St. Stephen Church, there is another Bulgarian Orthodox church in Istanbul — the St. Demetrius Church in Feriköy.
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
Church , also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, is a Bulgarian Orthodox
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
church in Fatih
Fatih
Fatih is a municipality and district in Istanbul, Turkey that encompasses most of the peninsula coinciding with historic Constantinople. In 2009, the district of Eminönü, formerly a separate municipality located at the tip of the peninsula, was merged into Fatih...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, famous for being made of cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
. The church belongs to the Bulgarian minority in the city. The Bulgarians of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
used to pray at the churches of the Phanar
Fener
Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul , Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original Greek φανάρι...
Orthodox Patriarchy, but due to nationalistic movements, Bulgarians were allowed a national church in the 19th century, the Bulgarian Exarchate
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953....
.
The richly ornamented church is a three-domed cross-shaped basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
. The altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
faces the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
and a 40 m-high belfry, the six bells of which were cast in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
, rises above the narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
. Initially, a small wooden church was erected on the shore of the Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
between Balat and Fener
Fener
Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul , Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original Greek φανάρι...
squares (near Eyüp
Eyüp
-External links:* * * * *...
district), where the current church is located. A house was donated by the statesman Stefan Bogoridi
Stefan Bogoridi
Prince Stefan Bogoridi was a high ranking Ottoman statesman of Bulgarian origin, grandson of Sophronius of Vratsa and father of Alexander Bogoridi and Nicolae Vogoride...
and it was reorganized as a wooden church. It was inaugurated on 9 October 1849 and became an important site of the Bulgarian National Revival
Bulgarian National Revival
The Bulgarian National Revival , sometimes called the Bulgarian Renaissance, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule...
. The Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
royal decree of 28 February 1870 establishing the Bulgarian Exarchate was first read in the church.
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
due to the weak ground conditions. The construction plans were prepared by Hovsep Aznavur
Hovsep Aznavur
Hovsep Aznavur was an Ottoman Armenian architect. He is noted for his construction plans for the Bulgarian St. Stephen Church of Istanbul, Turkey....
, an Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
of Istanbul origin. An international competition was conducted to produce the prefabricated parts of the church, won by an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n company, R. Ph. Waagner. The prefabricated parts, weighing 500 ton
Ton
The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...
s, were produced in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1893-1896 and transported to Istanbul by ship through the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
.
Joseph I of Bulgaria
Joseph I, born as Lazar Yovchev, , also known as Iosif I, was a Bulgarian Exarch from 1877 to 1915. His grave, marked by a white cross and a bed of flowers, is located just outside the western wall of St Nedelya Church in Sofia....
on 8 September that year. The main skeleton of the church was made of steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and covered by metal boards. All the pieces were attached together with nuts, bolts, rivets or welding
Welding
Welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing coalescence. This is often done by melting the workpieces and adding a filler material to form a pool of molten material that cools to become a strong joint, with pressure sometimes...
. In terms of architecture, the church combines Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque influences.
St. Stephen was the product of 19th century experimentation with prefabricated iron church
Tin tabernacle
Tin tabernacles were a type of prefabricated building made from corrugated iron developed in the mid 19th century initially in Great Britain. Corrugated iron was first used for roofing in London in 1829 by Henry Robinson Palmer and the patent sold to Richard Walker who advertised "portable...
es. The British, who invented corrugated iron in 1829, manufactured portable iron churches to send to far-flung colonies like Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
's creator, French engineer Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
, designed iron churches that were sent as far as the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. Now St Stephen is one of the world's few surviving prefabricated cast iron churches.
On December 27, 2010, Saint Stephen's feast day, a celebratory mass was held at the church in honor of its patron saint. Attending were the Vratsa metropolitan Kalinik, bishop Naum, Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Holy Synod, and representatives of the "St. Stephen Church" Foundation. Honoring the celebration the dome of the church was gold-plated using funds donated by the Bulgarians of Plovdiv
Plovdiv
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...
.
In addition to the St. Stephen Church, there is another Bulgarian Orthodox church in Istanbul — the St. Demetrius Church in Feriköy.