Sveti Stefan Bulgarian Church

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Turkish Name: Bulgar Kilisesi

Sveti Stefan Bulgarian Church is a Bulgarian Orthodox church located at the shore of the Golden Horn , founded in the middle of the courtyard covered with bars . The church belongs to the Bulgarian minority in Istanbul . The Bulgarians were used to pray at the churches of the Phanar Orthodox Patriarchy , but later in the 19th century , Bulgarians were allowed a national church , the Bulgarian Exarchate . Originally , there was a small wooden church built on the shore of the Golden Horn between Balat and Fener squares . Statesman Stefan Bogoridi had donated a house which was reorganized as a wooden church . It was opened on 9 October 1849 and became an important witness of the Bulgarian National Revival . On 28 Februay , 1870 , the Ottoman royal decree establishing the Bulgarian Exarchate was first read in the church .

A fire broke out and as a consequence , the original wooden church became in ruins and on its place was constructed the larger building of today . Architect Hovsep Aznavur , an Armenian of Istanbul origin , observed that the construction area is filled soil and thus was not safe enough and suggested the place of the church now . The new construction was decided to be built by steel and covered with sheet and cast plates which would be much lighter . To supply the prefabricated parts of the church , an international competition was held and won by an Austrian company , R . Ph . Waagner . The prefabricated parts were produced in Vienna between 1893 - 1896 and weighed 500 tons . The parts then were transported to Istanbul by water through the Danube River and the Black Sea .

Construction of the church was completed in 1898 and opened by Exarch Joseph on 8 September that year . The main skeleton of the church being made of steel , was covered by metal boards . All the pieces were attached to each other with nuts , bolts , or welding .