Kaushik Patowary
Apr 23, 2021
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Although it looks like stone, the Bulgarian St. Stephen Church with its richly ornamented façade on the shores of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey, is made of iron. It was cast in Vienna, floated down the Danube and across the Black Sea on barges, and bolted together here in Istanbul in 1871. It is possibly the largest prefabricated cast iron structure in the world.
The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church in Istanbul is the largest prefabricated cast iron structure in the world. Photo:
The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church was the culmination of a nearly century-long struggle for an independent Bulgarian church, which begun late in the 18th century. Many Bulgarian dioceses were discontent with the supremacy of the Greek clergy the Bulgarian Orthodox Church being fully subordinated to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Starting from the 1850s the Bulgarians initiated a purposeful struggle against the Greek clerics, demanding their replacement with