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The Unique Cast Iron Church of Istanbul
The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church in Istanbul, Turkey, has the detailed ornaments of an Orthodox stone church, but it’s actually made of prefabricated cast iron elements.
Sometimes referred to as ‘The Iron Church’, St. Stephen Church is considered the largest prefabricated cast iron building in the world. It consists of thousands of prefabricated pieces of cast iron, from large walls, to small, intricate decorations, all of which weigh over 500 tons. As almost the entire structure and its exquisite décor are cast out of iron, a close inspection reveals the heads of the large screws holding it together everywhere you look.
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