Renovated Bulgarian Iron Church in Istanbul Will Be Opened on January 7

The fully restored Bulgarian Church St. Stephen located in Istanbul will be officially reopened on January 7^th.

The official ceremony will be conducted by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan will also attend the event, which the Bulgarian National Television will broadcast live from 8:30 until 11:00.

The restoration of the unique monument, also known as the Iron church, took 6 years. It was designed by architect Fikri Bulunmaz. The restoration works were carried out by the use of modern technologies and the new walls at the base of the church are made of materials close to those of the original ones.

Architecturally, the church "St. Stephan", also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, is the only one of its kind in the world. The construction plans were prepared by the Armenian architect Hovsep Aznavur. The cast iron parts of the church were produced by the Austrian firm "Rudolph Ph. Waagner". It consists of prefabricated iron elements weighing 500 tonness, which were transported by ship from Vienna via the Danube, through the Black Sea and Bosphorus. The iron structure of the church is assembled on the principle of the Eiffel Tower.

The church was built on a property, which was donated in 1849 for the purposes of the Bulgarian church needs by Prince Stefan Bogoridi, who was a high-ranking Ottoman statesman of Bulgarian origin. The main stone of the temple was laid on 27 April 1892, and two years later it was inaugurated by Exarch Joseph.

The richly ornamented church is a three-domed cross-shaped basilica. The original church was a wooden structure, constructed near the Golden Horn. The cast iron building was constructed in the site of the wooden church after it was destroyed in a fire.

The construction of the church was completed in 1898.