The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church located on the shores of the Golden Horn, Istanbul is made of pure iron even though it looks like a stone. It is considered to be the prefabricated and largest cast-iron structure in the world. It has a neo-Byzantine style of architecture. This iron cast church was constructed in the 18th century and it was the culmination of a century-long struggle for the independent Bulgarian church.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church was under the control of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the supremacy of the Greek clergy. Therefore, the Bulgarian dioceses were unhappy with them. They began a revolt against them in the 1850s, where they demanded the replacement of the Greek clerics with the Bulgarian ones.
In 1870, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz, to ease the rising tension, granted the demand of the Bulgarian dioceses to establish an autonomous Bulgarian Exarchate. Previously a wooden church was erected between Balat and Fener squares on the shore of the Golden Horn where the church is now located. An iron church was built when the church was burnt down. Due to the weak ground conditions, iron was preferred over the lieu of concrete.
The structure and construction plan of the church was designed by the Ottoman Armenian architect, Hovsep Aznavur. To produce the prefabricated cast iron parts, an international competition was organized which was won by the Austrian company, R.Ph. Waagner.
Although, Bulgarian St. Stephen Church wasn’t the first fabricated cast iron church, it was definitely the largest.
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