The history of the origin of one important tourist object in Sofia

Temple-monument "Alexander Nevsky"

Temple monument "Alexander Nevsky" is one of the most popular tourist places in Sofia.

This object is especially important for Russians and now I will tell why.

History of creation

This temple was built "to perpetuate brotherly love and profound recognition of the great Russian people for the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878."

Let me remind you that the Liberation itself occurred as a result of the victory of the Russian army over the Turkish army in the territory of Bulgaria in 1878. And exactly one year later the Bulgarian elite put forward a proposal to perpetuate the "merging of the blood of two fraternal peoples - liberators and liberated". So there was the idea of building a huge Christian Orthodox church on the somom high place of Sofia in the late 19th century (552 m.).

Of course, the name of the temple "Alexander Nevsky" here is very symbolic - on the one hand this saint patronizes the Russian army, and on the other is the angel of the Tsar Liberator Alexander II.

And the fundraising began. Bulgarian citizens collected 1900000 leva for the construction of this monument. The first stone was laid in 1882, but the construction itself began only in 1904. Because the first architect of this building died. And, what do you think happened?

The Russians had to take this project into their own hands and complete the construction of the monument to themselves :-)

The irony of fate, but it's a historical fact!

Architect Alexander Nevsky was Alexander Pomerantsev, he was helped by two architects, both Alexandra. In this there is a certain symbolism

I do not know what the first project of the Bulgarian architect looked like, but the Bulgarians dubbed the Pomeranian project "Russian Northern Empire". For the sake of justice, it should be noted that not only the Russians worked on the construction of this monument: Bulgarians, Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Italians worked here - they were architects, artists and stonemasons. And in the painting of the church, after 1912 32 Russian, 16 Bulgarian and 1 Czech artists took part.

Mural paintings were performed under the authority of Professor Kiselev, who directed the manufacture of tempera colors. Such famous people of the Russian art school as Peter Myasoedov, V.Vasnetsov (two icons in the iconostasis), D.Kiplik, S.Shelkova, V.Savinsky, V.Kuznetsov, I.Lanskoy, V.Perminov , N. Rodzianko, M. Korin, M. Sudokovsky, A. Vakhrameev, V. Bolotnov, N. Bruni, N. Rozanov, Iv. Drozdov, M. Avilov and 14 other Bulgarian artists.

The temple was built in 1904 and finished eight years later, then several years later painted and officially consecrated in 1924. In this interval from 15 years to 20 years, the Bulgarians managed to take offense at the "great Russian people" and rename the temple, and then they forgave and returned the old name back :-)

Specifications

This temple is the largest Bulgarian temple in the Balkans. Do you know why? Because the Bulgarians do not build this way: the Bulgarian churches are much more modest and simpler.

In the decoration of "Alexander Nevsky" used materials such as German gold, Slavonian oak, multicolored Italian marble, colorful onyx, Munich chandeliers and so on.

In the end, all this resulted in 6 million leva.

•      There are 8 kg of gold on the domes.
•      12 Moscow bells weigh 23 tons.
•      The height of the temple with the bell tower is 53 m.
•      The length of the temple is 73 m.
•      The width of the temple is 52 m.
•      Capacity - 5 thousand people.

It is in the temple "Alexnadr Nevsky" every year brought a blessed fire.

The entrance is free. Photography costs 5 euros - even if you do it with your eye on the fountain pen.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova

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