After visiting the National Art Gallery "Kvadrat 500" in the Day 9 of this Leaving All Behind series, I decided to visit Sofia's most iconic tourist attraction.
Visiting the symbol of Sofia
This 52 meters height, 72 meters length and 55 meters width Neo-Byzantine style temple it's one of the 50 largest Christian church buildings by volume in the world, it's one of the 10 largest Eastern Orthodox church buildings and the largest cathedral in the Balkans, with 3,170 square meters area and capicity for 5,000 people inside.
Built between 1882 and 1912, the cathedral is dedicated to St. Alexander Nevski (a key figure in medieval Russian history, who preserved Eastern Orthodoxy against the will of crusaders to impose Western Christianity), who is the celestial patron and protector of the Tsar Liberator – Emperor Alexander (Alexander II - Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, whose most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs -slaves- in 1861, leading to the Great Emancipation) and the Russian victorious army over the Ottomans in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), wich resulted in Bulgaria being liberated from the Ottoman rule.
In the construction took part the prominent Bulgarian and Russian architects: P. Momchilov, Y. Mladenov, Y. Shamardzhiev, and G. Lazarov.
YouTube Short entering St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral: https://youtube.com/shorts/dqmjY-DhpTI?si=HSEjnD7Hy7GWOPcz
The inner space of the cathedral is impressive with its masterful execution of columns, arches, capitals, friezes, etc. and the valuable and rare types of building materials used for their decoration, like Italian marbles of diverse colors, Brazilian onyx and white alabasters.
It's complemented by high-artistic frescoes, icons and other painting genres made by 20 Russian and 30 Bulgarian artists that were some of the best artists in the two countries at that time.
Decoration and mural paintings were done by the artists: V. Vasnetsov, V. Savinski, A. Mitov, St. Ivanov, A. Belkovski, among others.
YouTube Short listening at the Gregorian chants singers: https://youtube.com/shorts/tnFl7ykuFz4?si=ffBK-sareo3YQQll
King Ferdinand and Queen Eleonora are pictured in the Royal Throne (made of an area of 13.5 square meters, erected on three steps and with sculpted lions on both sides of the staircase), dressed in ceremonial robes.
Leaving the cathedral
Despite being amazed with the atmosphere of the inner space and the beauty of the cathedral, my stomach was already roaring so I decided to head to some typical Bulgarian cuisine restaurant, but not before taking some selfies.
I chose the Hadjidraganov's Houses restaurant in the center of Sofia, wich consists of four restored houses from 1866, representing typical architecture and style from beautiful Bulgarian towns like Koprivshtitsa, Zheravna, Melnik and Bansko.
I started ordering their typical Isperih that comes together with some appetizers, all for 12.60 BGN (6.50 EUR):
Then I decided to order the Koprivstenska sabia main dish for 26.80 BGN (13.70 EUR):
And at this point I can tell you that, after drinking the whole strong Isperih in small sips, I had to go head back to the hostel and have a nap.
In the next article, before definitely leaving Bulgaria, I'm visiting some other places and I'm telling you an anecdote of how I met an important man there.
Leaving All Behind series: Day 1, Day 2 (Part 1), Day 2 (Part 2), Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 (Part 1), Day 5 (Part 2), Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9.
Photographs were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
YouTube Shorts recorded with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
Image of the St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral location is a screenshot from Google Maps.
Sources on which I relied to give some accurate info about all related to St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral and history behind: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6).
St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral Website.
Sofia Municipality Tourism Website.