24 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Istanbul’s Iron Church of Unique Beauty

The Bulgarian Church of St. Stephens was constructed like a cross-shaped Basilica. St. Stephen Church is also known as The Iron Church since its structure is made of Cast Iron.

It is also called Stevi Stefan in Bulgarian which means Saint Stephen. this church is dedicated to Saint Stephen who is one of the first deacons and the first Christian martyr.

The first church was a wooden construction built near the Golden Horn, and the alter of the current church faces the Golden Horn. After the wooden church was destroyed in a fire, the cast-iron structure was built on its location. According to some sources, this is the only iron church standing at this moment!

Sultan Abdülaziz, according to the popular tale, refused to allow the city’s Bulgarian Orthodox minority to erect a church. The sultan stated that St. Stephen must be finished in a single month, “permitting” its construction in a manner he definitely considered failsafe. But, like so many fantastic stories, the tale of the sultan’s challenge and the Bulgarian triumph isn’t quite true.

Iron church İstanbul
The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church is also known as The Iron Church since its structure is made of Cast Iron. Photo: Wikipedia

Nationalism waves swept the globe following the French Revolution. Furthermore, these waves had a significant impact on the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, and Bulgarians attempted to find a means to pray in Bulgarian. As you may be aware, Catholics usually use Latin while Orthodox use Greek. And, like Bulgarians, some of the nationalities aspired to speak their own language. However, the Fener Greek Patriarchate was first unwilling to allow Bulgarians to speak their own language and create their own exarchate.

Stefan Bogoridi wrote a letter to the sultan to explain the worship in Bulgarian and this request was accepted. He had a house where the current church was constructed. So, he moved to a new house and donated the plot.

Statue of Stefan Bogoridi in the churchyard.
Statue of Stefan Bogoridi in the churchyard.

In 1850, they also constructed the building for priests. In 1870, the Bulgarian side left the Greek Patriarchate with Sultan Abdulaziz’s order. After this order, the Bulgarian exarchate has officially started the process.

The Iron Church

The old church was built of wood and was destroyed by a fire. The famous Fossati brothers devised a plan, but the ground was too unstable owing to its location on the coast, and the project was shelved. The exarchate then held a competition, which was won by Armenian architect Hovsep Aznavur. The building of the church began in 1893, and it was completed in 1898.

The church is in basilica form and represents neo-gothic and neo-baroque styles. There are three floors.
The church is in basilica form and represents neo-gothic and neo-baroque styles. There are three floors.

Waagner, a well-known Austrian business, built an entire prefabricated church and tested it before shipping it to Istanbul. The church was transported by ship across the Danube River, then transferred to the Black Sea, and finally sailed through the Bosphorus. As a result, the church weighs just 500 tons. The piles are built of wood and are quite robust. They expanded in the water and show very good strength.

The only remaining original feature from the wooden church that predated the Iron Church is its stone altar, still in use to this day. Inaugurated on September 8, 1898, one of the world’s few full-metal churches has remained in constant use ever since.

The church reopened in January 2018 after an extensive renovation. The Bulgarian Iron Church is very close to Fener pier and Balat pier.

The official address: Balat, Murselpasa Cd. No:10, 34087 Fatih/Istanbul

Related Articles

“If this site (Sharda temple)is restored and conserved, it will attract thousands of Hindus and Buddhists from Kashmir and the rest of the world”

7 August 2021

7 August 2021

Sharda Peeth, a historic learning institution located 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Muzaffarabad, the capital and largest city of Pakistan-administered...

4,000 Years of Wisdom: Women’s Rights and Inheritance in the Kültepe Tablets

8 March 2025

8 March 2025

The Kültepe Tablets, discovered in the ancient site of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) in central Anatolia, are approximately 4,000 years old...

A Byzantine Princess, a Mongol Khan, and a Church: The Bloody Church and Its Unknown History

13 May 2025

13 May 2025

Nestled at the base of the imposing Phanar Greek Orthodox College, a landmark intrinsically linked to the panoramic vistas of...

Egypt’s Lost city “Thonis-Heracleion”

6 September 2021

6 September 2021

Thonis-Heracleion (Egyptian and Greek names of the city) is a port city lost between myth and reality until 1999. Few...

Jordan’s mysterious ancient wall “Khatt Shebib”

22 October 2022

22 October 2022

The accomplishments of ancient civilizations are typically woefully underappreciated because we stereotype them as primitives who only wore loincloths, and...

Contemporaneous with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia the Indus Valley Civilization city of ‘Mohenjo Daro’: Skilled urban planners with a reverence for the control of water

10 September 2022

10 September 2022

The Indus River Valley (or Harappan) civilization (3300-1300 BCE) lasted 2,000 years and spanned northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest...

Montenegro’s Unique Church With Two Altars is Disappearing

11 December 2023

11 December 2023

In the Spich plain, where the modern town of Sutomore in Bar, Montenegro is located, there were churches that served...

A birthplace of complex musical instruments “Iran”

9 January 2022

9 January 2022

Music is a form of art, which derives from the Greek word meaning “art of the Muses.” While it is...

From Prehistoric Georgia ‘World’s oldest wine”

12 July 2022

12 July 2022

For many years in a row, wine has been a popular alcoholic beverage consumed worldwide. While we associate many things...

Gladiators were mostly Vegetarians and they were fatter than you may think

6 August 2023

6 August 2023

What better epitomizes the ideal male physique than the Roman gladiator? Gladiators were the movie stars of the first century,...

Britain’s Best Viking Museums

18 March 2021

18 March 2021

The Vikings were famous seafaring people from the late 8th to early 11th centuries who made a name for themselves...

Derinkuyu: A Subterranean Marvel of Ancient Engineering with 18 Levels and Capacity for 20,000 Inhabitants

2 May 2025

2 May 2025

Beneath the sun-drenched plains of Cappadocia, where otherworldly “fairy chimney” rock formations pierce the sky, lies a secret world carved...

“Dholavira,” the settlement with the world’s oldest signboard

16 August 2021

16 August 2021

Dholavira, also known as Kotda (which means “big fort”), is one of the islands in Kutch’s vast desert. The city...

200 Feet to the Past: The Millennium-Old Mystery of the Himalayan Towers

8 May 2025

8 May 2025

In the remote and rugged landscapes of the Himalayas, a series of enigmatic structures known as the Himalayan Towers, or...

Jiroft: The Mysterious Rival of Mesopotamia and the Dawn of an Ancient Civilization

24 March 2025

24 March 2025

Recent archaeological discoveries in southeast Iran are reshaping our understanding of early civilizations, particularly the Jiroft Civilization, which thrived around...