A 19th-century church built by the Bulgarian community in Istanbul is the latest Christian place of worship in Turkey's drive to restore churches to their former glory. Sveti Stefan, also known as the "Iron Church" will be opened on Jan. 7 in a ceremony, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov are expected to attend.
Branded as the only church mainly made of iron in the world, restoration started seven years ago in a project co-funded by Turkey and Bulgaria.
The church is located in Balat, a historic neighborhood on the shore of Istanbul's Golden Horn. Authorities say some 90 percent of the restoration work is completed. Speaking to Ihlas News Agency, Vasil Liaze, head of a foundation overseeing the church, said the restoration cost TL 16 million and the Turkish state covered a total of a TL 15 million part of the budget.
Earlier this month, Aya Yorgi, another historic church in the city's Edirnekapı district, was reopened after restoration work by the state, in a ceremony attended by Turkish and Greek Orthodox dignitaries.
Since the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power in 2002, Turkey has sought to restore the rights of religious minorities as well as the worship houses of minorities, ranging from Assyrians to Jews and Greeks. Many properties have been returned to these minorities -- decades after they were forcefully confiscated by the Turkish state -- while the government continues to pursue a policy of restoring abandoned historical buildings. In 2013, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was returned a 59,000 square meter piece land in central Istanbul that once belonged to the foundation running the church.
An outstanding symbol of Bulgarian Orthodox faith, the church was built in 1898 on the site of a wooden church destroyed in a fire. An Austrian contractor was hired for the construction and 500 tons of iron components brought from Austria to Istanbul for the construction.
The components were pieced together in Istanbul before it was opened on Sept. 8, 1898. With its three domes and rich exterior decoration, the church stands out among many other Orthodox churches in Istanbul. Six bells in church's bell tower were brought from Russia's Yaroslavl, but only two survived to the present day. The cross-shaped basilica has a ground floor, a basement floor, a gallery and a spire.
Last year, Bulgarian Metochion, a renovated addition of the church, was reopened and hosted an exhibition of the history of the Bulgarian community in Turkey. The Metochion, a three-story stone building, was built as an addition, but in time, it turned into a community and culture center for the Bulgarian community in Istanbul. It was abandoned for years after it was converted into a school, printing house and then a nursing home throughout its history.
Turkey's Bulgarian community in Istanbul traces its history to the 18th century. Although Bulgarians were always present in the then-Ottoman Empire's capital, their number and settlement flourished in that century. It was Prince Stefan Bogoridi, an Ottoman statesman of Bulgarian origin, who spearheaded the efforts for construction of a Bulgarian church on the site of Sveti Stefan, on land he owned and donated to the church. Like other minorities, the number of Bulgarian community members dwindled in time, with many returning to Bulgaria or migrating to the United States and Europe.
