© Photo: Associate Prof. Valentina Dineva

On the third day after the Nativity of Christ Christians pay homage to the first martyr of the Christian faith, St. Stephen. Filled with immense faith and energy, the saint became the first archdeacon of the emerging Jerusalem community. It was organized in such a perfect way that the Jews were jealous and vilified St. Stephen, and the madding crowd killed him with stones. According to the legend, the Holy Virgin was watching Stephen’s martyr’s death and prayed for him. Dying, St. Stephen prayed to God to forgive his enemies.


On the third day after Christmas, the cycle of the year’s feasts closes. The day is a major family occasion and the menu includes meat. On the Feast of St. Stephen, in Bulgarian Stefanovden, people go to visit older relatives and friends. The name Stephen, Stefan in the Bulgarian version, means a wreath, and anybody called Stefan, Stefana, Stoyan, Stoyko, Stoimen, Venko and with similar names celebrate their name day.


One of the foremost shrines of the Bulgarian spirit – the Iron Church in Istanbul – bears the name of St. Stephen. We associate this site with the struggles of the Bulgarians for the independence of the Bulgarian Church that began back in the 1830s while the land was still part of the Ottoman Empire. The Orthodox Christian Church is a three-knave basilica facing the Golden Horn, and its bell-tower is 40-m high.

The Iron Church in Istanbul named after St. Stephan

The iron church was built at the end of 19 c. when the Bulgarian community in Istanbul was 50,000-strong. In 1849 the influential Bulgarian Stefan Bogoridi, a senior Ottoman official, donated to the Bulgarian community a large plot of land with two buildings in the Istanbul district of Fener, not far from the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

On 17 October 1849 a Sultan’s decree was issued permitting the Bulgarians to have their own church. The wooden building on the land plot donated by Bogoridi was turned into a chapel. Later on it emerged as the St. Stephen Church honoring the benefactor’s name Stefan (Bogoridi). Back at that time the church was known as the wooden church.

The altar of St. Stephan

In 1870 the Bulgarian Exarchate was founded and the Bogoridi estate became its seat. The Exarchate operated in Istanbul even after the liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule in 1878 – until the First Balkan War of 1912.

An icon of St. Stephan from the St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, 13th century

In 1892 by virtue of a Sultan’s decree, the construction of a new church to replace the wooden one began. Given that the terrain was not stable enough, the architect Hovsep Aznavuor suggested iron foundations of the church instead of concrete. The iron components weighing 500 tons were manufactured in Vienna and arrived in Istanbul loaded on a ship. The structure is iron and the walls are made of sheet iron. The assembly completed on 14 July 1896. The exterior of the church displays influence from the neo-Baroque, neo-Gothic and the Byzantine styles. The church interiors were created in Vienna too, and have been recognized as the earliest example of Art Nouveau in Istanbul. The icons were painted by a Russian artist and the six bells were cast in Russia.



On 8 September 1898, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the solemn blessing of the St. Stephen Church was held. Today it is one of the few surviving iron churches worldwide. A few renowned Bulgarian clerics have been buried in the churchyard of St. Stephen: Ilarion of Makariopol, Avxentii of Veles, Meleti of Veles and Paissii of Plovdiv.



Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

Photos: courtesy to Associate Prof. Dr. Valentina Dineva