Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Nicholas (the official name is the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) is located in the very center of the city of Sofia.
After the end of the Russian-Turkish war, a community of Russians appeared in Sofia, who initiated the construction of an Orthodox church. The city authorities have allocated a plot of 1400 sq. m, and in the period from 1907 to 1914, a majestic building was erected according to the project of the famous Russian architect M. T. Preobrazhensky. Moreover, the construction work itself was completed in 1911, and the subsequent years were spent on decorating the church outside and inside - to finish finishing work, to decorate the iconostasis, etc. Russian artists were engaged in painting the walls, the process was directed by V. T. Perminov.
Unlike most Orthodox churches in Bulgaria, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker did not correspond to the style of the Bulgarian Renaissance, but was built in the traditional Russian style, with all its inherent elements. In accordance with the architectural design, the temple is a four-sided building (a building with four sides) with adjoining side rooms, an altar, and a porch-porch. The building is crowned with towers with gilded onion domes - four on the sides and one, the tallest, in the center. This is a gift from the Emperor of the Russian Empire Nicholas II. All domes are decorated with crosses. The roof of the porch and partly of the main building are covered with green glazed tiles.
A wide frieze, made up of colored tiles, stretches along the entire temple. The window frames are made of white stone and decorated with gilded decorative elements. The image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is located above the central entrance.
The church building is striking in its monumentality.
The interior decoration of the temple also evokes delight. There is a gilded majolica iconostasis made in St. Petersburg. Of interest are also four icons, which are exact copies of icons from the Cathedral of St. Vladimir in Kiev.
The church is a place of pilgrimage for many believers, because there is a marble tomb belonging to the archbishop and miracle worker Seraphim Sobolev.
