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Photo: Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The largest church in the Balkans, and one of the largest Christian churches worldwide, able to hold 5,000 worshipers. Saint Alexander Nevsky was a Russian prince, and the cathedral was built to honour the Russian soldiers who died during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, liberating Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.
The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Built in the Neo-Byzantine style, it serves as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and it is one of the largest Christian church buildings by volume in the world. It is one of Sofia's symbols and primary tourist attractions. St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia occupies an area of 3,170 square metres (34,100 sq ft) and can hold 5,000 worshipers. It is among the ten largest Eastern Orthodox church buildings. It is believed that up until the year 2000 it was the largest finished Orthodox cathedral.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Across from Alexander Nevsky cathedral; on the side of Hagia Sofia's Church.
църква „Света София“
It was built in the 6th century, in the same wave of construction as the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In 1329 it gave its name to the city. It was destroyed several times and during the Ottoman rule it was used as a mosque. It was built over an even older 4th-century church, which can be explored through its excavated crypts and tombs.