On October 9, 1849, the "St. Stefan", with which the Bulgarian community in the Ottoman capital acquired its first spiritual center. At that time, Constantinople was home to a large Bulgarian trade and craft colony.
On this day, 174 years ago, the first Bulgarian Orthodox church in Constantinople was consecrated
On October 9, 1849, the "St. Stefan", with which the Bulgarian community in the Ottoman capital acquired its first spiritual center. At that time, Constantinople was home to a large Bulgarian trade and craft colony. Particularly numerous among the craftsmen are the Abadjis, united in the largest among the Bulgarian guilds on the Bosphorus - the Abadji.
In 1839, Neophyte Bozveli arrived in the Ottoman capital to gather support for his candidacy for the Metropolitan of Turnov. Here he befriended Ivan Fetvadzhiev, the first master of the abbeys, and with his assistance explained to the masters the need to open a Bulgarian church in the city - an idea they took to heart. Subsequently, the struggle to build a Bulgarian temple in Constantinople was taken up with renewed vigor by Alexander Exarch and became a unifying cause for the entire local Bulgarian community.
The chapel "St. Stefan" was initially located on the first floor of a wooden house donated especially for the purpose by Stefan Bogoridi. The following year, a new building was built next to it, known as "Metoha", which later became the seat of the Bulgarian Exarchate.
The National History Museum preserves a valuable artifact related to the consecration of the first Bulgarian Orthodox church in Constantinople. This is a silver discus with an embossed image of the Archangel Michael. From the inscription placed in a circle around the image, it is clear that the discus was donated to the church "St. Stefan" from the Abadji guild in Constantinople in October 1849.
This is one of the exhibits that will tell about the ecclesiastical-national struggles of the Bulgarians during the Renaissance in the renewed exhibition in hall No. 4 of the NIM. The opening is on November 1, 2023. Come!
A national historical account of the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule" is realized with the financial support of the National Fund "Culture" under the program "Program for the restoration and development of state, regional and municipal cultural institutes.
Text: Mihail Simov, PhD
