Beautiful churches

[gurneyhalleck1]

By the way, speaking of Hagia Sophia, I really love the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Sofia, Bulgaria, which is architecturally similiar to Hagia Sophia, albeit with an elongated nave. I particularly love the view of the cathedral from above:

The way in which the cathedral is situated is very elegant. Alas there is a need for more beautifaction as the city recovers from the communist era, and the patina on the copper roof needs a bit more time to form properly, but recently the main dome was re-surfaced in shining gold, which I absolutely love.

Here is the interior, which might be familiar to those who have acquired any of the excellent recordings of its choirs available through Apple Music and other sources, including the Sofia Patriarchal Cathedral Choir and the Sofia Boys’ Choir:

Viewers may notice that this cathedral and St. Sava’s Cathedral in Belgrade are both related in design to the Hagia Sophia, which even in its Turkish captivity continues to remain the quintessential expression of Orthodox architecture (and also was the basis for all of the mosques in Constantinople, which will be convenient for that happy day in the future when we might pray that through the intercession of the Theotokos and all the saints, the Turkish people will be converted unto Christ our Lord, and thus will have reason to change their mosques into cathedrals, monasteries, convents and parish churches. I pray to see the Blue Mosque become a convent dedicated to the Holy Dormition.

It is indeed an amazing church. Have you been there? I was there a couple years ago. I’ve visited it three times.

 

[The Liturgist]

It is indeed an amazing church. Have you been there? I was there a couple years ago. I’ve visited it three times. View attachment 359244

Yes, but before they gilded the central dome. This was back in 2001, before they cut back to Vienna and then axed the EuroCity train rather absurdly called the Orient Express despite the lack of sleeping cars or any connection with Compatnie Internationale de Wagon Lits except perhaps the speisewagen while in Austria, as a company that was descended from Wagon Lits operated as the OBB’s equivalent of Mitropa, which at the time still ran dining cars on the DB. So this train continued as far as Budapest East (I forget the name of the station, but its the beautiful one in old Pest that sadly got overrun during the migrant crisis), but east of that station some cars were continuing on to Sofia and Bucharest and others were connecting with the Yugoslav State Railway for Belgrade. I remember on the return journey walking the length of the train after we left Budapest and feeling a profound empathy for the passengers from Belgrade, as they were in cramped second class compartments and had evidently been sitting up all night, and I have never seen so many people who looked so tired in my life, even on Greyhound. Usually even when a brutal long distance flight lands that puts the wind in ones step, and long distance on Amtrak or with a Eurail pass is more stimulating than tiring. These passengers were running for their life. This was when Milosevic was still in power and harsh policies of Europe were making life very bad for the Serbians, I had also visited Belgrade in that era. I don’t know where all the passengers were from but a number looked like Serbians in terms of their attire. They also consisted predominantly of women and children.

This was still more than a decade before I converted (the abduction of the bishops of Aleppo just before Pascha in 2013 was the event that finalized my decision), but that trip was one of several that put me en route.

Indeed the three most vivid memories I have from that trip are the glorious cathedral, the train with the exhausted passengers from Serbus, and the truly exquisite houses of parliament in Budapest.

 

[The Liturgist]

Here you can see the cathedral in 1956, before the copper on the dome had a patina matching the rest; I suspect the communists stole the original gold covering as they tended to do that sort of thing.

When I saw it it was all the same oxidized copper color, which looks lovely, but now it looks even lovlier. I fell in love with the delicate shape of the cathedral. And it also makes you realize how gorgeous Hagia Sophia is, and how beautiful it must have been before the Muslims added the minarets. I don’t mind the buttresses that have been added to Hagia Sophia to shore it up, although this also lets us see how gorgeous it would have been when first built.

I also love how they added an elongated nave and belltowers. It feels like a natural progression of the design, unlike the numerous Turkish mosques that just ripped off Hagia Sophia without improving on it.

That said when the Turks are converted to Orthodoxy, something I suspect Erdogan could inadvertantly expedite with his clumsy tyranny, I personally advocate for the Blue Mosque to become the Katholikon of a Convent of the Dormition.

 

[The Liturgist]

It is indeed an amazing church. Have you been there? I was there a couple years ago. I’ve visited it three times. View attachment 359244

By the way are you a reader or deacon or otherwise in holy orders in the Church of Serbia?

 

[prodromos]

By the way are you a reader or deacon or otherwise in holy orders in the Church of Serbia?

Gurney is a humble reader, but if Fr Matt had his way, ol Gurney would be a Deacon on his way to becoming a priest by now.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Gurney is a humble reader, but if Fr Matt had his way, ol Gurney would be a Deacon on his way to becoming a priest by now.

no, no, no, no, no.

just a seminarian. that other stuff I leave to God.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

By the way are you a reader or deacon or otherwise in holy orders in the Church of Serbia?

Reader ordained by His Holiness Bishop Maxim in the Serbian Church, yes.