Saint Stephen’s Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Saint Stephen’s Bulgarian Orthodox Church is known as the Iron Church because its entire exterior, including its walls, columns, and bell tower, is constructed from cast iron rather than stone. While it appears to be a traditional, ornate nineteenth-century basilica, the structure is a feat of industrial prefabrication. Roughly five hundred tons of metal components were cast in Vienna by the Rudolf Waagner company in the eighteen-nineties, then transported by ship down the Danube River and across the Black Sea to this site along the Golden Horn.