P>In Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, is the Balkan Peninsula’s most splendid
religious building of the twentieth century, the Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral, a
huge structure that dominates the highest point of the city.
The cathedral is of Neo-Byzantine style that was popular in Russia when
famous Russian architect, Pomerancev, began to design it. Particularly
impressive are the fine works of marble at the main entrance and the abundant
stone mosaics on the external walls and above the doors.
The cathedral is the city’s most important landmark and seems as though it
wishes to present all of its splendour in a single moment, a work of art of the
Russian Orthodox religion that can accommodate a congregation of more than five
thousand.
The church’s basement, that was first designed as a crypt, now contains an
icon gallery with more than two hundred exhibits dating from the twelfth to the
nineteenth centuries.
The Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral is a truly remarkable building, alive with
the power of religious faith!