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| A little filtered version of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral |
In my travel experiences I visited the city of Sofia, Bulgaria three times between 2010-2013. The first time I visited I went on a recommendation from Lonely Planet. I also needed a place to go for a few days before meeting Aunt Jane and Uncle Jack for a weekend in Greece. The 2nd time was to visit the friends I had made on the first visit. When I traveled during my time overseas the people were always an important factor in whether or not I wanted to come back and visit a place a second time. The third and final time I actually stayed for a few months and worked at a hostel in Sofia, which was quite the experience.
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| Alexander Nevsky Cathedral |
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| Nevsky Cathedral at night (side view) |
The most photographed building in almost all of my photo albums is the topic of this post. Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a Bulgarian Orthodox Church that is actually known to be one of the top 50 largest Christian churches in all of the world. Saint Alexander Nevsky himself was a Russian prince. The cathedral was built as a way to honor the Russian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.
As you can see in these pictures that dome is made of a little bit of gold. So, maybe a lot of gold. The gold plated dome itself is about 148 feet high and its bell tower is about 174 feet high. In various parts of Sofia you can easily get a glance of this cathedral as it does stick out quite a bit. I even remember hearing stories of folks trying to climb this dome and get some gold for themselves. I do not even want to imagine how they thought they could get away with such a stupid task. The inside of this place is even more amazing than the outside.
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| Saint Dobre (as the locals called him) |
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| The Inside of Nevsky Cathedral thanks to Wikipedia |
There was a man that I read about several times during my last trip to Sofia. This man was a "well known" beggar who always seem to post up outside of this cathedral. I may have given him something on one occasion, but rarely gave much thought to it if I did so. Dobre Dobrev would often dress in a long black coat and take the bus from his hometown into the city and stand outside of the cathedral and beg. He had to walk long distances when bus rides were not available. This man who renounced materialism towards the end of his life raised over 40,000 Euro (around 60,00 USD), for this particular church, and thousands more for other churches in the area.
I loved walking into all of the churches of Sofia, but this one always left a mark on me. It could have been that I saw a few sunsets around that neighborhood. It could be how I always found something different to admire every time I stepped in to this church. It could be how it helped me in my faith walk. I know I always admired the folks that came into light candles and pray. Sometimes they would even walk up to pictures of Jesus and kiss them. I once wrote a blog post about this act. I certainly have many memories of this building and all of its glory.
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| Rare appearance by author in front of Nevsky Cathedral |
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