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intricate lace work reminiscent of the great stone works of the middle ages.
During the reign of the Ottoman Empire many citizens still worshipped Christianity despite the predominantly Muslim rule. Followers of the Bulgarian Orthodoxy during the nineteenth century began to demand their own houses of worship as they considered what they had to be nothing more than Greek Orthodox. Led by the Bulgarian Nationalist movement the formation of a church was established on the shore of the Golden Horn, first as a refurbished wooden house converted to religious use and became the Bulgarian Saint Stephen Church.
Fire raged through the construction some years later pre-empting a need to construct something more suitable which saw an international competition declared to find a design and construction that would withstand the conditions. By the late 1890s St.
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