SAINT-SAVA CATHEDRAL

St. Sava's Cathedral, which dominates the city with its glittering dome, is today the largest Orthodox church in Europe (if you consider that Russia west of the Urals is off limits). Adorned with four 44 m high bell towers, topped by a dome rising 70 m above the ground and extending over an area of 91 by 81 m², St. Sava's church impresses by its monumentality and its Byzantine elegance. Its simple Greek cross plan and its 18 domes, each surmounted by a three-dimensional golden cross, give it an incomparable majesty. The church is perched on the hill of Vračar, visible for 80 km from wherever you come from!

To understand the earthly and spiritual significance of this building, one must go back far in Serbian history. On April 27, 1594, the vizier Sinan Pasha ordered to transfer the relics of the holy monk Sava from the monastery of Mileševa in southern Serbia and to burn them on this hill. This gesture of unquestionable symbolic significance was intended by the Ottomans to signify definitively the opposition of the Turks to the Serbian desire for independence. King Alexander was assassinated in Marseille before he could attend the first works started in 1935. Then the building site was interrupted because of the German bombardments of 1941, and Tito refused to resume the work begun by the king. It was not until the death of the communist dictator that the work was continued from 1985.