Church of Saint Sava
| Church of Saint Sava | |
|---|---|
Храм Светог Саве / Hram Svetog Save | |
Church of Saint Sava | |
Church of Saint Sava Location within Belgrade | |
| 44°47′53″N 20°28′6.74″E / 44.79806°N 20.4685389°E | |
| Location | Krušedolska 2a, Vračar, Belgrade |
| Country | Serbia |
| Denomination | Serbian Orthodox |
| History | |
| Consecrated | 2004 |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Bogdan Nestorović, Aleksandar Deroko, Branko Pešić |
| Architectural type | Neo-Byzantine (Serbo-Byzantine) |
| Years built | 1935–2004 |
| Groundbreaking | 10 May 1935 |
| Specifications | |
| Capacity | 7,000 [note 1][1][2] |
| Length | 91 m [2] |
| Width | 81 m [2] |
| Height | 78.3 m (ground-cross) [note 2][2] 68.5 m (top dome) 64.85 m (dome ceiling)[3] |
| Nave height | 37.70 m (main vaults) |
| Other dimensions | 170,000 m3 [2] |
| Floor area | 4830 m2 (exterior)[4]
3,650 m2 (interior) |
| Dome diameter (outer) | 30.16 m (interior)[5] 35.16 m (exterior) |
The Church of Saint Sava (Serbian Cyrillic: Храм Светог Саве, romanized: Hram Svetog Save, lit. ''The Temple of Saint Sava''[a]) is a Serbian Orthodox church in the Vračar plateau in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches and it ranks among the largest churches in the world. It is the most recognisable building in Belgrade and a landmark, as its dominating exterior resembles that of the Hagia Sophia, after which it was modelled.
The church was initially planned to serve as a cathedral, dedicated to Saint Sava, the first Serbian Archbishop and the nation's patron saint. The location at Vračar was symbolically chosen due to the Ottoman burning of Sava's relics on a pyre in 1594/95 after a Serb uprising. Construction began in 1935 after years and decades of planning, wars and political turmoil. The commission chose to base the design on the Hagia Sophia, an universally acclaimed church building. World War II and the coming Communist leadership put a halt to construction. Permission was finally granted by the Socialist Serbian government in 1984, after which construction resumed with revised construction techniques and the architectural achievement of lifting the 4,000 tonnes dome into place in June 1989.
In May 2021, the entire Vračar plateau which surrounds and includes the church was declared a cultural-historical monument and placed under state protection as the Saint Sava's Plateau. The rationale included "symbolical, memorial, cultural-historical, architectural-urban and artistic values of the locality, which represents a memorial spot of two turning points in Serbian history: Burning of Saint Sava's relics and the First Serbian Uprising".[6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "Организација унутрашњег простора Храма и његове функције" [Organization of the inner space of the Temple and its functions]. Hram Svetog Save. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
- ^ a b c d e "Храм у простору и бројевима" [Temple in space and numbers]. - Hram Svetog Save.
- ^ "Oбнова градње од 2000. до 2016" [Renewal of construction from 2000 to 2016]. - Hram Svetog Save.
- ^ Kadastre of the Republic of Serbia, Opstina Vracar, parcel 1891/2 http://katastar.rgz.gov.rs/eKatastarPublic/NepokretnostProperties.aspx?nepID=5Is3WC4zyPlvpFdijQC9oA==
- ^ "Российская мозаика для белградского храма" [Russian mosaic for the Belgrade temple] (PDF). Vestnik.ru.
- ^ Daliborka Mučibabić (22 May 2021). Крунски венац и Светосавски плато - културна добра [Krunski Venac and Santi Sava Plateau – cultural monuments]. Politika (in Serbian). p. 14.