Dear friends of "Photo moments", it is a great pleasure for me to present to you the dignified temple-monument "St. Archangel Michael", which stands in the city of Strelcha.
The temple-monument is located in the northwestern part of the city center.
It is erected on a high place, and with its proud bearing it definitely stands out above all the surrounding buildings.
History
After the cruel suppression of the April Uprising, Strelcha was once again completely burned down - not a single building was preserved in the settlement.
Until then, there were seven churches and three chapels on the territory of Strelcha. Today, only memorial plaques placed in their places indicate their existence.
Liberation comes and the former inhabitants of Strelcha slowly begin to return to their native places and build their lives anew.
The first building that was erected at the time was a church. It was called "Holy Sunday". But during socialism it was demolished in a single night, because two churches were too many for the small settlement.
The construction of the temple-monument "St. Archangel Michael" began on July 16, 1900.
Its foundations were laid by the famous masters - Stoyan Kolev and Georgi Atanasov from Stara Zagora and Kolyo Delchev from Tryavna.
The church was built on the site of an old church of the same name that was burned and destroyed to the ground during the April Fool's Day.
Four years later, the building was completed.
The temple was consecrated on September 5, 1904 by Metropolitan Theodosius of Plovdiv.
The temple spreads over an incredible 600 square meters.
It is a huge three-nave basilica, with two domes, with two bell towers, one of which is three-story and three bells with a unique tonality.
Magnificent! Impressive!
The architecture of the temple is remarkable – stone walls, massive internal square and round columns with capitals, external corners and a special under-roof cornice carved from granite.
The largest bell of the church was cast here. Also, the huge stones used for the stone columns were also hewn on site.
The iconostasis is the work of a local master - Milio Baltov, who also worked on the iconostasis of the largest preserved revival church in Bulgaria today - the Cathedral of the Holy Virgin in the city of Pazardzhik.
On the north wall of the St. Archangel Michael memorial church in the city of Strelcha today are written the sacrifices that the settlement gave during and after the Liberation - the April Uprising, the Balkan Wars and the First World War.
How do you get to the St. Michael the Archangel temple-monument?
Currently, the old grade school has been restored in the courtyard of the "St. Archangel Michael" memorial temple.
I wish you an exceptional and impressive walk around!
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