Bulgarian St. Stephen Church

Overlooking the Golden Horn in the Balat district, this remarkable church was prefabricated entirely of cast iron in Vienna and shipped down the Danube and across the Black Sea for assembly in Istanbul around 1898. Serving the Bulgarian Orthodox community, its neo-Gothic and neo-Byzantine forms, delicate tracery and pointed spires are all wrought in metal rather than stone. Recent restoration returned its exterior to a pale, gleaming finish beside a small waterside garden. As one of few surviving iron churches, it is unusual indeed.