Russian Church of St. Nikolai

Built by Russian workmen from 1907-14, the Church of St. Nicholas has a green majolica tile roof and gold-plated domes. Relics of Saint Nicholas are kept in the crypt. It also contains the crypt of Archbishop Seraphim, one of the founders of the True Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, who is venerated as a local saint. The church is on the site of a Muslim mosque from the Ottoman rule that was demolished by Bulgarians in 1882. After consecration in 1914 it served a large community of Russians in Sofia. Services were interrupted during World War I. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution it served Russian emigrants under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Since 1945 it's belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate.

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