Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

I'm still reading (listening to) the book, The Historian, and I'm to the part where the characters, in their search for info about Dracula, have traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria. I've never been there, but in looking it up, I saw a church that caught my attention - Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Ever since I saw Sergei Eisenstein's famous film about the saint (and I posted about him once here), I've been interested in Alexander Nevsky, so I thought I'd post a little about the cathedral. Here's a little of what Wikipedia says of it ....

The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Bulgarian: Храм-паметник „Свети Александър Невски“, Hram-pametnik „Sveti Aleksandar Nevski“) is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Built in Neo-Byzantine style, it serves as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world, as well as one of Sofia's symbols and primary tourist attractions. The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia occupies an area of 3170 m² and can take 5,000 people inside..

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a cross-domed basilica featuring an emphasized central dome. The cathedral's gold-plated dome is 45 m high, with the bell tower reaching 50.52 m. The temple has 12 bells with total weight of 23 tons, the heaviest weighing 12 tons and the lightest 10 kg. The interior is decorated with Italian marble in various colours, Brazilian onyx, alabaster, and other luxurious materials. The central dome has the Lord's Prayer inscribed around it with thin gold letters .... To the left of the altar is a case displaying relics of Alexander Nevsky, given by the Russian Orthodox Church. Although the accompanying Bulgarian-language plaque refers simply to "relics" (мощи), the item on display appears to be a piece of a rib.



Here's a YouTube below of the beginning of the battle scene in Eisenstein's movie, showing the fight on a frozen lake between the Catholic Teutonic Knights (the guys in white with crosses on their tunics) and the Eastern Orthodox people of Novgorod led by Prince Alexander (music by Prokofiev) ......