Cathedral of Saint Archangel Michael, Belgrade

The Cathedral of Saint Archangel Michael (Serbian: , romanized: Saborna crkva Svetog Arhangela Mihaila), commonly known as the Cathedral church (Serbian: , romanized: Saborna crkva), is an Eastern Orthodox church located in Belgrade, Serbia. It is under jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci of the Serbian Orthodox Church and serves as its cathedral church. The church is one of the few preserved buildings in Belgrade from the first half of the 19th century and is protected as a cultural heritage site of exceptional importance. It is located right across the street from the Palace of the Patriarchate.

There was an older church, dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael, at the site of today's church. Protestant priest and a writer on travel Stephan Gerlach provided valuable records of its looks in his descriptions of travels of the Emperor's delegates to Istanbul, 1573–1578. Although spacious, with all necessary liturgical accessories and furniture, it was not large enough to receive all the Christian citizens of Belgrade. Later records of existence of this church were mainly saved by travel writers from the 17th and 18th centuries. During the Austro–Turkish conflicts in the beginning of the 18th century it was destroyed, and the Austrian authorities were explicit in their order not to restore the damaged Serbian churches . Former Metropolitan Mojsije Petrović, who had expected the support of Russian Czar Peter The Great, who had meanwhile died, started renewal of the Church from its foundations, decorating it with a new iconostasis. Following the Treaty of Belgrade concluded in 1739, Ottoman Turks once again entered Belgrade (until then capital of the Kingdom of Serbia, officially created in 1718) and "as soon as they entered the town they showed their anger toward Serbs and Serbian relics on this occasion". Impressive residence of Serbian Metropolitan was torn down, and the church was "robbed and its roof torn down". Few decades later, at the beginning of 1798, the church once again suffered from damage, this time from fire. Repaired for services it served until the beginning of 1813, when after breaking of the First Serbian Uprising Turks desecrated and robbed it. Necessary restoration work was performed after the Second Serbian Uprising. Following the Sultan's Hatisheriff on the day of St. Andrew in 1830, which granted Serbs the freedom to perform the religious service, and by the order of Prince Miloš Obrenović a wooden bell tower was built beside the old church. For the purpose of bell casting, a great fire was lit, which burned for three days. People would pass by and throw various silver objects to mould with bronze that was melting, so the bells would have "a more silvery" sound. Former Belgrade citizens were waiting for this happening "as for something great and unreachable. For them the sound of bells did not represent just an ordinary religious custom. The bells represented a symbol of centuries-expected victory". Decision brought by Prince Miloš was accepted among Turks with doubt and threat. An anecdote was saved until present days about a threat of Belgrade's vizier Husein-Pasha Gavanozoglu (1827–1833) referring to Duke Petar Čukić, who was in charge of construction of the bells, that he shall be punished for that. The Duke replied: "I know, I know efendi Pasha, if I raise them I shall die of Turkish hand, and if I do not, I shall die of hand of my master Prince Miloš. I prefer to die from a Turkish hand than from the hand of my master, as his disobedient servant.". Today, the bell of the old cathedral church is situated in the bell tower of the Church of the Ascension along with four more historical bells, different in size and origin. This bell sound

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