Cathedral of Saint Archangel Michael, Belgrade
Belgrade, Serbia · built 1841
The Cathedral of Saint Archangel Michael (Serbian, Saborna crkva Svetog Arhangela Mihaila), commonly known as the Cathedral church (Serbian, 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 Stjepan 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 temples. 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
Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).