The Church of Saint Week is an Orthodox cathedral in the city of Sofia, named in honour of the Holy Great Martyr Week.
Little information has been preserved about the early history of the church. Presumably, the church was first erected on this site in the 10th century - a wooden building stood on a stone foundation. Until the middle of the 19th century the church, unlike other temples in the town, still remained wooden. At the end of the 19th century there was a strong fire and the old building, damaged in the fire, was dismantled to build a new one in its place. It was then that the present cathedral was erected.
Since the 18th century the church was declared a cathedral. Its name was also changed: because the remains of King Stefan II of Serbia were brought here, it was called the Church of the Holy King. It was renamed only at the end of the 19th century.
The Church of the Holy Week is an imposing structure, originally 35.5 metres long and 19 metres wide. Its construction took six years (partly due to the devastating earthquake of 1858) from 1856 to 1963. The bell tower was built a little later - in 1879. It was equipped with 8 bells presented to the new church by Prince Dondukov-Korsakov.
The church acquired its modern appearance after a large-scale reconstruction in the 20-30s of the last century - in 1925 a bomb exploded here and killed more than 200 people. Under the direction of architects Tsolov and Vasiliev a new Neo-Byzantine style building was erected. The current size of the building is 30x15.5 metres, the height of the main dome reaches 31 metres.
The interior of the church is decorated with frescoes painted between 1971 and 1973 by a group of artists led by Nikolai Rostovtsev. One of the main values of the church is the gilded iconostasis by the outstanding master Stanislav Dospevsky.
