Saints Cyril and Methodius Church

Worth a detour

The largest church in Burgas and the one on the square that carries its name, two minutes off the pedestrian street. Built between 1897 and 1907 to plans by the Italian architect Ricardo Toscani, who also designed the synagogue that is now the art gallery. Thirty-three metres to the top of the dome, five pairs of marble columns down the nave, and frescoes by the pair who painted Alexander Nevsky in Sofia.

Story

Background

A small wooden church stood here first; the first service in Church Slavonic was held in 1869, made possible when a local priest gave up his own house for it. The present cathedral went up between 1897 and 1907, and its architect, Ricardo Toscani, did a good deal of the public architecture of the new port town.

It is a three-nave cross-shaped basilica. The main dome sits on a tall twelve-sided drum pierced with windows, with four smaller domes over the side naves; five pairs of load-bearing marble columns divide the interior; and there is stained glass over the main entrance showing the two patron saints. The murals are the work of Gyudzhenov and Kozhuharov, the painters of the Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia.

The recent history is a cautionary tale about building underneath old churches. An underground car park constructed beside it in 2010 caused the foundations to settle and the structure to crack; the church closed in 2011 and stayed closed for five years. Restoration between 2015 and 2016 used carbon-fibre reinforcement and concrete piling, and more than two hundred square metres of murals had to be taken down for conservation and put back. It reopened on St Nicholas's day, the sixth of December 2016, and was added to the hundred national tourist sites in 2022. It is an active cathedral, so dress accordingly and do not photograph during a service.