Church of Saint Sava
One of the largest Orthodox churches, its dome and gold mosaics rising over the Vračar plateau.
The church stands on the Vračar plateau, traditionally held to be where Ottoman forces burned the relics of Saint Sava in 1595. A competition held in the 1920s produced the winning scheme by Bogdan Nestorović and Aleksandar Deroko, and building began in 1935. War and the post-war political climate halted work for four decades; construction resumed in 1985, and in 1989 the concrete central dome, weighing some four thousand tonnes, was assembled on the ground and raised into place by hydraulic jacks.
The plan follows the Byzantine cross-in-square tradition, with a central dome modelled loosely on Hagia Sophia and a white marble and granite exterior. The interior was fitted out in the 2010s: a mosaic programme covering several thousand square metres, designed with Russian workshops under Nikolai Mukhin, was completed in 2020. A lower crypt holds the memorial chapel of Saint Lazar, decorated in fresco and mosaic, and the belfry carries a large peal of bells.
Highlights
- Central dome raised whole by hydraulic jacks in 1989
- Mosaic programme of several thousand square metres
- Crypt with the memorial chapel of Saint Lazar
- White marble and granite facade above Vračar plateau
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