The Church of St Stephen of the Bulgarians is one of the world's few remaining churches built almost entirely of cast iron. Standing on the Golden Horn waterfront between Balat and Fener, its neo-Gothic and neo-Baroque sections were prefabricated in Vienna in the 1890s, shipped down the Danube and across the Black Sea, and bolted together on site — a solution to the difficult, marshy ground.
It was built by the Bulgarian Orthodox community at the height of their campaign for a church independent of the Greek Patriarchate next door, making it a monument to 19th-century national as much as religious feeling. A careful restoration completed in 2018 returned its silvery-grey ironwork and lacy detail to fine condition. The setting on the water, with its small garden, is one of the prettiest spots on this stretch of the Golden Horn.