The Church of St Nikolay the Miracle-Worker - Varna, Bulgaria

The Church of St Nikolay the Miracle-Worker or the St Nikola Church, as it is most popular with this Bulgarian name of the saint, impresses with its beautiful temple architecture, lining up between the important sights in the city of Varna, Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It enjoys a special worship by the local sailors and their families, whose patron saint is St Nikola. Situated in the very centre of the city, the church was built in the far 1866. The money for the construction works were donated by a single man - Paraskev Nikolau. He was born in Varna but citizen of the city of Odessa in the Russian Empire at that time. It seems that the great love to his native city made him donate 50 thousand rubli (Russian currency) for the building of the church and a hospital in Varna.

The temple was constructed of hand-cut local stones and the vaults are made of bricks. There is a monument of the church-donor in front of the main facade. The construction works continued 11 years (1859-1866) and did not go without impediments. The Greek municipal assembly, who was the direct executor of the Paraskev Nikolau’s will, did not want to collaborated with the Bulgarian municipality of the city, although the patriotic man born in Varna wanted to make good to all his fellow-townsmen, no matter whether they were Bulgarians or Greeks. Exactly in the time of the construction the final phase of the Bulgarian movement for church independence from the Greek patriarch in Constantinople (Istanbul) took place. The Bulgarian municipality of Varna required divine service in native Bulgarian language to be introduced in two churches in the city. One of those two churches was exactly St Nikolay the Miracle-Worker or also known as St Nikola.

And yet the Greek clergy and divine service remained in this church until 1906, when the citizens of Varna rebelled against the new Greek metropolitan Neofit. Organized from their association "Patriot" they "welcomed" with stones the ship, with which the Greek bishop was arriving at the city's port. The latter was compelled to float back. At that time the first divine service in Greek was held in the Church of St Nikolay by the Bulgarian priest Stephan Ganchev.