Tourist Attraction in Belgrade:
Saborna crkva Svetog Arhangela Mihaila

The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel is an Orthodox cult building located in the Kosancicev Venac district, in the municipality of Stari Grad in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. It is the mother church of the Archbishopric of Belgrade, Pec and Sremski Karlovci, belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Outside, the cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo is surrounded on all four sides by a small park adorned by rose bushes and tall trees. The architectural lines of the exterior walls of the church are very strict and neoclassical. A large vaulted ceiling with alternating capitals alternates with all-round bowl windows that give light inside. The façade is tripartite by four Doric skirts supporting the triangular tympanum of the crushed form. It is decorated by some neo-realistic mosaics on a gold background depicting two Archangels. The facade ends with the high bell tower with clock, whose cusp, baroque taste, is visible from all over the city. While the exterior of the church is characterized by its strict lines, the interior of the temple is decorated in a more detailed manner. The nave is unique: the long sides are subdivided by pilasters that cross the ceiling as well, dividing the aisle into multiple lanes. Much of the frescoes in the church, such as the religious subjects of the window lunettes and the ceiling, are the work of the local painter Dimitrije Avramović and recall very much for their characteristics the Baroque Italian and German frescoes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The floor, on the other hand, consists of large marble slabs of various colors arranged to form geometric motifs. The presbytery, as in all Orthodox churches, is separated from the nave by an iconostasis which, in the case of the Orthodox cathedral of Belgrade, is monumental. The iconostasis, divided into two horizontal bands overlaid by a sculpted cornice, is moved by Corinthian columns with golden and carved capitals. the paintings of the upper part show scenes of Jesus' life, those of the lower fascist, instead, images of some saints. Above, the iconostasis is completed by a cross alongside a series of painted rounds. The Orthodox Cathedral of Belgrade has a special significance from the spiritual and historical point of view, for its presence within important relics of Serbian saints such as those of Tsar Stefano Dečanski and of the despotic Stefan Štiljanović, and for the burials of several patriarchs of the church Serbian Orthodox and sovereign Miloš, Mihailo III and Milan II Obrenović. Facing the entrance of the Cathedral, across the street, is the complex of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate. The building was built between 1934 and 1935 on the design of architect Viktor Lukomski who made it in a style with massive and impressive lines, despite its relatively small size. The façade facing the cathedral is decorated with an archaic pronaos supported by two mighty columns. At the center of the bow is carved the coat of arms of the Orthodox church. Above the pronaos there is a niche containing a mosaic depicting St. John the Baptist. Inside the complex there is a chapel dedicated to San Simeone Stefano Nemanja with an iconostasis created by the Ohrid masterpieces in 1935, the patriarchal library and the Orthodox museum.

Attractions in Belgrade