Aleksander Nevsky Church

Built inside the grounds of the city’s Military Cemetery to commemorate victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and completed in 1898, this splendid little Russian Baroque church is the only religious building in the city to retain its original appearance. The interior is somewhat austere, featuring lots of black marble with inscriptions to those lost in bloody battle. In February 1938 the church was the last to be closed in the city, three years before a Luftwaffe bomb fell through the roof on June 24, 1941, landing in front of the icon of St. Nicholas but failing to explode. Another bomb during the same air raid had better luck, destroying much of the roof. Reopened by the occupying Germans soon after, the church was closed again by the Soviets who did at least spend time restoring the building.