Shipka Memorial Church

Its not hard to find Shipka Memorial Church. First time as I was carried to Shipka from the Kazanlak, it was the second thing that caught my eye. Second of course because of mountains. :)
The golden domes really stand out and the church is built on high enough place so that the nearby trees do not outshine it.



The church looks gorgeous both from the outside and inside.  As always, the same as in Shipka monument,  Kazanlak Museum of Roses, Art and History museum and as in probably other places in Bulgaria taking photos or video requires additional payment. Despite of that, I rather enjoyed better the outside structure with its details and building as a whole. As I am not religious person and don't know much about personalities of Bible, from the inside I could only admire the beauty of delicately painted frescoe.
One thing that I almost forgot to visit in church was cellar. At first I was not sure if I could go through the opened doors behind the icon&candle shop, because none was going there. Anyways I went down there and discovered empty room. No other tourist had a courage to go there. In fact, it was not quite empty. In the corners were displayed brief history of this church with old pictures, as it looked, when it was freshly built. What's even more, in the cellar is crypt. Under 17 stone sarcophagi are resting the main heroes of Russo-Turkish war.
After realizing this and still being the only living in crypt, I started to feel uneasy and left it.
After visiting this church one thing is not clear for me - whether they hold any church services, because I did't see any benches. Maybe that's how it is with Ortodox churches... Well I had never visited this kind of church, so I am not sure how it should be.
Anyways, It's marvelous! And of course near the church are plenty of souvenir shops waiting onion-shaped golden-plated dome church visitors to come out and buy some stuff.