St. Georgi Bulgarian Church
Sveti Georgi Bulgarian Church, During the years when Bulgarians lived in Edirne, Governor Rauf Pasha had a church built for Bulgarian citizens to worship after the permission of Sultan Abdulhamid. The construction of the church began on April 23, 1880 and was completed in the same year. The inscriptions in the church, which was decorated in 1889, were written in Slavic Bulgarian. There are some paintings from the church, which was in the same place before. The pastor of the church, which was opened in 1880, was undertaken by the principal of Peterberon Boys' Art High School. When the Balkan War began, the school was closed, the principal immigrated to Istanbul, and the church was left without a priest. One of the last students of the school is Filip Çıkırık, the father of current pastor Aleksandır Çıkırık. Filip (Aleksandır Çıkırık's father), who came from a family that had served as a church congregation manager and trained priests, took on the task. Sveti Georgi Bulgarian Church continued to be worshiped in the church until it fell into disrepair in the 1940s. After the Balkan War, the community in Edirne decreased to almost non-existent. The church, which was closed for a long time, was reopened on May 9, 2004 with the participation of former Bulgarian king and prime minister of the time, Simeon Sakskoburgotsky.
