St. Mark’s Church

St. Mark’s Church or Church of St. Mark is a Serbian Orthodox church located in the Tašmajdan park in Belgrade, Serbia, near the Parliament of Serbia.

The original, wooden church, was built in the days of Belgrade Metropolitan Petar Jovanović (s. 1833–1859). The main donator was merchant Lazar Panća (d. 1831).

It was destroyed during World War I by Austrian troops, then reconstructed in 1917. It was destroyed in the 1941 German bombing of Belgrade.

1930 a pair of Belgrade architects, the brothers Petar and Branko Krstić, both professors of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture, designed the plans for the new St. Mark’s Church. The present building of St. Mark’s Church was built according to their drawings between 1931 and 1940. The Gračanica Monastery was used as a model.

Fun fact: Under the church is located a secret cave, where old Romans searched for stone to make sarcophagus’s.

Source: Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia