The St. Mark’s Church or the Church of St. Mark (Serbian Cyrillic: Црква Светог Марка, romanized: Crkva Svetog Marka) is a Serbian Orthodox church located in the Tašmajdan park in Belgrade, Serbia, near the Parliament of Serbia.
It was built in the Serbo-Byzantine style by the Krstić brothers, completed in 1940, on the site of a previous church dating to 1835.
It is one of the largest churches in the country. There is a small Russian church next to St. Mark’s.
The original, wooden church, was built from 1835 to 1836, in the days of Belgrade Metropolitan Petar Jovanović (s. 1833–1859).
The present building of St. Mark’s Church was built according to their drawings between 1931 and 1940. The outbreak of World War II interrupted the full completion of the church, especially of the interior. Only the construction work was finished. The foundation stone was laid on 8 May 1931, when it was also consecrated by Serbian Patriarch Varnava. The construction fully began in 1932 and the exterior was finished in 1939.
The church is 62 m long, 45 m wide and 60 m high, excluding the cross.
The usable interior surface area of the church is about 1,150 square meters, and the naos (nave) of the church can accommodate over 150 singers.
The iconostasis’ mosaic depicts the Annunciation. Usually, the Virgin Mary is represented doing some house work while the angel Gabriel announces to her she will became the mother of Jesus Christ through virgin birth, but here she is depicted as being visibly surprised by the notion that she will be the Mother of God.
It is believed to be the largest mosaic in any of the altar’s apses in the world. It spreads on 130 square metres, of which Mother of God covers 80 metres. 10 to 15 thousand of glass pieces are included in each 1 square metre.
The icons are primarily the work of eminent painters and icon painters of the 19th and 20th centuries: Steva Todorović, Nikola Marković, Dimitrije Posniković, Vladimir Vojnović, Pavle Čortanović, Lukijan Bibić, Vasa Pomorišac, Đorđe Popović, Olga Krdžalić and others. The 16th century icon of Virgin Hodegetria is believed to be the second oldest icon preserved in Belgrade.
Address: Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra no. 17
Phone: 011 / 3231-940;
Fax: 011 / 3346-158
Working hours: every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m
Entrance: free
