The Serbian patriarchate and rebels had established relations with foreign states,[25] and had in a short time captured several towns, including Vršac, Bečkerek, Lipova, Titel and Bečej, although the uprising was quickly suppressed.

Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha ordered that the sarcophagus and relics of Saint Sava located in the Mileševa monastery be brought by military convoy to Belgrade.

The competition marked a climax in neo-Byzantine tendencies in Serbia which saw also the rising of Monastery Gračanica as the ultimate achievement of the late Byzantine architecture and an acclaimed model for the building of the new church on Vračar, even so it was not requested.

Discourses in the Serbo-Byzantine movement derived not directly from the sphere of architecture, but established here from studies in humanities, which retrospectively sought to highlight the importance of the Byzantine commonwealth to the Serbian cultural tradition.

Most entries had even not fulfilled the guidelines, most proposed designs were based on models of the Gračanica Monastery as the main representative of national Serbian medieval architecture or even the Hagia Sophia.

There were additional complaints about the plan to build an immense monument that was to be of national importance for Yugoslavs, given the fact that the cult of Saint Sava was a largely Serbian legacy.

Especially during the hot phase of the debate 1931–32 a paradox happened, after two years of royal dictatorship the state adopted a new constitution (3 September 1931), following a new ideological path to unitarization.

Both architects were asked to submit separate new plans based to the new guidelines defined by the technical department of the "Society for the Construction of the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar".

"The utilitarian argument in the choice to use for St. Sava the architectural concept applied to St. Sophia was not a result of the decision in 1931-1932 and a sudden interest for the Justinianian church from its perfect spatial ambience and the system to overarch space, but came from the long tradition of its perception as an unparalleled structure, which had been active in Serbian scientific discourse.

"Since the beginning of the development of the scholarly discipline of architectural history in Serbia, St. Sophia has been referred to as a superior realization, equivalently in the importance of its constructive solution, structure and spatial effects.

Children who grew up in the vicinity, including the future President of Serbia Boris Tadić, didn't know the intended purpose of the unfinished construction, so they played inside thinking it was a ruin of an old castle.

[50] After the end of World War II, the building site was closed due to the changing political situation and the dominant ideological position of communism in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

[53] So, on 19 June 1985, Čkrebić informed German and all the members of synod the church had the full right to build Saint Sava as planned on the foreseen place,[52] saying later that he felt this was his "civilizational obligation" and "removal of shame from his generation".

From the geometrically complicated form in view of its structural points, the single elements had to be broken down into precast components outlined with straight lines to the greatest possible extent.

The assembly-lifting of the dome structure, with completely executed copper covering works and cross, weighing 3.9 meganewtons (400 megaponds) from the ground up to the designated position at +40,09 m was done at speeds restricted to 2,5 m/day for safety reasons.

On the inspiration that was drawn from Hagia Sophia, Deroko noted that two guiding principles were followed in designs for the Church of Saint Sava – the imperative of functionality of planning, and the monumentality of space and form.

Looking back at the start of construction, Deroko commented on the challenges of designing a functional space for 10.000 people, which was done with reference to the architects' data, the seminal handbook by Ernst Neufert.

Like Mitrić' previous works, which were famous for their miniature sculpturing (i.e. the medals for the Winter-Olympics 1984 in Sarajevo), the cross' elegance and harmonic shape with a minimalistic conception in the main emblems were unique.

Rossotrudnicestvo and its director, Lubov Nikolaevna Glebova, the designated Russian representative for the interior decoration, were present, as were the president of Serbia and its minister of foreign affairs.

Despite having worked in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the task in decorating Saint Sava was of different magnitude, as the dome and size of scenes are much larger and the artistic media more complex.

Realization of the mosaic works began on 28 September 2016 with the visit of Hilarion, director of the church Foreign Office in the Moscow Patriarchate and chairman of the Russo-Serbian commission at the Russian Academy.

Zurab Tsereteli, Nikolaj Mukhin, Yevgeniy Maksimov and the acting director to the support of UNESCO, Manana Popova, presented the approved scale model.

[95] The central mosaic in the dome depicts the Ascension of Jesus and represents Resurrected Christ, sitting on a rainbow and right hand raised in blessing, surrounded by four angels, Apostles and Theotokos.

The main author of the stone ornaments of the interior decoration was initially Aleksandar Deroko, whose plans were executed on all of the capitals at the columns between narthexes and naos and the altar apse.

The building of the National library was designed by Ivo Kurtović and finished in 1973, while the Parochial Home, with facade of shining, white stone, is the work of Mateja Nenadović and his sons Miloš and Đorđe.

The architects reject the idea of a large garage, either above or below ground, as the regulation didn't allow it at the time, plus, the authors believed that due to the nature of the object, people should come on foot anyway.

It was also noted that mass gatherings organized on the plateau (funeral processions for Patriarch Pavle and prime minister Zoran Đinđić, the visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin) showed that the area's space is inadequate as it is.

[101] There are calls for keeping the square-like shape of the present plateau or even expanding it as it basically functions as the extended, open-air narthex of the church and should have room for as many visitors as possible as the 1990 design only addressed local residents' needs, neglecting the area's spiritual and religious character.

"In particular, the condensated forms, the simple and subtle use of decorative sculpturing in combination with the buildings monumentality creates a sublime visualization of its powerful architectural fabric, which despite being latent hermeneutic, pleases and generates interest"She points to the fact that the greatest impression to the percipient lies in the gradual pyramidal composition of the structure, which starts harmoniously from its portals across the conchs and representatively culminates in the dome.

The architectural artwork that impresses with monumentality, massiveness, latent hermeneutics, but also harmony of masses and a sublimity achieved by simplicity in shaping complex pyramidal structures can't be called failure."