Shipka Memorial Church

The Memorial Temple of the Birth of Christ (Bulgarian: Храм-паметник „Рождество Христово“, Hram-pametnik „Rozhdestvo Hristovo“), better known as the Shipka Memorial Church or Shipka Monastery is a Bulgarian Orthodox church built near the town of Shipka in Stara Planina between 1885 and 1902, according to Antoniy Tomishko's design in the seventeenth-century Russian style under the direction of architect Alexander Pomerantsev.

[1] It is dedicated, along with other parts of the Shipka Monument complex, to the Russian and Bulgarian soldiers that died for the liberation of Bulgaria in the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78.

[2] The temple was officially opened on September 28, 1902, in the presence of Russian Army generals and many honourable guests.

In the temple itself, the names of the Russian regiments and Bulgarian volunteers are inscribed on 34 marble plates.

The remains of the perished are laid in 17 stone sarcophagi in the church's crypt.