Cathedral Church of Saint Michael the Archangel

The Cathedral Church of Saint Michael the Archangel stands at Kneza Sime Markovića 3 in the Stari Grad municipality of Belgrade, Serbia, opposite the building of the Patriarchate. It was built between 1837 and 1840 to a design by the architect Adam Friedrich Kvirin Schmidt, and it replaced an earlier wooden and then stone church on the same site. The style is Neoclassical with a Baroque bell tower, a form associated with the churches of Habsburg Serbian communities. Its position within the Principality of Serbia reflects Prince Miloš Obrenović's wish for a capital church to match the new political standing of Belgrade after the Ottomans gave Serbia autonomy. The interior is famed for its iconostasis, carved in the 1840s by Dimitrije Petrović, with icons painted by Dimitrije Avramović and Đorđe Krstić, and the iconostasis is among the most important works of 19th-century Serbian church art. The cathedral contains the tombs of Prince Miloš Obrenović, of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, the reformer of the Serbian written language, and of the poet and metropolitan associated with the church, as well as of earlier church figures. Relics of Serbian Orthodox saints are also kept inside, and the church is an active place of worship used for services and national occasions. The building was damaged during the world wars and then restored, and the site stays largely in its original form with later repairs to the facade and interior painting. Visitors enter freely during opening hours and are expected to behave quietly. A visit of 20 to 30 minutes is typical, and the cathedral sits close to Knez Mihailova street, Kalemegdan and Princess Ljubica's Residence, so it fits well into a short walk through the oldest part of the city centre.