Officially known as the Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker , it was built in the period of 1907-1914 on a plot belonging to the Russian embassy..The initial purpose of the church was for it to serve as a private chapel of the Russian embassy to Bulgaria. Later priests of the Russian Orthodox Church started running it and transformed it into a meeting place of the Russian expat community in Sofia.. In 1953 the chapel became a church of the Moscow patriarchate, which manages it to this day. The church has five golden domes with the central one soaring to a height of 19 meters. The bells were donated by Russian Emperor Nicholas II.