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Trams rattle round a paved island that bears the Church of Sveta Nedelya . Standing upon the former site of Serdica's chief crossroads, the current structure is the much-rebuilt successor to a line of churches that has stood here since medieval times. During the Ottoman period it was known as the Church of Sveti Kral - the "Blessed King" - on account of the remains of the medieval Serbian monarch, Stefan Urosh, kept here since the fourteenth century, when Sofia briefly fell under Serbian rule. In 1925 it almost claimed another king, when bombs exploded among high dignitaries attending a funeral mass, killing 123 people but failing to harm their intended victims, Tsar Boris and his cabinet. The Communists - whose attempted revolution had been crushed in 1923 - were naturally blamed, but denied all responsibility. Leading revolutionary Georgi Dimitrov later laid claim to the attack, but the postwar Communist regime tended to ascribe it to "ultra leftists". Nowadays Sveta Nedelya is second only to the Aleksandar Nevski memorial church in importance as a city-centre place of worship. It's the venue of choice for society weddings on Saturdays, and is the scene of particularly well-attended services on Thursdays, when special prayers are intoned to ward off black magic and the evil eye. Inside, the broad dome hovers above a vast chamber paved with slabs of smooth marble, bordered on each side by vigorous modern frescos. The shrouded relics of Stefan Urosh are kept in a wooden chest directly to the right of the iconostasis - it's sometimes opened for serious pilgrims if there's a priest in attendance. It's a popular prayer site among women who believe that health problems can be cured by leaving a plastic bag containing their underclothes in the chest for 24 hours
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