place

Old St. Eleftherios Church

Churches completed in 1744Historic monuments in BucharestRomanian Orthodox churches in Bucharest
Elefterie Vechi 56
Elefterie Vechi 56

The Old St. Eleftherios Church (Romanian: Biserica Sfântul Elefterie Vechi) is a Romanian Orthodox church located at 15B Sfântul Elefterie Street in Bucharest, Romania. It is dedicated to Saint Eleftherios and to Saint George. The church was built in 1741-1744 on land belonging to the Metropolis of Ungro-Wallachia. The area was swampy, near a mill fed by the River. In 1748, Prince Grigore II Ghica strengthened the church’s position, declaring it a metochion of the Metropolis. In 1782, the grandson of Constantin Brâncoveanu found it necessary to carry out repairs. Damaged by the 1802 earthquake, its administration was taken over by Metropolitan Dositei Filitti two years later, and he consolidated the structure. The 1838 tremor caused severe damage; it is not known whether this was immediately fixed, but it is recorded that the monastic cells were demolished in 1852-1856. In 1867, the church was transformed into a Greek Revival building, as per the prevailing fashion.Restoration work began in 1929; Ștefan Balș-Lupu was in charge of architecture, while Paul Popescu Molda supervised the frescoes. The project finished in 1935, having consolidated the walls, redone the roof, restored the old cornice, opened the portico and brought back to light the exterior paintings. Around the same time, the surrounding street was straightened out and the church left on an island in the middle. The year 1935 saw the beginning of the New St. Eleftherios Church on land belonging to the old. The church was consolidated following the earthquakes of 1940 and 1977 (when the dome was rebuilt). Painting and structural repairs were carried out in 1982-1984.The church is 19 meters long and 6.4 meters wide. It is cross-shaped, with a porch and enlarged narthex topped by a bell tower. The portico has three arches facing west and two larger ones to the north and south. These are separated by massive stone columns. The stone door frame is carved in post-Brâncovenesc style. The lower half of the facade features a series of scalloped arches, while the upper part includes painted bas-relief medallions. Currently, the church is only used for special occasions, with regular services held in the new one.The church is listed as a historic monument by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs; it acquired this status in 1915.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old St. Eleftherios Church (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Old St. Eleftherios Church
Strada Sfântul Elefterie, Bucharest Cotroceni

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address External links Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Old St. Eleftherios ChurchContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 44.43313 ° E 26.07454 °
placeShow on map

Address

Biserica Ortodoxă "Sfântul Elefterie Vechi"

Strada Sfântul Elefterie 15C
050523 Bucharest, Cotroceni
Romania
mapOpen on Google Maps

linkWikiData (Q12721944)
linkOpenStreetMap (672420268)

Elefterie Vechi 56
Elefterie Vechi 56
Share experience

Nearby Places

Dâmbovița Center

The Dâmbovița Center (also named Casa Radio) is an unfinished building in Bucharest, Romania, near Cotroceni, on the shore of the Dâmbovița River. Casa Radio (meaning Radio House) was erected during the late 1980s by the Communist regime on land which before the Second World War was the location of the Bucharest Hippodrome. The building was intended to serve as a museum of the Romanian Communist Party. The balcony (which no longer exists) of the unfinished building facing Știrbei Vodă Street was used by the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu on 23 August 1989 to watch the festivities marking Romania's National Day. It was the last Communist-style parade in Romania. The Romanian government contracted the construction of a hotel and a mall called "Dâmbovița Center" to the Turkish company Cenk Vefa Kucuk. The project was supposed to be a $275 million investment and the largest multipurpose complex in the region. It was supposed to build a 300-room hotel, 69,000 m² of retail spaces, 16,000 m² of offices, 45,000 m² of commercial galleries and a residential complex, designed to include 200 apartments, a parking lot, restaurants and a hospital. The government, which provided the building, would get only 10% of the income. The government canceled the contract in 2005 because of various irregularities regarding the auction, the company and the financing. The company said it would sue to recover the money already invested.In the winter of 2006, a public-private partnership agreement between Elbit Medical Imaging, an Israeli company, and the Romanian government was announced to develop Casa Radio. The Romanian Government will remain a 15% partner in the scheme. Construction began in June 2007, after a decision to demolish 70% of the initial building, keeping only the façade and the structural framework. The new project will consist of a mall of 100,000 m2 (1,100,000 sq ft), a five star hotel with 320 rooms, a residential area with 300 apartments and three office towers of 26, 30 and 34 floors with the last tower having 155 m (509 ft).Plaza Centers, the developer of Casa Radio in Bucharest entered in 2013 judicial reorganization under the protection of the Dutch bankruptcy law, the Israeli investor Mordechay Zisser announced. Plaza Centers intends to invest in Romania in projects with a total value of nearly EUR 2 billion, the largest of projects being Dâmbovița Center, built on the 600,000 m2 (6,500,000 sq ft) platform of Casa Radio. In July 2014, Plaza Centers successfully completed debt restructuring and emerges from reorganization proceeding, and after 2014 it sold Kragujevac Plaza in Serbia and a shopping center in India. The development of Casa Radio comprises approximately 467,000 m2 (5,030,000 sq ft) of built area, including a 90,000 m2 (970,000 sq ft) GLA shopping mall and indoor leisure center, approximately 127,000 m2 (1,370,000 sq ft) GBA of offices, hotel complex with conference center and underground car parking spaces. The Company Plaza Centers expected to complete the first phase of the project, which includes the shopping center, parking and PAB, in 2017.

Malmaison Church
Malmaison Church

The Malmaison Church (Romanian: Biserica Malmaison) is a Romanian Orthodox church located at 122 Calea Plevnei in Bucharest, Romania. It is dedicated to Saint George. The church, nicknamed after a former military barracks in the area, stands on the site of an earlier wooden church from the 1830s. During the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, the remains of 47 soldiers and two officers were buried in a mass grave in the churchyard; a stone cross was dedicated to their memory in 1998. The current church was built from the foundations up in 1906–1908, and consecrated in 1909. Monuments to the main donor and her family stand in the yard. The structure was damaged during the 1940 earthquake and repaired in 1943. The old oil painting was redone in fresco from 1954 to 1963. Cracks in the walls appeared after the 1977 earthquake. Repairs followed, as well as a repainting in 1983, and the church was rededicated in 1984. Various improvements were carried out starting in 1992, including to the main dome, riddled with bullets during the Romanian Revolution.The cross-shaped church measures 22 meters long by 7.5–11 meters wide. It features polygonal apses, a dome above the nave and two small, square-based towers. A large portico reaches to the base of the pediment. It has three arches resting on stone columns. The octagonal domes have conical roofs coated in tiles, like the rest of the roof. The pediment has layers of crenellated brick. The exterior is made up of red brick alternating with pieces of masonry. Icons of Saints Peter and Paul are painted on the portico, with Christ Pantocrator above the entrance. The windows are of stained glass and depict saints. A chapel dates to 2001.The church is listed as a historic monument by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.