Looks pretty grand doesn’t it?
Just in case you might think Romania’s problems are behind them, I have one last story to tell. Another story about another church. Fitting perhaps for this land of glorious churches.
As their former Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu personally demonstrated, Romanians love the extravagantly grandiose. Not just their corrupt leaders. On our last day in Romania, this country I had grown to love, though not ignoring its blemishes, I noticed a spectacular church near the fantastical Peoples Palace. How could I have missed this? And we were on our way out to our ship for the first time. Too late. As we drove closer to it, I realized it was not yet completed. That made me feel somewhat better. Who needs to see a church under construction?
This church is going to be spectacular. Again, grandiose, but this time we won’t be able to blame any communists. This time the church and current “original democracy” are responsible. But they don’t seem to have learned a lot.
This church is called People’s Salvation Cathedral but also the National Cathedral. It is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and is under construction in Bucharest Romania and when complete will serve as the patriarchal cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
It will dominate the Bucharest skyline visible from all corners of the city. It will be the tallest and largest Eastern Orthodox church building by volume and area in the world! It is the tallest domed cathedral in the world with a height of 132 metres and the 6th tallest cathedral and 3rd tallest domed church.
It will have the largest collection of church mosaics (interior decorations) in the world. The mosaic of the altar will be about 3,000 sq. meters. It will have glass from Venice and Carrara stone from Italy. It will also have the world’s largest free-swinging bell. And it will have the world’s largest iconostasis (a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church).
It will be grand. It will be stupendous. It will cost a fortune to build. Will it be insane for such a small and relatively poor country? Is it necessary? Or should parishioners reach for the stars?
Patriarch Daniel explained in 2008 that the choice of name “New Patriarchal Cathedral,” is a spiritual manifestation of gratitude to God for the deliverance of the Romanian nation from oppression and alienation. But is it deliverance from oppression into poverty and financial ruin?
As Jimmy Buffet would say, only time will tell.