Holy Trinity Cathedral, Sibiu
Encyclopedia
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
Archbishop of Sibiu and Metropolitan of Transylvania. It was built in the style of a Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
basilica, inspired by Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
, with the main spires influenced by Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n church architecture and Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
elements.
The idea of building an Orthodox cathedral in Sibiu began with Metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
Andrei Şaguna
Andrei Saguna
Andrei Şaguna was a Metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania, and one of the Romanian community political leaders in the Habsburg Monarchy, especially active during the 1848 Revolution...
, who in the autumn of 1857 asked Emperor Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
for permission to send a circular to his diocese requesting that priests and laymen give donations. He sent the letter before Christmas that year, and the first donor was the Emperor himself, who gave 1000 gold coins, followed by the governor of Transylvania with 50, Şaguna with 2000 florins, and many others. Donations continued to come in following Şaguna's death in 1873; the cornerstone was laid on 18 August 1902, when Ioan Meţianu was Metropolitan. In order to free the space to build the cathedral (which took up five lots on Mitropoliei Street and three on Xenopol Street, where it also has an entrance), eight nearby houses had to be demolished, as well as the little Greek church built in 1778 that had heretofore served as a cathedral.
Work, coordinated by city architect Iosif Schussnig, began in 1902 and was finished in 1904, when the copper roof was done. The plan, by Virgil Nagy and Iosif Kamner of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, was chosen from among designs submitted by 31 mainly Austrian and Hungarian architects. On 13 December 1904, the four bells were blessed and placed in the two main spires (during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
melted the three bells in the western spire for use as cannons; these were not replaced until 1926). The iconostasis
Iconostasis
In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...
and kliros
Kliros
The kliros is the section of an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church dedicated to the choir...
were then manufactured at Constantin Babic's firm in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
; electric lighting was also installed. The iconostasis (of gilt carved wood) and dome (showing Christ Pantocrator
Christ Pantocrator
In Christian iconography, Christ Pantokrator refers to a specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator is a translation of one of many Names of God in Judaism...
flanked by angels) were painted by Octavian Smigelschi, from the nearby village of Ludoş
Ludos
Ludoş is a commune located in Sibiu County, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Gusu and Ludoş....
.
The exterior is in red and yellow brick. The spacious nave is bordered by smaller spherical roofs and four towers: two smaller octagonal ones, and two larger ones near the entrance with a square base that becomes octagonal in the bell area. The ends of the towers are shaped like double bulbs, with a skylight in the centre. The main entrance is through a portico with three semicircular doors. Behind this and between the main towers is an ample semicircular vestibule with a similarly-shaped stained-glass window, while the outside is decorated with round mosaics showing Jesus and the Four Evangelists. The cathedral is 53.10m long and 25.40m wide in the centre, the dome 24.70m high (34.70m on the exterior) and 15m in diameter, while the spires are 43m high (45m including the crosses).
On 30 April 1906, Metropolitan Meţianu, joined by his suffragan bishop from Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
, Ioan Papp, and a group of priests and deacons, consecrated the cathedral. Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
was also present; he donated a silver engolpion
Engolpion
An Engolpion or Enkolpion is a general term for something worn upon the bosom . Formerly also including pectoral crosses, Enkolpion is nowadays used for a medallion with an icon in the center, worn around the neck by Orthodox and Eastern Catholic bishops...
and a valuable icon. Since its dedication, the cathedral has undergone a number of restorations and improvements: the walls have been decorated with neo-Byzantine paintings by Iosif Keber and Anastasie Demian, and liturgical objects, vestments, books and a sound system have all been added. Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
and Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
take place daily, as well as other services when provided for.