St. George’s Church of Bucharest

The Old St. George’s Church has been raised in 1562 on the location of a smaller, wooden church, by the Minister of the Interiors Nedelco Bălăceanu, counsellor to the Ruling Princes Mircea Ciobanul, Petru the Younger, Alexandru II Mircea and Mihnea Vodă. 13 years on, it has been rebuilt by the Minister of Finances Nedelcu-Mitrea.

Its importance in Romanian history is great. Especially if we consider, that it has been for 30 years the Valahian Mitropoly during the 15th and the 16th century. Moreover, the church has an important role in the history of the teaching in Bucharest. Brâncoveanu had made here a School of Writing and Romanian language, beginning with 1687.

Destroyed by Sinan-Pasha in 1595, when he put fire to Bucharest, burnt down in 1718 and 1847, it has been restaurated each time. 1875 it has been demolished, only to be rebuilt in 1881. Its latest outlook includes an iconostasis in the Ucranian Baroque style and paintings after Gh. Tattarescu, one of the greatest Romanian painters.

1705, this church became quite small, and the need for a new one was evident. So, building works at the New St. George’s Church began, by the initiative of Dosthei, Patriarch of Jerusalem. Begun by Official Translator to the Turkish Court, Panaiotache Nicusios and Antonie Vodă, and finished by Constantin Brâncoveanu, the ruler of the country. The plan of the church reproduces the plan of the church oc the Hurezu Monastery (see the journal on Wonderful Oltenia). At the time, people found it really nice. And understandably so – paintings are made by Pârvu Mutu, one of the greatest church painters of the time.

The importance of the New St. George’s Church is also great: after the execution of Constantin Brâncoveanu and all his sons in Constantinople, Lady Maria, Brâncoveanus spouse, brings the head of the Valahian ruler and burries it here in the church. Nothing indicated the burrial place, but a small candle, on the opposite wall to the place, placed by Lady Maria to light on “the bones of the happy ruler”. The candle has been found 1914 by Nicolae Iorga, an important Romanian historian, 200 years from the death of the ruler.