Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, Craiova: Metropolitan Cathedral of Oltenia

Site at a Glance

Rating

★4.8

Popularity

Low

Country

Romania

Primary era

Early Modern

Eras represented

Medieval, Early Modern

Civilizations

Ottoman, Principality of Wallachia

Site type

Religious

Remains

Cathedral

History

The Cathedral of Saint Demetrius is a Romanian Orthodox cathedral in Craiova, Romania, rebuilt in the Byzantine Revival style between 1889 and 1933 and serving as the see of the Metropolis of Oltenia. Historically called the Princely Church and Baneasa, it was closely connected with the Ban of Craiova and the Craiovești boyar family, and its position beside the Ban’s residence gave it an important political and civic role.

Origins and the medieval church

The beginnings of the church remain uncertain. Local tradition places its foundation in 1205, the legendary year associated with the foundation of Craiova. Other proposed dates connect an earlier church with the reigns of Peter and Ivan Asen I, Ivan Asen II, or Mircea I of Wallachia. Excavations carried out in 1888 suggested activity on the site as early as the eighth or ninth century. The prevailing historical view, however, dates the first church to the 1490s, during the time of Barbu Craioveanu, Ban of Craiova.

The first documentary mention dates from November 11, 1645. By then, the earlier church was already established, and Prince Matei Basarab rebuilt or substantially repaired it in 1651. An inscription surviving from his period is the earliest inscription associated with the church. In 1657, Patriarch Macarius III of Antioch visited the building with his archdeacon, Paul of Aleppo. Paul described it as a large stone church that Matei Basarab had recently enclosed with walls and likened it to a princely church.

A civic and administrative landmark

The church stood beside the residence of the Ban of Craiova and was attended by nearby boyars. It also formed part of the city’s defensive system, although Craiova never possessed a continuous enclosing wall. From its position, the church could be used to observe the road toward Vidin and crossings of the Jiu River near the Coșuna and Jitianu monasteries.

In 1731, the Habsburg authorities governing Oltenia proposed fortifying the church and its surroundings. The plan was abandoned after opposition from the military commander Francis Paul Anthony Wallis. The church was also near the Austrian administration, the residence used by visiting princes, and the headquarters of the local divan, the governing council. Judicial oaths and decisions were traditionally associated with the building, reinforcing its civic importance.

Repairs, endowments, and decline

The church underwent repeated repairs before its demolition. Petre Obedeanu repaired the walls and renewed the shingle roof in 1690. After damage attributed to the disturbances of 1716 to 1718, Constantin Obedeanu repaired the building during 1723 and 1724, adding stone, iron, and glass to the windows and redecorating the interior. Constantin Argetoianu undertook further work in 1774, including reroofing, strengthening the windows, and repainting. In 1795, the archimandrite Partenie, treasurer of the Diocese of Râmnic, paid for additional roofing and decoration.

The church also received substantial endowments. In 1750, Prince Grigorie II Ghica gave the episcopal authorities the Ban’s houses, whose repaired buildings enclosed the church courtyard. In 1754, Constantin Racoviceanu transferred an estate at Vișioara to the Bishop of Râmnic for the church. In 1765, Prince Ștefan Mihai Racoviță placed the church under Bishop Partenie, made it a dependency of the diocese, assigned it an estate, and ordered that it accommodate a school for foreigners, poor children, and candidates for the priesthood.

During the nineteenth century, the church’s wealth gradually declined, and properties were sold to finance repairs. The earthquake of 1838 caused serious damage. The altar wall cracked in many places, and bricks periodically fell from the tower. The church closed permanently in 1849. Cezar Boliac described its ruinous condition in a report of 1861, while a medal issued in 1858 to commemorate a proposed rebuilding did not result in immediate reconstruction.

Reconstruction and metropolitan role

In 1889, the remains of the old church were demolished and construction of a new building began. Its cornerstone was laid on October 12. King Carol and Queen Elisabeth supported the project, which was designed by the French architect Emile André Lecomte du Noüy. He reconstructed the monument from the ground up while retaining elements of its general form. The structure was largely in place by 1893, but work continued until the church was completed and consecrated on October 26, 1933.

The cathedral reopened for worship in 1933. On March 25, 1939, it became a metropolitan cathedral when the Archdiocese of Craiova was elevated to a metropolis. The Metropolis of Oltenia is the senior Romanian Orthodox ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the historical region of Oltenia, headed by a metropolitan. The cathedral has since hosted the enthronement of the Metropolitans of Oltenia, including Nifon Criveanu, Firmilian Marin, Teoctist Arăpașu, Nestor Vornicescu, Teofan Savu, and Irineu Popa.

The building’s interior painting was cleaned and brightened in 1976. An earthquake in 1977 damaged the cathedral, which was then refurbished and reconsecrated in 1978 on the feast of Saint Demetrius. The metropolitans Firmilian and Nestor are buried inside the church beside the naos, the principal worship space. The cathedral is protected as a historical and cultural monument and contains relics of Saint Nifon, Patriarch of Constantinople, and of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and Saint Tatiana.

Remains

The present cathedral is an inscribed Greek-cross building, with four arms of approximately equal length incorporated within a rectangular structure. It measures 34.65 meters from the center of the main altar apse to the eastern end of the porch and is 16 meters wide. The building rises on a 2.30-meter-high foundation made from unequal rectangular limestone blocks. Exposed brick and stone alternate across the walls, with three courses of brick followed by one course of stone blocks of approximately equal width.

Exterior structure

Walls, windows, and vaults

Each side wall contains five windows, two serving the pronaos, or entrance area, and three lighting the naos. The windows have rectangular stone frames with simple ornament and semicircular brick arches above them. Blind arcades, recessed arches that do not open into the interior, accompany the windows. Toward the altar, five blind arcades are followed by the three naos windows, three more blind arcades, the two pronaos windows, and one arcade beside the porch. A second row of smaller arcades appears about 1.5 meters above the lower row.

Two courses of projecting brick teeth run beneath the eaves, which are formed from large stone blocks. On both sides of the naos, masonry vaults project visibly from the exterior, expressing the arms of the Greek-cross plan. Each vault contains three windows, and a similar vault is placed above the entrance to the pronaos.

Altar and towers

The altar has three apses, or curved sanctuary ends. The central apse is longer and larger than the two lateral apses. It contains three windows, with two large blind arcades above them on each side and four smaller blind arcades higher up on each side. A doorway into the altar is placed at the lateral apse of the diaconicon, the chamber traditionally associated with liturgical preparation.

Three brick towers rise above the church. Two smaller octagonal towers stand over the pronaos, while a larger twelve-sided tower rises above the naos. Each has one recessed window on every side, a semicircular vault, two brick arches above the windows, and two rows of brick teeth. The towers end in seven-armed crosses. The roof has three levels, with the central section and the vaults beside the large tower higher than the lateral sections. The lateral roof sections align approximately with the porch roof, while the lateral altar apses have separate, lower roofs. Copper covers the church and its towers.

Porch and entrance

The open porch is supported by eight columns. Six are octagonal stone columns, while the two thicker corner columns are square and built from rectangular stone blocks alternating with exposed brick courses. The porch measures 4.8 meters across the front, and its front and side entrances are reached by four steps.

The doorway has a finely carved stone frame ending in a semicircle and a two-leaf bronze door decorated with geometric motifs. The inscription from the period of Matei Basarab, together with its Latin-script transcription, is placed to the right of the door. An inscription dating from 1933 appears on the left.

Interior arrangement and decoration

Naos, pronaos, and supporting columns

Two massive columns with rectangular bases separate the pronaos from the naos. Each base measures 2.25 by 1.25 meters. Four additional hexagonal columns toward the altar support the large tower. Together, the six interior columns divide the church lengthwise into a wider central section and two lateral sections corresponding to the lateral altar apses.

Iconostasis, painting, and choir stalls

The plaster iconostasis, the screen separating the altar sanctuary from the main worship space, was made in 1933 and painted that year by Iosif Keber. The choir stalls are carved from oak. French painters Menpiot and Bories executed the interior painting with abundant gilding. The saints’ faces use rounded forms influenced by Western painting rather than the conventional Orthodox model. Gustav Nill, a German painter, worked on the ornamental painting of the church and porch and died in Craiova in 1945.

Evidence of the earlier complex

The former church probably measured more than 30 meters in length and 15 meters in width. Its naos followed an inscribed Greek-cross plan of Constantinopolitan Byzantine type, with masonry vaults expressed externally as two rounded lateral gables. The old altar had three apses, including two tall lateral apses that reached the main cornice. Two equal adjoining towers stood above the building, and a monumental porch rose to the level of the cornice.

Photographs provide only limited evidence for reconstructing the old pronaos. Its porch had four tall front arcades crowned by pointed arches, a low central doorway that had previously been destroyed, and entrances at the sides. A large circular image of Saint Demetrius was painted above the entrance. In 1884, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu identified a bell tower associated with the earlier complex as the only surviving component of the original buildings. It was built from Roman bricks believed to have been taken from the Pelendava citadel.