"adormirea Maicii Domnului" (Assumption Of Virgin Mary) Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral Cluj-Napoca

The year 1918 marks the creation of the Romanian unitary state by the political-administrative union of the Romanian territories under the jurisdiction of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and of the Czarist Empire with Romania Kingdom. After 1918, an orthodox see with the title the Episcopacy of Vad, Feleac and Cluj is re-founded in Cluj. Between 1923 and 1933, at the initiative of the bishop Nicolae Ivan and with the support of the Royal Romanian House, in the space in front of “Lucian Blaga” National Theatre from Cluj-Napoca, in Avram Iancu Square, it is built the Episcopal cathedral. The cathedral was built according to the project of the architects George Cristinel and Constantin Pomponiu, a byzantine monument with characteristic elements of Brancoveanu style. However, the recession from 1930 did not allow the initial project, the cathedral being nevertheless inaugurated on November 5th 1933.

Between 1997 and 2000, at the initiative of Archbishop Bartolomeu Anania, an ample renovation process of the cathedral starts, process within which it was also succeeded the addition of elements from the initial project which in could not be carried out in the ‘30s. Thus, the four small towers that bordered the central tower were added, the bases and capitals of monumental columns were sculpted from rotunda of the big tower, the eight medallions sculpted in stone and the stone arches from the lateral facades.

In the present, at the basement of the cathedral was opened a museum which presents the history of Orthodox eparchies from Cluj area, the iconographic art starting with the 14th century and the crypt of hierarchs.