Orthodox Churches of Romania

  About 86% of Romanians consider themselves to be Orthodox. It is the state religion and is supported by tax dollars.  I read an article in a newspaper that said there are almost 15,000 churches here with under 5,000 schools.  I have become fascinated by the churches and try to take as many pictures as possible.  Elder Wahlquist would rather take pictures of the small farms.  Must be the farm boy coming out in him.  So there might be a "farms"  blog coming soon.  But here are pictures of some of the churches.

While there are many churches in Arad, this is the largest one.  For the Easter midnight mass it is surrounded by thousands of people, each holding a single candle. We understand it is mostly unfinished inside.

 

Our camera could not pick up the glorious green colors of the spires of this church in Timisoara.

 

Every city and village has several churches.  This is just one of many in Hunedoara.

 

This church is located in a little town outside of Arad.

  

This church is located in a tiny village.  The colors are bright yellow and red.

 

This little farm is next to the yellow and red church.  The farmer is plowing his field in early spring.  Hand plows like this haven't been used in America for almost 100 years. 

A few months later, this was a nice field of corn. 

 

The domes of this church sparkle silver in the sunlight.

  

I wish our camera could pick up the beautiful artwork on this church in Drobeta.

 

The domes are a glorious gold color.

 

Churches are tucked everywhere throughout the cities.  This one is near the heart of the city of Cluj.

 

This church in Bucuresti was built by the Russians in the early 1900s.

 

Biserica Stavropoleous was built in 1724.  It is one of the oldest churches in Romania.

 

The inside is very ornate with lovely artwork on all the walls and ceiling.

  

The countryside is dotted with churches under construction.  This massive church also has a gold dome.  The little black dot on the second curve below the scaffolding around the base of the dome is two construction workers.  

  

This church is just around the corner from our apartment and we have been watching the progress.  The brickwork is all second hand bricks so that it looks ancient as soon as the bricks are put in place.

 

There is usually just one man working but this day he had a friend.  Has anyone read

 "Pillars of the Earth?"  Everytime I see this guy I think of Tom Builder.