RO 
EN 
IT 
Cet article sera traduit bientôt.
This parish church was initially founded as a monastery in 1583, by Greek monks, from the “Saint Sava” Monastery in Jerusalem, during the ruling of Voivode of Moldavia Petru Șchiopul. In 1625, due to the fast degradation of the edifice and the fire started by the Tatar invasion, the monastery’s church was completely rebuilt, the second founder being the court marshal Ioan Enache Caragea. “Saint Sava” Church was a significant cultural, social and politically Orthodox centre. In 1714, during the reign of Nicolae Mavrocordat, this is where the Princely Academy, a library and a Slavonic-Romanian printing press which also printed in Greek and Arabic were founded. In the “Deaconry” House, located nearby, “Saint Sava” National College was opened in 1864, hosting nowadays a social and education centre. After the demolition of Dancu Monastery in 1903 situated nearby the National Theatre, “Saint Sava” Monastery received the coffin with fragment of the relics of the Saints Trifon and Marina.
The religious dwelling is unique in Romania through its shape specific to the Oriental Byzantine architecture. This can be remarked through the feeling of massiveness due to the size of the church building, the position of the two short, but massive towers, the exterior finished stone, as well as to the size of the steeple with a fortress aspect. The stone profile of the base is specific to the Moldavian ecclesiastic architecture, and the exterior middle brick frieze with a crenelated shape next to the spiral frieze of the towers belong to the specific Muntenian architecture. The Gothic style is present through the cornice with mouldings of the west door and through the inside broken arch of the archways. The two wide open towers, with 12 sides, have a braided frieze at the base and a niche frieze above it. The towers end in flattened domes, specific to Byzantine, but also Ottoman architecture.
The tall iconostasis was made in the 19th century in Baroque style, with gilded sculpted adornments. The inside painting was made in 1832 in Renaissance style in the “secco” technique, but was destroyed in a large part. The church was repainted in 2010-2013 in Neo-Byzantine style, in “fresco” technique and about 150 square metres of the old painting were restored and harmoniously integrated with the new one. The main entrance painting, situated at the ground floor of the steeple, present scenes of Saint Sava’s life, who lived between 439 and 532. The painted scenes are inspired from the biography written by his pupil Chiril from Skitopolis. “Sava’s Ritual” is his most important written work, which comprises the service rituals for the entire year. His relics can be found at Lavra Monastery (or Mar Saba), founded by him in the Palestinian dessert. The painting in the west porch presents the commemorative painting of Voivode of Moldavia, Petru Șchiopul and his family, as first founders of the dwelling.
The steeple is structured on three levels. The first one is the ground floor that integrates the southern entrance hallway. The second level shelters the Parochial Museum with a collection of patrimony old books of the 18th-19th centuries, liturgical and religious didactic books and religious objects found after archaeological research due to the church’s renovation in 2013. The last level hosts the big bell of 910 kg since 1809 and a recent smaller bell, of 300 kg.
The church’s park has been modern rearranged and in its middle a cross made of Dobrogea quarry stone was placed, under which bones from the cemetery of the former monastery were buried. Since 2005, the church is the religious dwelling of mainly people with hearing and speaking deficiencies, to whom the services are being translated into mimic-gesture language.
7. Église Arménienne