The Greek Church is a

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...

church located at 36 Mircea cel Bătrân Street,

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

, Romania. It is dedicated to the

Feast of the Transfiguration The Feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated by various Christian communities in honor of the transfiguration of Jesus. The origins of the feast are less than certain and may have derived from the dedication of three basilicas on Mount Tabor.' ...

. The oldest church in Constanța, it was built between 1865 and 1867, following a

firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...

issued by Ottoman Sultan

Abdulaziz Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother Abdulmejid I in 1861. Ab ...

. It is rectangular in shape and does not have spires; as emphasized in the decree, churches in the Ottoman Empire could not be taller than mosques. The painting was done by a renowned iconographer from

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

. In November 1878, a

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

was held inside, celebrating victory in the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence () is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the phase of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), in which Romania, fighting on the Russian side of the war, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On ...

and

Northern Dobruja Northern Dobruja ( or simply ; , ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube, Danube River and the Black Sea, bordered in the south by Southern Dobruja, which is a part of Bulgaria. ...

’s annexation to the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

. Mariana Iancu
“Biserica Greacă, cel mai vechi lăcaş de cult din Constanţa, îşi serbează hramul”
''Adevărul'', August 4, 2014 As the church building was deteriorating and the parish lacked repair funds, the local Greek community requested to be taken under Romanian Orthodox jurisdiction. Their petition was approved in 1974. The painting was redone by 1991. Services are held in Romanian and Greek. Since 1954, the church has been listed as a

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.

Notes

External links

Official site
{{coord, 44.17711, 28.65623, format=dms, type:landmark_region:RO, display=title Buildings and structures in Constanța Historic monuments in Constanța County Romanian Orthodox churches in Romania Churches completed in 1867 1867 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Greek diaspora in Romania