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St Nicholas Church

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The Cathedral of St Nicholas in Chernivtsi, popularly known as the “Drunken Church” because of its architectural illusion of “twisted” towers, is a Ukrainian Orthodox church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The building was designed by the architects Joseph Letner, Virgil Ionescu and the engineer Walter Stübchen-Kirchner as an expert of the Chernivtsi building authority during the inter-war period when Bukovina belonged to Romania. Construction began in 1927 but was interrupted for ten years for financial reasons. Work was resumed in 1937 under the direction of the architect Alexander Ivanov. The church was consecrated on 6 December 1939.

St Nicholas Church

Religious buildings & cemeteries

built

1927 - 1939

The Cathedral of St Nicholas was modelled on the Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș, the first capital of the Principality of Wallachia. The cathedral of Curtea de Argeș dates to the 16th century and is the burial place of Romanian kings. It is one of the most famous churches in Romania and is depicted on the 1 Leu note. The Cathedral of St Nicholas in Chernivtsi stands out not only for its architecture - with towers that create an optical illusion. The church's frescoes, created by Bucharest painters Paul Molda and George Dumitrescu-Lowendal, can still be seen in their original form. Unlike all the other churches in the city, the altar is on the right and not opposite the entrance. This is since the main entrance to the church faces Rusʾka Street, rather than an east-west orientation, as is usual for Orthodox churches.

St Nicholas Cathedral was not closed during the Soviet period and functioned as an Orthodox place of worship.

Text: Kateryna Stetsevych