St Nicholas the Princely Church, Iași

St Nicholas the Princely Church (Biserica Sfântul Nicolae Domnesc) stands at 65 Strada Anastasie Panu in central Iași, near the old Princely Court, between the Palace of Culture and Casa Dosoftei. Its name comes from its link with the court: nearly all the rulers of Moldavia, from Despot Vodă to Grigore Alexandru Ghica, the last to be anointed here on 2 October 1849, were anointed and crowned in this church. The church was built by Stephen the Great, who began work in 1491, as recorded by the Slavonic inscription now set in the wall to the right of the entrance. From 1677 to 1682 it served as the metropolitan cathedral, and Prince Antonie Ruset renovated it in 1676 and surrounded it with an enclosure wall. In 1680 Metropolitan Dosoftei installed within its precinct the printing press brought from Moscow, where books in Romanian were printed, and in 1693 Prince Constantin Cantemir was buried here before his remains were moved to Mera Monastery. A Romanian school opened beside the church in 1749. Fires and earthquakes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries badly damaged the building. Between 1884 and 1904 the French architect André Lecomte du Noüy demolished the church and its additions and rebuilt it on the same foundations, roughly in its original form; it was reconsecrated on 2 October 1904 in the presence of the royal family. Compared with Stephen the Great's building, the walls were raised by a third row of niches and the tower was given two bases, square and octagonal. The gilded oak iconostasis and pews, the chandeliers and the bronze candlesticks were donated by King Carol I. Sections of Antonie Ruset's enclosure wall survive near the church. After repairs in 1989-1993, the church was reconsecrated on 16 October 1994. Since the 1990s it has served as a metropolitan chapel, administered by the Three Holy Hierarchs Monastery. It is a historic monument, LMI code IS-II-m-B-03962.