Roman Archiepiscopal Cathedral

The Cathedral of St Parascheva stands within the precinct of the Archdiocese of Roman and Bacău, at 5 Strada Alexandru cel Bun in the city of Roman. According to its inscription, the church was begun in 1542, during the second reign of Petru Rareș, probably at the initiative of the chronicler Bishop Macarie, and was completed in 1550 by Iliaș Rareș, Petru Rareș's son. Iliaș's name was later erased from the inscription by Bishop Macarie after the prince converted to Islam. The church was built on the remains of an earlier stone church attributed to Petru Mușat (1391) and Alexandru cel Bun (1408). The wall painting was most probably executed under Alexandru Lăpușneanu: the oldest graffito found on the walls of the pronaos dates from 1576-1577. After earthquake damage, the painting in the altar and nave was replaced towards the end of the eighteenth century, and the pronaos was partly repainted after the earthquake of 1802. In the early nineteenth century the walls between the rooms were replaced with tall arches, destroying part of the old painting. The painting was restored in 1927 under the painter Paul Molda and again between 1981 and 1983. The church has three main rooms, with Moldavian vaults over the pronaos and nave and carved stone window frames, while the façades are decorated with niches and blind recesses. The frescoes of the pronaos and porch preserve old inscriptions in Latin, Slavonic, Polish and Romanian, including a Latin one recording the passage of Michael the Brave through the town in 1600, written by two Polish noblemen in the retinue of Chancellor Jan Zamoyski. The ensemble of the Roman Bishopric (LMI code NT-II-a-A-10652) comprises the cathedral (NT-II-m-A-10652.01), the Veniamin Costachi House, completed in 1800, the episcopal palace of 1870, the bell tower of 1786 and the seventeenth-century enclosure wall. The Bishopric of Roman was raised to the rank of archdiocese in 2009, as the Archdiocese of Roman and Bacău. The cathedral has a museum of old books, vestments, icons, liturgical objects and tombstones.