Coronation Cathedral, Alba Iulia

The Coronation Cathedral stands inside the Alba Carolina Citadel in Alba Iulia, at 16 Mihai Viteazul Street, a short walk from St. Michael's Roman Catholic Cathedral and the Union Hall. The church sits in the middle of a rectangular precinct with four corner pavilions linked by an open arcaded gallery, with a bell tower at the entrance. Construction began on 28 March 1921, with the support of the Royal House, to plans by architect Victor Gh. Ștefănescu, and was completed in September 1922. The cathedral was consecrated on 8 October 1922 and dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel (in memory of Michael the Brave) and to the Holy Trinity. On 15 October 1922 King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie were crowned here as sovereigns of Greater Romania. On 1 December 1948, after the Greek Catholic Church had been outlawed, the cathedral hosted the ceremony called the “reunification of the Romanian Orthodox Church”, and the building was renamed the Cathedral of Reunification. It became an episcopal cathedral in 1975 and has been the cathedral of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Alba Iulia since 1998. The Neo-Byzantine architecture was inspired by the Princely Church in Târgoviște, the old coronation church of the Wallachian princes. The plan is an inscribed Greek cross with an open arcaded porch, where four marble plaques commemorate the printing of the Bălgrad New Testament (1648), Michael the Brave's union of 1600, the martyrdom of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan, and the restoration of the spiritual unity of Romanians. The fresco painting is by Costin Petrescu. King Ferdinand and Queen Marie are painted on either side of the entrance; under communism the portraits were covered with paint, and they were restored after 1989. The iconostasis and choir stalls are carved in oak with motifs inspired by the Brâncovenesc style. The cathedral is open daily to worshippers and visitors. The ensemble (cathedral and precinct) is a category A historic monument, listed as the “Reunification of the Nation Ensemble”, code AB-II-a-A-00128. It belongs to the Orthodox Archdiocese of Alba Iulia. Did you know that King Ferdinand placed the crown on his own head? Ferdinand was a Catholic, and the actual crowning did not take place inside the Orthodox cathedral but in front of it, under a canopy raised in the precinct. The king used Carol I's Steel Crown, linked to the victory at Plevna in 1877, and then placed the crown on Queen Marie's head.