Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral (Metropolitan Cathedral)

The Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Sibiu, also known as the Metropolitan Cathedral, stands at 33-35 Mitropoliei Street and is the most important Orthodox place of worship in Sibiu County. It was built between 1902 and 1906, on the site of a Greek church from 1797-1799, which had until then served as the episcopal cathedral. The new building was commissioned by Metropolitan Ioan Mețianu, who insisted the building have "two beautiful towers," and was designed by engineer-architects Virgil Nagy and József Kommer, professors at the Budapest Polytechnic, chosen after a design competition that drew 31 entries, most submitted by architects from Hungary and Austria. The cathedral serves as the seat of the Sibiu Archdiocese and the Transylvania Metropolitanate, one of Transylvania's important Orthodox metropolitanates, with institutional roots going back to the 17th century, although its current form and seat date from the modern era. The cathedral has impressive dimensions, about 44 meters long and 27 meters wide. Its architectural plan was partly inspired by the former Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, adapting Byzantine elements to the Romanian context; compared to the original design, two massive entrance towers were added, each 58 meters tall. The interior is decorated with paintings done in fresco and tempera technique, executed by Romanian artists during the interwar period. The iconostasis, carved from wood, dates from the original construction period and is considered one of the representative works of Transylvanian ecclesiastical craftsmanship. It is easily reached from central Sibiu, about 500 meters from Piața Mare, on foot or by public transport. Worth visiting for its architecture, representative of the period of national assertion in early 20th-century Transylvania, and for its historical value within the institutional context of Transylvanian Orthodoxy.