The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Blaj

The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Blaj, Alba County, is the metropolitan cathedral of the Romanian Church United with Rome (Greek Catholic) and the most representative monument of this denomination in Romania. It was built between 1741 and 1749 to plans by the Viennese architects Anton Erhard Martinelli and Johann Baptist Martinelli, at the initiative of Bishop Inocențiu Micu-Klein, who had signed the contract in 1738. It was consecrated in 1756 by Bishop Petru Pavel Aron, and the iconostasis and altar table were consecrated in 1765 by Bishop Atanasie Rednic. Architecturally, the cathedral follows the Western Baroque model; the two towers of the façade were added in 1838. The dome paintings date from 1748-1749, and the iconostasis was carved in lime wood in Târgu Mureș, with icons painted in 1765 by Ștefan Tenețchi. Greek Catholic hierarchs are buried in the cathedral, among them Cardinals Alexandru Todea (2002) and Lucian Mureșan (2025). After 1948, when the Greek Catholic Church was outlawed by Decree no. 358/1948, the cathedral was used by the Orthodox Church. It was returned to the Greek Catholic Church on 19 May 1991. The cathedral is a category A historical monument (LMI code AB-II-m-A-00187). Did you know that the historian Nicolae Iorga described the cathedral's iconostasis as "surely the most imposing in size and richness in all the Romanian lands"?