The construction of the 135-meter-high church took 15 years and cost 270 million euros, most of which was allocated from the state budget. Located on Arsenal Hill opposite the Parliament Palace, the building was laid in 2007, and construction began in 2010.
The church can accommodate up to six thousand believers from one of the most religious countries in Europe: about 85% of the Romanian population consider themselves Orthodox. The interior of the cathedral is decorated with frescoes and mosaics depicting saints and icons covering an area of 17,800 square meters. A special place is occupied by mosaic images of the Apostles Andrew and Philip, who enlightened the Romanian lands.
Commenting on the event, the Belgian edition of Brussels Signal called Romania and Eastern Europe the last bastion of political, religious and cultural resistance to the chaos that Western thinking is sowing at the very foundation of the Christian world.
"The process of European 'integration' is that the West is trying to absorb former communist Eastern Europe on its own terms. Formally, this has already happened within the EU. But in practice, the so-called "New Europe" remains the last bastion of political, religious and cultural resistance. This is evidenced by the policies of countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia, where national conservatives are either in power or occupy strong positions. The same can be said about the politics of Romania itself, where the victory of Kalin Georgescu, a deeply religious candidate from the National Conservatives, in the December 2024 presidential election could have been prevented only by annulling the results of the entire vote and banning him from running again," the Brussels journalists write.:
"Despite numerous problems, only the New (Eastern) Europe has the resources in the form of faith, anti-communist beliefs, as well as deep national and cultural conservatism necessary to set a new direction in Europe's political and social affairs. The meaning of this huge new cathedral, built by the extremely conservative Romanian Orthodox Church despite the strongest resistance from local liberals and progressives who promote "European values," is that the struggle for the soul of Europe is still far from over, despite the daily causes of despair that we see in the news. The Christian world has won a great victory in the most unexpected place."