Satu Mare - The Orthodox Cathedral of “The Assumption of the Holy Virgin”

The church, considered the first orthodox “cathedral” of Satu Mare, was built between 1937 and 1938, during the service of archdean Ioan Rusdea. The architectural project was made by G. P. Liteanu from Bucureşti, and it combines the Byzantine style with elements of the Romanian traditional architecture. The façade has an open porch with a terrace on the top, and it is held by six columns with capitals. The nave has a dome held by four huge columns (55 m high from the foundation). The apse is semicircular and it is provided with side chambers: prothesis and diaconicon. Each of the four corners has a tower, the bells being kept in the front towers. On the outside, the church is decorated with a median belt shaped like a knitted rope, a frequent motif in the architecture of the wooden churches. This element symbolizes the aspiration to the transcendent in the Romanian ornamentation. The first bell of the cathedral was made in 1939, weighing 1653 kg. The inside decoration was painted made by Eugen and Eremia Profeta with distemper, in 1954. The iconostasis is in accordance with the Byzantine canons, and it is decorated with sculptures made in fir and lime tree wood. The main icons, realized with great mastery, have particular artistic value. The edifice is enlisted as national monument. (DB).

References:
Parohia Ortodoxă Română Satu Mare II, Istoricul parohiei (manuscris).