Romania's Costly Passion for Building Churches

BBC ^ | 8/6/13 | Tessa Dunlop

[marshmallow]

Romania is in the middle of a church-building boom, with some 10 new places of worship completed every month, and one vast cathedral slowly taking shape. But some Romanians take issue with the expense, in one of Europe's poorest countries - and particularly the use of funds from the public purse.

The church is restored, while a statue of Lenin is trampled underfoot (Mogosoaia Palace, 2009)

To travel across the north of Romania from Suceava in Moldavia to Maramures is to be bamboozled by exquisite religious eye candy.

Everywhere you look there are churches - big, small, medieval, brand new, tin-roofed, wooden, painted - each has its own appeal.

What is particularly striking as you bump along the potholed roads that link them, are their sheer numbers. Since the 1989 revolution the Orthodox Church has been going great guns in Romania.

The vast majority of the population - nearly 90% - are Orthodox, and in the wake of Ceausescu's downfall the Church has capitalised on its pre-eminent position in the country, building new churches at a rate of one every three days, including an enormous cathedral currently under construction in the centre of Bucharest.

On completion, the plan is that the Cathedral for the People's Salvation will be the tallest religious building in south-eastern Europe and tower over its immediate neighbour - ex-Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's enormous Palace of the People.

Romania is undoubtedly a very spiritual country, with religious rituals, icons and celebrations forming the fabric of many people's lives - on the Saints' Day of Constantin and Elena in Maramures I witnessed the congregation spill out of two local churches on to the surrounding hillside.

However questions are increasingly being asked about the funding of..........

[Cronos]

I must add in one point -- I've been able to pick up Italian quickly, but, like English, I found that I was able to pick up BASIC ITalian quickly (you know, enough to get around). If you want to speak it fluently you need to put in the effort, or better yet, live among native speakers and force yourself to speak the language.

it can be highly embarrassing for an adult to have to be like a child. I still make mistakes in Polish after 3 years.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

The BBC can go to gay pride day, for all I care.