Carol Park south of Piata Unirii is certainly one of Bucharest’s underrated attractions. Cutitul de Argint (‘Silver Knife’) church is part of Carol’s Park story.

The park was created in 1906 as a setting for the Romanian General Exhibition held to celebrate 1,800 years since the conquest of Dacia by Roman Emperor Trajan (106 AD), 40 years of glorious reign of Carol I (1866), and 25 years since the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania (1881). The Silver Knife church on Filaret Hill, on the western side of the park, was one of the many constructions raised for the exhibition. It is a replica of ‘Sfantul Nicolae Domnesc’ Church from Iasi, foundation of Stephen the Great of Moldova, a symbolical reference to a great figure or Romanian medieval history.

The church was commissioned to the noted architect Nicolae Ghica-Budesti, the same who designed the Romanian Peasant Museum. Mural decorations inside and the iconostasis were painted by artist Costin Petrescu who also created the great fresco inside the Romanian Athenaeum.

In the courtyard of the church, a monumental 17th century stone cross, one of the most beautiful I know in Bucharest. (pictures taken Sep 2019)

(Cris)