The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Sibiu is the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Sibiu and Metropolitan of Transylvania. The idea of building an Orthodox cathedral in Sibiu began with Metropolitan Andrei Şaguna, who in the autumn of 1857 asked Emperor Franz Joseph I for permission to send a circular to his diocese requesting that priests and laymen give donations. He sent the letter before Christmas that year, and the first donor was the Emperor himself.
The cornerstone was laid on the 5th of August 1902, on the anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Work, coordinated by city architect Iosif Schussnig, began in 1902 and was finished in 1904, when the copper roof was done. The plan, by Virgil Nagy and Iosif Kamner of Budapest, was chosen from among designs submitted by 31 mainly Austrian and Hungarian architects. The iconostasis (of gilt carved wood) and dome (showing Christ Pantocrator flanked by angels) were painted by Octavian Smigelschi, from the nearby village of Ludoş.
It was built in the style of a Byzantine basilica, inspired by Hagia Sophia, with the main spires influenced by Transylvanian church architecture and Baroque elements. The exterior is in red and yellow brick. The nave is bordered by smaller spherical roofs and four towers. The main entrance is through a portico with three semicircular doors. The cathedral is 53.10m long and 25.40m wide in the centre, the dome 24.70m high and 15m in diameter, while the spires are 43m high.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Holy Easter 2016, about which I wrote here.
Postmark used with the ocasion of the anniversary of 110 years since the inauguration of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Sibiu (30.04.2016). The postmark has an error: "Metropolitan" instead of "Mitropolitan".
References
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Sibiu - Wikipedia
Sender: Radu Toussaint
Sent from Sibiu (Sibiu / Romania), on 30.04.2016
Photo: Scott Eastman / 2011
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