June 1, 2016

2589 ROMANIA (Bihor) - The Church with Moon in Oradea


The Church with Moon (Biserica cu Lună), known also as the Assumption Cathedral, is an Orthodox Christian church built between 1784 and 1790 in late Baroque style, by the architect: Éder Jakab. It was so named due to a clock mechanism unique in Europe, located on the church steeple, which aims to constantly rotate a sphere with a diameter of 1m, painted half black and half gold. This sphere imitate the rotary motion of the Moon around the Earth and show all phases of the Moon.

The clock, a work of the inventive and skillful mechanic Georg Rueppe from Oradea, was installed in 1793. The iconostasis (1816-1831) and the old paintings were executed by brothers Alexandru and Arsenie Teodorovici. From the old painting is preserved only the icons on the iconostasis, and the ones from the bishop chair, from the pulpit and from the two pews. The present painting in fresco was done by Eremia Profeta between 1977 and 1979 and restored in 2000-2001 by Marian Verza. Portrait of Horea, the hero of the 1784 uprising, sits above the iconostasis.

About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Holy Easter 2016, about which I wrote here.

References
Biserica cu lună (rom) - Wikipedia
Istoric Biserica cu luna - Official website 

Sender: Mihnea Răducu
Sent from 1 Mai (Bihor / Romania), on 23.05.2016  

No comments:

Post a Comment