Cosmic Multicultural Bucharest in the Pandemic (30):
Orient in Bucharest
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (astro-photo-poem-essay) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)
Amazingly, in 1748 the ruler of Wallachia, Constantin Mavrocordat, made in Bucharest a church in the style of the Oriental Churches to honor a visit of the Patriarch of Antioch (who came from Damascus).
This church (dedicated to Saint Spyridon) respected the restrictions of the Ottoman Empire for the Christian churches (although the Romanian Land was not included in it): as tall as a horse with a rider, with an underground part.
Moreover, the church included an inscription in the Arabic language, which welcomed the Christian Arabs.
Demolished by the totalitarian regime in the 1980s, Saint Spyridon’s Church was remade in the 1990s (along with a social centre) with the support of the famous gymnast (author of the “first perfect score in Olympic competitions”) Nadia Comaneci... and the Arabic inscription, saved by priests, appeared again!
2020, around November 1st.
Although isolated in the Muslim world, the Oriental Church (led by Greek priests) made an immense service to world astronomy, translating for the Islamic Golden Age the work of the ancient Greek personalities, so I tried to honor it, connecting the astral language (the Sun, Mars and the Moon) to Saint Spyridon’s Church.
I couldn’t be hesitant.
The sky is not ignorant!
#poetry