ST. NICOLAE CHURCH

Located 150 m north of the municipal park, it is the oldest building in the town of Bălţi. The Church of St. Nicholas was built between 1791 and 1795 on the initiative of Gheorghe Panaite in the classical traditions of the Orthodox churches. The Austrian architect Anton Weissman gave it a stretched rectangular plan and its external appearance makes it strongly resemble a Catholic church. The exterior typology of the church is accentuated by vertical pilasters interrupted by three horizontal cornices, demonstrating the division of the building into two levels. The interior layout is characteristic of medieval Moldavian churches, with the space being shared with a narthex, a naos and an altar. The altar has a semi-spherical vaulted roof; the main nave and side naves have calotte vaults. The interior is sublimely decorated on the walls and columns with colourful frescoes, the work of Eustatius Altini (1772-1815), a very famous painter (the interior paintings will be resumed between 1930 and 1940). This church is a symbol for the town, because despite the aggressions of wars, revolutions and natural disasters it has remained intact. The highest points of the east and west facades are crowned with two 2 m high golden crosses. In the foreground, a separate bell tower of the church existed and was destroyed in 1965, but, as the people here say, "as a man cannot live without a heart, a church cannot exist without a bell tower", it was then rebuilt in 1995.