St. Elijah–Gorgani Church

Since the 17th century, a church has been located on a funerary mound or tumulus (gorgan) in what was then a poor district situated between the Dâmbovița River and the pond in what later became Cișmigiu Gardens.

Some experts believe it was built by Șerban Cantacuzino (1678–1688), who made it a metochion of his Cotroceni Monastery, as noted in a 1693 document.

Archaeological excavations undertaken in 1953 unearthed traces of the old church, including a thick layer (0.6–1 meter) of rubble, containing bits of plaster painted in fresco and glazed discs.

Likewise, the razing and flattening of the mound was established by a thick segment of sand and gravel, left by the builders of the first masonry church.

[1] In 1937, the church was the setting for the funerals of Ion Moța and Vasile Marin, two Iron Guard members who were killed in action in the Spanish Civil War.

[2][3] In 1940, it hosted the funeral and reburial ceremony for the movement’s founder, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and the Iron Guard death squad members who had been killed in prison.

Iron Guard affiliate and artist Alexandru Bassarab repainted the frescoes in 1936–1937, in Neo-Byzantine style with Romanian touches.

The western facade features a large open portico with five front-facing arches in the middle, the central one being much larger than those on the side.

Above the portico and the profiled cornice, the facade terminates in a trapezoidal pediment, with a semicircular niche enclosing an icon of the patron saint.

[1] A large octagonal bell tower on a square base rises above the center of the portico, parallel to the facade.