Saint Spyridon Church, Iași

[1] Funds were supplied by the learned boyar Ștefan Bosie,[2] whom the expense bankrupted;[3] he was later joined by hetman Vasile Ruset and the merchant Anastasie Lipscanul of Corfu.

[2] It is unknown why the somewhat unusual name of Spyridon was selected: this is possibly because he was the patron saint of the Ghica family, or because his canon was printed at Iași in 1750.

The church was initially used as a monastery, and in 1763, Ecumenical Patriarch Samuel declared it stauropegic, making its archimandrite the titular bishop of Irenopolis.

[2] The bell tower dates to 1786, a conclusion drawn from the presence of Alexandru Mavrocordat Firaris' coat of arms.

Twin fountains, inscribed in Greek, Ottoman Turkish and Romanian Cyrillic, were added by Grigore III Ghica in 1765; the water flowed along a tiled path from what is now the Botanical Garden.

[3] Both the church and the bell tower are listed as historic monuments by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.