Ruinele Bisericii Sf. Anton, Church ruins in Lipscani, Bucharest, Romania
The Ruinele Bisericii Sf. Anton are the remains of the oldest surviving church in Bucharest, built in the 16th century in the Lipscani old town area of Sector 3. Stone columns with bas-relief carvings, once part of the original entrance portals, are still visible among the standing walls.
The church was built by Mircea Ciobanul, a 16th-century ruler of Wallachia, as a place of prayer attached to the nearby princely court. Later rulers added and altered parts of the structure, and the great fire of 1847 left the building in the ruined state that visitors see today.
The ruins are still visited by believers who come to pray near where the icon of Saint Anthony the Great once stood, following a Tuesday prayer tradition tied to this site. This weekly ritual, in which people write prayers and later share bread among nine persons, is a living practice with roots in the old church's history.
The ruins are located in the heart of the Lipscani old town area and are easy to reach on foot from the main streets of the historic center. The site can generally be viewed from the outside at any time, making it a convenient stop during a walk through the neighborhood.
The church once had two separate entrances, one for men and one for women, and the stone columns from those portals are still standing on site. A direct passage connected the church to the throne room of the princely court, making it one of the few places where Wallachian rulers were both crowned and prayed.
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