Church of Colta, Historic Orthodox church in central Bucharest, Romania.
The St. Elijah–Colței Inn Church is a basilica-shaped Orthodox church at the end of a yard on Doamnei Street. It measures 22.5 meters long by 13 meters wide and has three naves, the central one longer, ending in a semicircular altar apse. A small tin-covered octagonal bell tower with a pyramidal roof sits on the western facade, whose pediment features a three-lobed arch on columns and corner pilasters. The facades carry neoclassical pilasters, an architrave and a cornice; the interior is painted in fresco, and the entrance is flanked by icons of Saints Peter and Paul in niches.
Around 1725–1730, Clucer Radu Colțea built a wooden church on land that joined the Colței Inn after 1745. Destroyed by the 1838 earthquake, it was rebuilt on a nearby site by inn manager Lazăr Kalenderoglu and re-sanctified on 30 August 1841. In 1954 the Bucharest Archdiocese renovated it and handed it to the Bulgarian Orthodox community; the Romanian parish was re-established in 2009, followed by restoration in 2012–2015.
Bucharesters knew it for 55 years as "the Bulgarian church": from 1954 to 2009 the Romanian Orthodox Church lent it to the Bulgarian community, and Patriarch Justinian's charter set the term "until the Bulgarians build a new church". The frescoed interior and the icons of Saints Peter and Paul flanking the entrance are what a visitor can look at.
The church is located on Strada Doamnei in Sector 3 and is accessible to visitors outside service hours. Wear respectful clothing and maintain quiet behavior, as it is an active place of prayer.
The church kept the name "Sf. Ilie de la Hanul Colței" because it stood inside the yard of the Colței Inn, which occupied the site after 1745; a 1770 city plan and an 1810 map show this layout. In 1895 the city council renamed it "Sf. Ilie Kalenderu" after its rebuilder, Lazăr Kalenderoglu.
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