30/06/2026 14:30 - 19:30

HALL: Parenzo - Aula Nocco

Contact: Tateo G.

Chair: Tateo G.

This multimodal exhibition documents the growth of Romanian Orthodox infrastructure since the fall of socialism, tracing three decades of cathedral construction. It combines ethnographic research, photography, and audiovisual media to illuminate the hectic church-building industry flourishing in postsocialist Romania as it represents a double movement: on the one hand, it exemplifies the renewed visibility of religious life after socialism, on the other hand, it stands for a troublesome employment of public money, the radical transformation of the urban built environment of cities and towns, and a powerful repositioning of the Church in the public arena.


Since 1990, the expansion of religious infrastructure in Romania has reached impressive numbers: the 18 state-recognised religious groups have erected over ten thousand places of worship, practically one per day. The Orthodox Church has built over 4.000, including 36 imposing cathedrals. The most prominent of them all is the new national cathedral, which today towers over the famous People's House built by Ceausescu. Its main dome, with the mosaic of the Pantocrator, is meant to exemplify the victory of the rule of god over the godless socialist past.


Not just a critical analysis of the comeback of religion after decades of state atheism, this project also explores the transformation of contemporary Romanian Orthodox architecture, which increasingly favours monumental scale and grandeur, sometimes at the expense of a clogged urban fabric and natural environment. If other post-Soviet and post-socialist capitals like Moscow, Tbilisi, and Belgrade have also added new Orthodox cathedrals to their skyline, the pace of the Romanian church-building industry seems unprecedented: 30Y30C aims to document all 36 cathedrals built or under construction over the last 36 years, revealing an important cultural and political process shaping Romania's identity in the 21st century.