Orthodox Church of Ghelar
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The Orthodox Church of Ghelari is a Romanian Orthodox church in Ghelari, Romania.
The original church was made of wood, but it was pulled down in the 19th century.[1]
The stone church that is still standing today was built by Gheorghe Berevoii, a feudal lord from the neighbouring village of Govăjdia, in 1770, to thank God for having healed his wife. The church is orthodox, although the feudal lord was a Calvinist, and has a painting that includes scenes from Passion Week, portraying the soldiers that insulted Christ wearing the clothes of the people who had oppressed the Romanians from Transylvania.
Construction
Reverend Nerva Florea began the construction of a larger church in 1939 upon moving to the village, due to the increase in population. Florea had moved to Ghelari in March 1939, and began building in September 1939, overseeing the whole building process as the architect of the project. The church was founded on a hill in the center of the village near the ancient stone church. It needed 100 kg (220 lb) of dynamite to level the site, as it was the edge of a stone hill. To raise money, the people of Ghelari made a tour of large factories in the country to collect money for the building. The walls of the building were raised to three meters in 1945. Between 1945 and 1955 the work stopped due to persecution by the communist authorities, during which Florea was imprisoned. Work resumed in 1955, and the church was finished in 1973 and hallowed on 3 November of that year.