Patriarchal Ensemble
The Patriarchal Cathedral, the Patriarchal Residence and the Patriarchal Palace constitute a first-class ensemble of Bucharest, dating back to the mid-17th century, with the monastery founded in 1656 by the Prince of Wallachia, Constantin Șerban Basarab (1654-1658).
The church dedicated to Saints Constantine and Helen was consecrated in 1658 by Patriarch Macarius of Antioch and the Entire East, together with Metropolitan Ștefan of Wallachia and the bishops of Râmnic and Buzău. It was painted for the first time in 1665, during the reign of the voivode Radu Leon (1664-1669). The same sovereign decided, by a royal chrysobull of 8 June, 1668, that the monastery should become a metropolitan residence.
The building known today as the Palace of the Patriarchate was built by the Romanian State at the beginning of the 20th century on the site of the former hall of the Assembly of Deputies on the Metropolis Hill in Bucharest. The old hall of the Assembly of Deputies, with the land on which it stood, belonged to the Metropolis of the Romanian Country, which had its headquarters in the buildings surrounding the present cathedral on the Metropolis Hill, as the chrysobulls of the time show.
The metropolitan and then patriarchal residence became over the ages ‘one of the most active religious and cultural centres of Wallachia’. Built between 1656-1658, together with the Cathedral, the Patriarchal Residence is the treasury of Constantin Șerban Voievod.
