St Nicholas Cathedral (the "twisted church"), Chernivtsi

openas of 2026-10-011927Bukovyna

Photo: Дмитро Ровчак · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

A church with twisted domes modelled on Curtea de Argeș — one of the few never closed under the USSR.

Construction began in 1927, stopped for ten years for lack of money and was completed in 1939; the church was consecrated on 6 December 1939. The neo-Romanian design, modelled on the Dormition Cathedral in Curtea de Argeș, was by Walter Stübchen-Kirchner, Josef Letner and Virgil Ionescu. The church is called "twisted" for its spiralling small domes: stare long enough at their curves and they seem to move towards the main one. The original carved iconostasis, stained glass and furnishings of the 1930s survive; two bronze bells from Transylvania weigh 948 and 592 kilograms.

Routes through this landmark

• Bukovyna: three churches, three centuries
• From the Prut to the Dniester