The Colțea Church (Biserica Colțea) is a Romanian Orthodox church located in front of Colțea Hospital near University Square (Piața Universității) in Bucharest. The church is dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John the Golden Mouth, and to Saint the Pious Parascheva.
The church was built by Mihai Cantacuzino between 1695 and 1698 on the site of an earlier wooden church from the mid-17th century. The original wooden church was founded by Udrea Doicescu, who died in 1655 and left it to his brother Colțea, who took care of it and brought it under the authority of the Metropolitan of Ungro-Wallachia.
The new church was part of a monastery that included Colțea Hospital, a bell tower, three chapels, a school, and other buildings. Under Ștefan Cantacuzino the complex was surrounded by walls in 1714-1715. In 1939 a fire caused severe damage to the roofs and interiors of the buildings after which repairs were carried out in the same year.
The area was hit by multiple earthquakes during the 19th century after which repairs took place but the damaged bell tower was finally demolished in 1888 so the street could be widened. The interior paintings of the church, including the portrait of Mihai Cantacuzino and his wife Maria on the western wall of the narthex, were created by Gheorghe Tattarescu in 1871. In 1944 the church was damaged by the bombings of Bucharest. Restorations took place in 1949, 1950-1955, and in 1996.
The Colțea Church has a typical Brâncovenesc style, combining Byzantine, Romanian and Italian Baroque styles. It has a cross-shaped plan with walls that are over a meter thick and measures a length of 27.5 meters and a width of 11.5 meters. The building has two domes and a portico with five frontal arches and two arches on each side, resting on stone columns decorated with capitals with floral and and animal motifs. Inside the portico you can see the 18th-century fresco paintings by Pârvu Mutu which were discovered when plaster was removed during a restoration in 1895.
Next to the church stands a statue of Mihai Cantacuzino as well as a memorial cross, which commemorates the people who died there when the church functioned as a refuge during the 1989 Revolution. Every year, the church celebrates the Three Hierarchs on January 30 and Saint Parascheva on October 14.
