The Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Biserica Sfinții Arhangheli Mihail și Gavriil) is an Eastern Orthodox church in Constanța, commonly known as the Military Chapel (Capela Militară) because it was originally built for the soldiers and officers of the city garrison.
Plans for the church were prepared by D. Ionescu-Berechet, chief architect of the Romanian Patriarchate, after a committee was formed in 1932 to raise funds for its construction. The foundation stone was laid on 3 July 1938 in the grounds of the 13th Artillery Regiment, and the building was completed by the end of 1939 before being consecrated on 20 October 1940. Military craftsmen, civilian workers and students from Constanța’s Industrial High School all participated in the construction.
Ionescu-Berechet designed the church in a Byzantine style, with a single large dome and a façade adapted to Romanian Brâncovenesc traditions through the use of a columned entrance porch. The original interior frescoes were painted between 1959 and 1961 by Costin Ioanid and his sister Lucia, but deterioration eventually required the church to be completely repainted. The present frescoes were created between 2005 and 2011 by a team led by Adrian Botea, when the iconostasis and other furnishings were also renewed.
The church served as a military chapel until the communist authorities abolished the army clergy in 1948. Shortly afterward, it temporarily became Constanța’s episcopal cathedral while the bomb-damaged Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul was still being restored. From 1951 onward it has served as a parish church, while the old Military Chapel name has remained in common local use.
