Church of Saint Spyridon (Biserica Sfântul Spiridon) is a Romanian Orthodox church in Galați, built in 1815-1817 on the site of an older wooden church dedicated to the same saint. The masonry church was erected by members of the city’s shoemakers’ guild, among them Stan Tudoran, his son Gheorghe and his grandson Enache.
Only a few years after its consecration in 1817, the church was burned during the violence that affected Galați in 1821 and was rebuilt by 1828. Another major setback followed when the earthquake of 1838 brought down its masonry towers; these were subsequently reconstructed in wood, giving the upper part of the church much of its present appearance.
The building has a triconch plan, with a slightly elongated nave and semicircular apses at the sanctuary and on both sides. Its brick walls are more than a meter thick and rest on foundations of river stone, while buttresses reinforce the exterior. A toothed brick band runs around the walls and is repeated beneath the towers.
Further repairs followed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, including reconstruction of the towers in 1845 and interior work in 1866. The present mural painting was created by Vasile Pascu in 1963-1965, while the church also preserves older liturgical books and religious objects, including an 1836 Gospel.
