The Holy Forty Martyrs Church (Biserica Sfinții 40 de Mucenici) is an 18th-century Orthodox church in the Copou district of Iași. It was built in 1760 by Hetman Vasile Roset and his wife Safta on land granted by Moldavian Prince Ioan Teodor Callimachi, at a time when Copou was still a sparsely developed area outside the dense center of the city. The church was consecrated by Metropolitan Gavriil Callimachi, the prince’s brother.
Its architecture belongs largely to the Constantinopolitan Baroque tradition that reached Moldavia during the Phanariote period, but the building also contains early Neoclassical elements. The exterior walls are articulated by 24 stone pilasters with decorative capitals, while the arrangement of the façades and some of the ornament anticipate the Neoclassical style that became widespread in Moldavia during the early 19th century. Later extensions added the present entrance spaces and bell tower, changing the outline of the original 1760 church without obscuring its older core.
Inside, the original 18th-century iconostasis survives, carved from linden wood, stuccoed, gilded, and decorated in the Balkan Baroque style. Four prominent icons were added in 1814 by Eustatie Altini, one of the leading painters working in Moldavia at the beginning of the 19th century. They depict Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, and Saint Nicholas. The present wall paintings are much later, completed between 2010 and 2013.
The church also preserves several connections with major figures in Iași’s cultural history. Writer Ion Creangă served here as a deacon between 1859 and 1863, and a memorial to him stands near the church. Gheorghe Asachi and members of his family were buried in the churchyard after his death in 1869, although Asachi’s remains were later moved to the base of his monument near in front of the Gheorghe Asachi Primary School, while his connection with the church is commemorated by a bust in the grounds. Busts of Creangă and painter Eustatie Altini can also be seen in the churchyard.
