The Saint John’s Church (Biserica Sfântul Ioan) is a historic Romanian Orthodox church in Bârlad dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The present masonry building dates from the mid-19th century, but it replaced an earlier wooden church founded on the same site in 1812.
The first church was built by Ioan Mârzacu and his wife and served the surrounding neighborhood for almost four decades. It was destroyed by fire in 1851, after which a new masonry church was erected in 1852-1853. The building later required repairs in 1897 and again in 1932-1933, before suffering further damage during the earthquake of 1940 and being restored in 1943.
The church has a compact traditional plan with a western entrance porch, a bell tower above the façade and a larger central dome over the nave. Its exterior is articulated by rows of shallow arched recesses and a horizontal band dividing the walls into two registers, while the entrance porch opens through three arches carried by decorated columns. Stained-glass windows appear throughout the church, including in the central dome, where they depict saints connected with the Orthodox tradition.
