150 sqm Pantocrator icon installed in People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest
The installation of the Pantocrator icon in the main dome of the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest began recently, after the creation of the mosaic, which used 2,400 kilograms of pieces, took more than half a year.
The icon spans 150 square meters, and has a diameter of 12 meters and a portrait height of 4.5 meters, according to the Basilica News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate.
The face was primarily created by Alina Codrescu, wife of the painter Daniel Codrescu, the coordinator of the painting works of the National Cathedral.
"Last week we did the pre-assembly of the Pantocrator icon. We assembled it, putting all the elements together so that we could have an overview of the icon that we were going to install, including the writing and the rainbow that is traditionally made around the icon. Today we started the first application, the first pieces of the icon we applied to the actual wall and we hope that by the end of the week, we will have the icon fully installed. It was a challenging, meticulous work, it was an asceticism in itself because it required a lot of peace and calmness. It's an important moment, an honor for any artist to create such an icon in a lifetime," Daniel Codrescu told Trinitas TV, cited by Basilica.
So far, an area of approximately 3,000 square meters of mosaic has been completed inside the Cathedral, out of an estimated total of 25,000 square meters. This sector includes the iconography of the altar and the iconostasis, and a sequentially arranged series of 45 icons, illustrating both the holy prophets of the Old Testament and the holy apostles.
Once the sanctuary is fully painted, it will hold the largest interior collection of mosaic paintings.
The painters hope that the scaffolding in the middle of the cathedral will be dismantled by the end of the year.
The National Cathedral was consecrated in 2018, 100 years after the Great Union, and is dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord - Heroes' Day and Saint Apostle Andrew, the Protector of Romania. 120 meters tall, it will be equipped with eight elevators.
The cathedral's bells have a total weight of 33 tons and are located at a height of 60 meters. The building also has 28 bronze doors with iconographic representations, which will be coordinated by a computerized system that will command automatic opening in case of an alarm. Additionally, it has a total of 392 windows.
In the Altar, at the base of the Holy Table, there is a list with over 350,000 names of known Romanian heroes, alongside fragments of the relics of the Brâncoveni Martyrs and the Martyrs of Niculițel, according to Euronews Romania.
The cathedral also possesses the world's largest Orthodox iconostasis, measuring 23.8 meters in length and 17.1 meters in height, a record confirmed last spring by the Academy of World Records.
(Photo source: Catedrala-nationala.ro/Basilica.ro)
