Stavropoleos Church

The restoration of Stavropoleos Monastery, 1897-1912
The restauration project was awarded to arch. Mincu by the Ministry of Education and Worship, as the monument was in a very bad state and it was expected to be demolished. The project was also offered as a form of compensation to Mincu as he did not get the chance to build the Palace of the City Hall of Bucharest.
The dome is not original and there were several minor changes made by Mincu. To the right of the church , on the spot of the old inn, he built the bell-tower, the parish house and the museum, in a cloister shape. The works were finished by arch. Alexander Zagoritz after the death of his master.
New information came recently to light in reference to the restauration and decoration of the church. Conrad Vollrath/Veleanu (1884-1977), an artist of German origin, left an auto-biographical manuscript –today to be found in the Arts Museum of Brashov- in which he says:” I have worked with many architects doing the decorative painting, such an example being arch. Mincu with whom I did the exterior decoration of Stavropoleos Church in the capital city” The yellow vegetable decoration on a blue background on the exterior of the church are made by his hand, and most probably also the enameled ceramic elements of the accolade arches in the cloisters. After the collaboration with Mincu, around 1905, Vollrath/Veleanu worked with arch. Cristofi Cerchez at Minovici Villa. It presents the same paintings on the ceiling of the tower and colourful ceramic decoration on the arches of the porch on the main facade.