Romanian People's Salvation Cathedral - Size

Size

Under the current project the building will have a height of 120 m, being taller than the Palace of the Parliament, a length of 120 m and will be 70 m wide . It will have room for around 5000 believers, much more than the current patriarchal cathedral, which has room for only 500 believers and has been deemed by the Patriarchy as not being spacious enough. The surrounding complex can hold up to 125,000 people.

The sheer size of the building drew criticism from various sources, including the French newspaper Le Figaro, which named it "a pharaonic project" and "worthy of the megalomania of Nicolae Ceauşescu". Alexandru Paleologu called the cathedral project to be stopped, arguing that the cathedral is "a catastrophic, fatal kitsch", "an ecclesiastical Ceauşescuism" and "parasitical, immoral and impertinent", as well as comparing it to the Soviet-inspired Casa Scânteii and House of the People. Journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu called the cathedral a "God mall" and argued that it's not churches—big or small—that Romania lacks currently.

Opponents also noted that the grandiose style of the cathedral is alien to the Romanian Orthodox spirit, being inspired by the Roman Catholic tradition. The difference between those two traditions being that the tall Catholic cathedrals want to create a connection between the believer and God, while the Orthodox churches are meant to bring the community together.

The Romanian Orthodox Church's answer to such criticism was that it will not imitate the gigantic buildings of the communist era, but would "correct them, through a decent and harmonious volumetry". Also, the church attacked the critics from the media, calling them "irresponsible".