Bucharest Bărăţia

Bărăţia Church is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Bucharest, Romania, being located on I. C. Brătianu Blvd. Its name, used in antiquated Romanian for several Catholic churches, is derived from a Hungarian word of Slavic origin, "barát", meaning "brother" or "monk".

In the 17th century, Franciscan monks built a wooden church on the site of the current one. In 1716, the Wallachian Prince Ştefan Cantacuzino promised to his secretary, Giovanni Del Chiaro, that he would repair the "small wooden church of the Catholics", which was about to collapse, but he had to abdicate that same year. Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, donated 1,500 golden ducats for the repairs, to which Prince Nicholas Mavrocordatos contributed a further 280 ducats.

The church was burnt down during the 1847 Bucharest fire and its reconstruction, which ended in 1848, was financed by the Imperial House of Vienna, which donated 4,000 guilders. The big bell was cast in 1855, being financed by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

References

*Karl Auner, "Geschichte der bukarester Baratzie", Bucharest, 1904
*Raymund Netzhammer, "Über religiöse Verhältnisse in Rumänien", Salzburg, 1902