METROPOLITAN CHURCH

This stunning 17th-century cathedral, situated on a hill overlooking southern Bucharest, is the Romanian Orthodox Church headquarters. A  fabulous fresco of the blessed and the damned, ascending to heaven or tumbling into hell, adorns the entrance, as well as the oldest icon on
 the site, depicting patron saints Constantin and Helen (1665). Inside, expressive and beautifully painted icons, embedded in an exquisite
 gilded altarpiece, dazzle the eye in the sombre darkness. St Dumitru, Bucharest's patron saint, lies entombed in the left-hand corner and
worshippers constantly climb the staircase to his shrine to pay their respects.