Mogooaia Palace, Between Grandeur and

Spirituality
We went to Mogooaia Palace, the palace that was built in 1702 by Constatin
Brncoveanu, its about 15 km from the heart of Bucharest.At the beginning,
I was expected to see the beautiful grand Palace surrounded by huge
European garden style. What I saw first when reaching to the place was not
far as what Iimagined, the Palace that has the construction style of Romanian
Renaissance, a mix of Venetian and Oriental styles with its impressive
architecture and expansive gardens. But it was not just like that. In front of
the entrance of the Palace, we could see old Orthodox Church,St. George
Church, which was something new to me. In my country Indonesia, the
Christian population mainly belongs to Protestant and Catholic, so I had not
seen any Orthodox Churches yet, and it was my first experience to enter the
Orthodox Church.
When I went inside the Church, I was amazed with all the paintings in the
ceilings and
walls, the paintings are really
beautiful, I
was looking it for long time
while
digesting all the paintings
and Greek
writing there. It has some
Byzantine
decorative features and
adornments
which are the characteristic
of the Italian
Renaissance and the
Baroque. The
architecture and paintings are
really different
with Catholic or Christian
Protestant
Churches in Indonesia, which
the decor is
grand with great touches of
Dutch
architectural influence.This
Orthodox
Church have identical
paintings all
over the church. I got goosebump seeing all over this gorgeous Church which is made by human and the
Church is viewed as the Body of Christ.

I was lucky to be able to watch the Priest coming inside the church and did
the praying and worshiping , this was my first time seeing worship service of
Orthodox. When the priest coming in, he kissed all the pictures of Saints,
Mary and Jesus, and made cross sign. While praying, he then spreading
incense all over the Church with metal bowl with bells and there wasother

man who helped the Priest to read the bible. It was quite different with
Catholic and Christian Protestant services in my country. But for me, doesnt
matter with the difference of the way of worship, the aim is the same, to
pray to God and to thank for what we had and all the blessings showered
upon us in our life.

After seeing all beautiful pieces of art and cultures inside the palace and the

Church, I enjoyed the best part of this place, the gardens and lake. The
garden and the view of the lake were quite refreshing. I think summer time is
the best time to visit this place with sunny day, beautiful flowers and calm
and lovely lake. It was enough to end this memorable trip to witness such a
great historic place near Bucharest.

Erika Giovanni Simangunsong, Indonesia