Saint Venerable Theodora of Sihla Romanian Orthodox Church

The Cathedral of Saint Theodora of Sihla is a neobyzantine brick church completed in 1895 in central Chișinău, serving as the cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church of Bessarabia — a metropolitanate whose canonical standing remains contested between Bucharest and Moscow. The church is dedicated to Theodora of Sihla, a 17th-century Moldavian hermit venerated for her ascetic life in the forests of present-day Ukraine. Its domed brick structure combines Byzantine architectural vocabulary with local Moldavian inflections, making it one of the more distinctive late-Tsarist-era religious buildings in the city. Daily services draw a Romanian-speaking congregation, and the interior features a traditional iconostasis and devotional fresco cycles.