Church Construction
Brief History
The Romanian Orthodox Community in Düsseldorf is the oldest Romanian Orthodox community in Germany. It was founded in the 1950s by Archpriest Emilian Vasiloschi upon his arrival as a post-war refugee in Düsseldorf. Thus, our community has been active in Düsseldorf for approximately 70 years. Our community is under the canonical authority of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Germany, Central and Northern Europe (a public law corporation).
For 45 years, our community celebrated its services at the Orthodox Center in Wersten, which was built in 1962 by the Evangelical Church in cooperation with the city of Düsseldorf for the post-war Orthodox refugees. The center consisted of a wooden chapel, a parish hall, and a parish house.
In 2018, our community purchased the Orthodox Church Center in Wersten. Immediately after taking over the property, our community began a renovation process that required many resources. The wooden chapel could not be renovated without consultation on monument protection due to its protected monument status. In continuous consultation with the monument protection authority of the city of Düsseldorf, we commissioned all necessary professional investigations for a renovation concept.
Unfortunately, the extensive professional investigations showed that the wooden chapel, which had been under an access prohibition imposed by the Düsseldorf building authority since March 2021, had severe damage to the load-bearing structure that seriously affected both structural safety and monument value.
For this reason, the church had to be demolished in 2021. In 2022, our community commissioned architect Dr. Nicolae Tulban to create a plan for a new church.
Our community serves over 10,000 Romanian Orthodox faithful in Düsseldorf and the surrounding area, who could support the construction of the new church.
Church Construction
Since the old wooden church in Wersten could no longer be renovated, our community began building a new church. The church was designed by architect Dr. Nicolae Tulban and was inspired by the Enei Church in Bucharest. The Enei Church was the Orthodox church demolished by the communist regime, under which the founder of our community, Father Emilian Vasiloschi, and generations of Romanian refugees in Düsseldorf suffered greatly.
The new church will occupy an area of 300 square meters and will have a height of 18 meters at the tower level.
