Church Built Entirely From Ice in Romania Functions as a Sanctuary for All Denominations
A church made entirely from ice located at Balea Lac resort in the remote Fagaras mountains in Romania was recently blessed by priests who represent the various Christian denominations in that country.
This ice church is only reachable by cable car and is located at an altitude of 2,000 meters or 6,600 feet. The water that was taken from Balea Lake, which is northwest of Bucharest, was blessed by priests and chunks of ice were cut with a chain saw and cemented together with water and snow to make the church.
The design for it was taken from an old church in Transylvania. It measures in at 6 meters tall, 14 meters long and 7 meters wide. The structure appears to be one that will be used by all denominations as Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant clerics all held some type of service there this week.
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Michael Regen, a priest from an evangelical church, was able to participate and discussed his experience with The Associated Press comparing it to a baptism.
"(We are) submerged in water now, surrounded by water. Let this be a place for us to pray, let this be a place where people come with pleasure," he said after his service, which was attended by more than 12 worshippers.
The church has been built and blessed every winter for the past few years and has been a sanctuary for priests to perform baptisms and wedding blessings.
The ice church helps to quell conflicts between different Christian churches in Romania, according to Eastern Rite Catholic priest.
"For a few moments, people forget what they left down in the valley: the fights, the misunderstandings, the contradictory arguments," he said.
There has been disputes over church ownership as the communists seized churches in 1945 and were given to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Some of them were never returned to their original denominations.
