Sunday morning. I headed to Catedrala Patriarhala, which had been pointed out on my Bucharest map by the desk attendant at the hotel.

Catedrala Patriarhala (Patriarchal Cathedral) This stunning seventeenth-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. 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.