April 26, 2024
The Little Cathedral dedicated to the Annunciation in Târgu Mureș is ennobled with a huge polychandra. The work of art was created by Denis Latîșev, director of the company Premium Bells from Bucharest and was installed today, April 25, 2024. It has a diameter of 3.7 meters and a height of 4.15 meters, lights up with 175 bulbs, with a consumption of only 2 kw/hour.
“It weighs 750 kg, it is suspended by 6 chains, each chain has a 2 ton break at the link, so that, suspended up there, it will sit relaxed for 200 years. In 200 years, I will come back to fix the problems with the metal rods”, said Denis humorously for Zi de zi. A plaque is placed on the chandelier that reads “This huge horos-type polychandra 3.7 m in diam. with the royal crown was cast with the efforts of the serving priests Călin Budai, Călin Șipoș and Benone Scrob. Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Alba Iulia, Orthodox Archdiocese of Târgu Mureș executed by Premium Bells SRL in the year 2024″.
The church was consecrated on September 8, 1936 by the Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Alexandru Nicolescu of the Archdiocese of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia. On behalf of the government, Minister Valer Pop was present, who gave a speech. Protopopul Iosif Pop (1896-1985) stayed in Târgu Mureș during the occupation of Northern Transylvania by fascist Hungary, between 1940-1944. In 1948 he was arrested by the communist authorities for refusing to join the Romanian Orthodox Church. In 1948, after the banning of the Romanian Church United with Rome, the communist authorities installed a parish of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the Church of the Annunciation in Târgu Mureș, which uses the place to this day.
“The candelabrum has a huge royal crown on top, and on the crown is the Patriarchal Cross. Why did I insist it be so?! Because this church was Greek Catholic, it was claimed by the Romanian Fatherland, we decided to put this cross so that it would remain forever belonging to the Romanian Patriarchate”, explained Denis.
Bell ringer and business man
Denis is 36 years old, he was born in Chisinau, but settled in Bucharest for 6 years. He is the director of the company Premium Bells, which represents two of the top companies in Moscow and Yaroslavl specialized in the production of polychandras in the classic fir style and massively cast horos type – the premium class, but also a company in Greece that casts in the Byzantine style, often requested in Romania. The young man received a blessing from IPS Pimen, the Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuților – for the import and promotion of the art of bells in the parishes and monasteries of Romania, as well as wherever it will be needed, following the contribution, design and adjustment of 13 new bells weighing 11 tons, the largest being 5200 kg, cast for the foundation of Stephen the Great – Putna Monastery in the city of Yaroslavl – the Orthodox world in 2016, consecrated on July 10, 2016.
As a hobby, he is a bell ringer, he can ring 14 fixed bells at once. Although bell ringing is one of the most difficult musical interpretations, Denis never had a teacher, he learned everything on the go, he had ambition and enough madness to win an international contest of bell ringers, becoming the winner of the “Earth Bell” in year 2003. The bell ringer is very good at singing it with his voice. At Eurovision in 2010, he stood out with the duet “Forever”, performed with the artist Corina Cuniuc, and in another year he managed to reach the final with the song “It’s my first dance with you”. Denis is spontaneous, full of life, good-natured, confident, adapts and makes decisions easily, and perhaps the greatest quality noted in him is humor, as a social binder. Conversations with him are full of laughter, the interaction is more relaxed, more intimate, it is not for nothing that it is said that “laughter is the shortest path between two people”.
“The chandelier is a work of art, we called on the services of Denis Latisev because our church is also a historical monument. We thus have another point of attraction for those who want to cross our threshold, the visual impact is great”, said Fr. Calin Sipos.
10 days ago, Premium Bells installed a 2.9-meter chandelier at the Assumption Parish in Cluj-Napoca, commissioned by Fr. Dan Hognogi. Priest Alexandru Constantin Ciui – Archpriest of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Cluj II, for his part, ordered two such chandeliers. In the country, there are only 5 such works.
