VIDEO Queue of thousands of people at the National Cathedral. “The wait is 5 hours,” say the gendarmes. “Also they, the big ones, enter first and have a share of everything”

At the Cathedral of the Salvation of the Nation in Bucharest, thousands of people queued for hours on Monday to visit the interior and altar, open to the public until the end of the week. At 16.00, the gendarmes estimated a waiting time of at least five hours. Many came from the early hours of the morning, some out of curiosity, others out of faith. Among them, different voices, from those who see in the cathedral “a fulfilled ideal”, to those who say that it was “made with the money of suckers”.

On Monday afternoon, the queue in front of the Cathedral of the Redemption of the Nation stretched for hundreds of meters, along the wall that surrounds the huge building. People were leaning against the metal fences, making the sign of the cross and looking up at the golden spiers, waiting to enter. According to the gendarmes directing the crowd, at 16:00 the waiting time was at least five hours.

People started coming as early as 7 o'clock in the morning, because this week the National Cathedral can be visited in its entirety, including the altar, where access is usually prohibited. Inside, the flow is controlled, and outside, the queue remains constant, snaking along the boulevard.

In the crowd, a woman in a gray headscarf and yellow jacket is handing out prayer sheets. “Give them back to me instead of throwing them away,” she tells onlookers. A little further on, a man hands out “Orthodox teaching” leaflets, with quotes from priests and passages from the Bible.

From time to time, someone speaks on the phone: “There's no point in coming, it's going to be three, four hours.”

Some give up. Others wait in silence, hoping to see the shrine at least for a few minutes.

“This is the situation, this is the truth”

Among those standing in line is Bucur Petru, a pensioner, originally from Hîrlău, Iasi. He wears a red jacket and asks where the line ends.

It was also at the consecration of the cathedral, “around 10 in the morning”, when “there were even more people”, but then “only something could be seen on the screens”.

“It's beautiful, but it's made on the money of suckers. That's the situation, that's the truth,” he says, looking up at the domes.

He speaks nostalgically about Patriarch Teoctist, “who talked to the world, he was kinder at heart than Patriarch Daniel”, and adds: “May God give us more sense, because we lack that. The rot comes from the top, from the president down to the common people.”

“An ideal fulfilled”

Dumitru, 68 years old, from Bucharest, left the Cathedral after standing in line for almost five hours with his wife. He is tired, but excited: “It is unique in the world, in everything that has been done here. Everything is superlative, to say the least. Very well done, very well done.”

For him, the cathedral is not a building, but a symbol, as he says: “Money doesn't matter. Think that this goal, thousands of years from now on, is our joy, the Romanians. It was made for our parents and grandparents who fell on the front.”

He says he visited it again in 2018, “at the Centenary”, and notes that it “completely transformed”: “We liked it enormously. It's an ideal fulfilled.”

He believes that from now on people should “continue to come, visit, donate and promote the cathedral, as much as they can, 10 lei, 3 lei, each as much as he can.”

“Sorry, but there are too many people”

On the boulevard, a woman with a little girl in her hand looks indecisively towards the queue. “We came to see the iconostasis, I heard that it belongs to the Book of Records, but the queue is huge, you can't even see the end of it. We can't stay for three to four hours, especially with my niece after me.”

He says that he came specifically to the National Cathedral, but he is going on a pilgrimage to Israel in a few days and he has no time to wait. “Sorry, but there are too many people.”

“Also they, the big ones, enter first and have a share of everything”

Further ahead, Irina, a 78-year-old pensioner, managed to get in after almost six hours of waiting: “I stayed from a quarter past 12 to 5, but I survived with God's help. It was very beautiful, amazing. We also have something to brag about.”

She was a worker for 31 years and says she has a small pension. He doesn't complain, but he looks realistically at the world, especially after yesterday's event, from the consecration, which he watched from the television: “All of them, the big ones, enter first and have a share of everything. That's the way the world is, that's how it's always been.”

“We put in some more money, but it was worth it”

A little further, Zamfira, 76, stands in line with a group of friends and her grown-up grandson. “We have come to pray for health, for peace in the world, for our children and grandchildren. May they be forgiven of their sins.”

He laughs when he says that “the wait is nothing, if God helps us to get in in two hours” and, jokingly, he introduces his nephew to me: “Take his number, maybe you can match. He's single. How old are you? He's 29. Stop renting, we'll make you Bucharest.”

About the cathedral, he then speaks with pride: “The Patriarchate did something good. We put in some more money, but it was worth it. It's the first in Europe, the biggest, that's what I heard.”

Towards evening, the queue did not shrink. The lights came on and the spiers began to shine over the still waiting people. Some prayed quietly, others took pictures with their phones or watched in silence.

According to the Romanian Patriarchate, through the Press Office, approximately 30,000 people visited the National Cathedral on Monday to pass through the altar open to the public.

The cathedral, open day and night until October 31

After the consecration of the painting, officiated on Sunday by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Patriarch Daniel, the National Cathedral is open to the public day and night until October 31 inclusive, so that all who wish can pass through the altar and admire the interior.

The Archdiocese of Bucharest has produced an interactive map updated in real time, which shows where the line of the faithful ends.

On Sunday, approximately 25,000 people attended the consecration service, according to the Romanian Patriarchate: 2,500 official guests entered inside, and 8,000 pilgrims organized from all dioceses in the country were in the courtyard.