There are places forgotten by the world, are like a temporal rift long last, where time does not know where to go, forward or backward.
One of the best examples of what the creative power of man means: in a true wilderness in Dobrogea, the Church from Colelia received the blessing of His Eminence Theodosius, Archbishop of Tomis on 21 November 2006. Together with a roup of priests and deacons, His Eminence celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church ruins near Colelia, located 1 km from the town of Ramnicul de Jos (Cogealac commune), to Gradina locality.
Between 1901-1934 the ethnic Germans have erected in the Colilia village, township Cogealac, Constanta county, one of the most beautiful churches in Dobrogea. After the departure of ethnic Germans at the end of the Second World War, the place of worship was taken over by the Romanian Orthodox Church and the German community was compensated.
Colilia village the Germans have founded it was a model of good management and organizational infrastructure. The Village Pride was, however, the imposing evangelical church, built in the classicist style, characteristic fro this Christian worship: a central nave with a single bell tower without ornaments, intricate moldings or sculptures.
The vilage and the church have survived the moment of 1940, when ethnic Germans came back in thei motherland, and the local community has monopolized the settlement. The village has lost in the immensity of the Dobrogea plain and largely depopulated has met his end during rural systematization from 1968-1969 when the old constructions were demolished, and the land restored to agriculture. Only the church was resisted to brutal destruction. Unkempt, forgotten, abandoned, the building has lost all holy garments: the wood has rotted, the roof was collapsed, everything that could be useful in households was stolen (doors, windows, pews, stone pavement).
Under comunism, between 1967-1968, by the so – called rural systematization, with Colilia the church was deserted. Since the summer of 2006 restoration work of the church in Colelia began.”Colilia” comes from Turkish, “kule”, which can mean tower or hill.
