The foundations of the first church from Oltenița were set together with the foundation of the town, in the spring of the year 1853, as it has been affirmed also by Al. Mărculescu in a history of the town. On the foundation of this first church from the city of Oltenița, there was set the stepping stone of a new church in the summer of 1858, in a very warm day. On the place destined for the construction of the church, the people from the city of Oltenița have built-up a large tent, at whose shelter there was developed the ceremony. The principal character over whom all the attention was drawn was the caimacam of Wallachia (deputy of the ruler), Prince Alexandru Dimitrie Ghica. Then it has been decided the titular saint of the church to be Saint Hierarch Nicholas and Saint Alexander. In the year 1909, the congregation had 1383 families, namely 6093 souls. The church was supported by the commune and it had a barn.
In the church’s passage it is kept the marble cross on which there are transcribed the two transitions closed on the Oltenia trusteeship (in the year 1852) and by the ”magistrate of the new town” (on the 16th of February 1858) with the House of the Prince Alexandru Ghica, for the foundation of the town Oltenița. This monument represents the foundation document of the city. Also here it is situated the center of the town, or the ”Kilometer zero”, marked by a steel button, planted in the middle of the passing from the porch to the church’s narthex, geodesic point, which has a special symbolical value, because the church, according to the ancestor tradition is situated in the center of the community.
This cathedral has the shape of a cross, with the length of 31, 80 m, the width in the position of the narthex of 12, 20 m, in the position of the apses of 16 m, the height at the cornice of 8, 16 m, and at the grand dome of 25 m. The church has two domes, a small one in a square shape situated over the narthex, and the other one, polygonal at the exterior, has at the interior a circular shape, and it is supported on the arches of the arcs which are opened in large pendants. The altar has a polygonal shape at the interior, as well as at the exterior. The narthex has a rectangular shape, covered by a spherical calotte, supported on the four pendants on which it is painted the Holy Trinity. Also over the narthex it is situated the steel – lattice mast of large dimensions, having a balustrade executed in wood, beautifully adorned. In the nave, as well as in the narthex, there are hanged three candelabrums executed in bronze.
The entrance in the church yard is made under a majestic church tower, positioned on the street, which has a tower built up in a square shape, having at the base a rectangular shape separated in two by an arch where there are fixed the entrance gates. In the part from the north of the church we meet a mortuary chapel of large dimensions, which has a tower painted at the exterior of a rectangular shape, half supported on the chapel, and the other half on two piers at the entrance.
In the church’s yard, it is kept the tomb of the first mayor of the city of Oltenița: Matache Ioan or Tache the Magistrate.
