Scaffolding is out

The interior is from today clear; the scaffolding has been removed, after the completion of the plastering.

The floor in the Sanctuary area as well as in the Soleas has been concreted and completed.

Now the scaffolding is not there anymore, the next stage will be the fixing of the under-floor heating as well as of the marble floor.

Inside / Outside

I visited our new Church a few times today. It was really very busy everywhere.

In the front some workers where fixing the arches on the Facade.

On the top of the roof a roofer was fixing a part of the roof in order to put there the red tiles.

At the back of the Sanctuary a copper engineer was fixing his materials on the small semi dome.

Moving inside I spoke with the plasterers, who said that in two days I shall “see the back of them”!

Because of the fact that plastering has almost been completed other workers were dismantling the scaffolding.

It was really quite emotional to see how it looks now in there. The Dome appears in its splendour and the whole of the interior in front of us, in white colour, symbolising purity. A really fantastic sight.

White Sanctuary views

The Sanctuary has been fully plastered and painted and it looks all clean and white.

The scaffolding has now been removed from the Sanctuary area.

Vasile, one of our Romanian Orthodox workers, asked me to take him a picture in front of the main Sanctuary apse.

He is obviously very proud for the work he has done there and for the fact that he works to build an Orthodox Church.

Orthodox and non Orthodox workers and engineers have been offering their full dedication and applying their excellent professional expertise, in order to complete this magnificent place of worship and we are all very grateful to all of them.

Plastering and wood-work

We are almost there with plastering, which is progressing very well.

In the first picture we see the entrance of the Church, already done.

This part of the Church is called “narthex” and it is the western part of the place of worship, symbolising the “years before Christ - the years of darkness”.

Some wood-work is also being done today around the staircase of the Bell Tower.

On the top of the scaffolding

Climbing up is always an interesting experience.

Climbing on the scaffolding that is in the interior of our newly built Church gives you the chance of getting up on the heavens (the Dome symbolizes the heavens in our Holy Tradition).

The plastering has progressed greatly on the higher parts of the interior.

Around the ring of the Dome a decorative element of plaster is now fixed.

The windows all around the Dome have now been fixed.

In the interior

We are visiting today with our video-camera the interior of our new Church.

It is still full of scaffolding as the plastering hasn’t been completed as yet.

In and out the Bell Tower

The focus is on the Bell Tower today.

Plastering is carried on inside the structure.

Fixing of brick arches takes place on the outside of the Bell Tower.

Men Working!

I was very joyful to see at the entrance of our building site today the panel with the details about our building programme showing “10” more weeks to go up to the completion of the works.

It was a great feeling to realise that we come close to the finishing point of our great project, of our grand dream.

Then, as I was looking at the building site, just outside of the new Church, I’ve noticed the truck of the scaffolding company which had the emphatic inscription at its rear “MEN WORKING”, with one exclamation mark on each side of the inscription.

It is more than certain that the building industry is still a very manly world.

Many modern women may not like this, but the work being very demanding and hard obviously needs very strong human beings to work in it.

Bricklaying, plastering and roof works are still in progress, all being in the final stages.

Full of scaffolding

The interior of our new Church is full with scaffolding again.

The reason is that the plastering is in progress.

The recent rainy weather was not very helpful in this process, as the Church became very wet.

The sunshine today was a great gift from the heavens and we hope that the work will continue as normal.

Plastering started

The actual plastering has started in the interior of our Church. The first element one may notice is the scaffolding:

Then the tools for the work:

Then the material and their preparation:

All these go up on the walls by the good efforts of our specialist people:

Scaffolding ready...

A part of the Nave as well as the biggest area of the Gallery have been covered by scaffolding.

This scaffolding will facilitate the plastering of both the walls as well as the ceiling, which is going to start soon.

The traditional wall paintings - icons will actually be placed on the top of the plastering.