10 Lei Stavropoleos Monastery Church

The Stavropoleos Church in Bucharest was founded in 1724 by a Greek monk from Épirus, Ioanichie Stratonikeas, who secured Ottoman-era privileges to build what became one of the finest surviving examples of Brâncovenesque architecture in the city. It narrowly escaped demolition during the 19th-century urban expansion under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, surviving largely because the architect Ioan Mincu campaigned for its preservation and oversaw extensive restoration work in the 1900s. The attached monastery functioned for a period as a women's prison before that chapter was quietly closed.

The National Bank of Romania has issued commemorative silver pieces honoring Romanian ecclesiastical architecture since the 1990s, with the Stavropoleos entry joining a long series of church-themed one-ounce issues.