200 Lei 130 years since the adoption of the first law on building a National Cathedral

Romania's National Cathedral project has one of the longest and most politically fraught histories of any religious building in modern Europe. The original legislation authorizing its construction passed in 1884, during the reign of Carol I, yet ground was not broken on the current Bucharest site until 2010 — a gap of 126 years filled with competing designs, communist-era shelving, and post-1989 parliamentary arguments over location and funding.

The 1884 law itself was passed just three years after Romania's formal recognition as an independent kingdom following the 1878 Treaty of Berlin.