A remarkable monument of medieval architecture, the Goleștilor Church was founded by Stroe Leordeanu, grand treasurer and his concubine Vișa, in 1646. The church has a rectangular plan, with a polygonal altar apse, similar to the plan used as a model of the Gherghița church, founded by Matei Basarab.
The spire with overlapping roofs that Paul of Aleppo, the secretary of Patriarch Macarie of Antioch, mentioned in his notes, collapsed following the earthquake of October 14 - 1802. The previous presence of the spire of the belfry over the pronaos and that of from across the nave is proven both by the traces of masonry in the bridge and by the existence of the access staircase in the northern wall.
The interior of the church is divided into: pronaos, naos and others, the naos being separated from the pronaos by a full wall, pierced by a door, a constructive element characteristic of previous centuries.
The external structure of the monument is individualized by the presence of the four buttresses, the median girdle formed of toothed bricks encircles the church, dividing the church and the facades into two registers: upper - marked by blind, semicircular grooves, punctuated with ceramic discs, rosettes and curved lines -
and the lower register segmented into rectangular panels decorated with a painting imitating the apparent bricks.
An impressive range of decorative motifs is the indisputable proof of the art of Romanian carvers from the 17th century, the master stonemason Stoica, whose name is chiseled under the cornice, on the north-western buttress of the church and on the altar window, inlaid on the door frames and the windows braids finished in a cross, braces, stylized flowers, etc.
Of great artistic refinement, the carved and polychrome yew wood iconostasis impresses with the large decorative register in which vegetative elements predominate and with the royal icons, true masterpieces of church painting.
Founded by Golești, the church was to witness an event with wide resonance in the spiritual life of the third decade of the 19th century. In the Dinicu Golescu altar, I.H. Rădulescu and Stanciu Căpățâneanu swear to achieve the objectives of the Literary Society: the establishment of schools in the Romanian language, the printing of books and the opening of a Romanian national theater.
In the pronaos, among others, the great scholars Lordach and Dinicu Golescu are buried, with their wives, as well as three of the four Golești brothers: Ştefan, Nicolae, Radu. The restoration work undertaken by the state consisted of the covering with fir boards (1947-1979) and the construction of the enclosure wall (1944)
Text taken from the history of the church displayed at the entrance
