The beautiful red brick Cretulescu Church is one of Bucharest's oldest. The Brancovean design blends Byzantine and Western architectural elements with indigenous forms. Fragments of the late-19th-century frescoes by great Romanian painter Gheorghe Tattarescu can still be seen inside.
The church was commissioned in 1722 by the boyar Iordache Cretulescu and his wife Safta, a daughter of prince Constantin Brancoveanu.