Chisinau's main Orthodox cathedral, formally the Cathedral of Christ's Nativity, sits in the centre of the city's largest open space — a green park bordered by the parliament, the government house, and the Triumphal Arch. The white-painted, neoclassical building was designed in 1830s by the Italian-Russian architect Avraam Melnikov, and reads more like a Greek temple than a typical Orthodox church: a low dome on a square cross plan, flanked by Doric columns.
It is the working cathedral of the Moldovan Orthodox Church and busy during Sunday services and major feast days. The interior is plain by Russian Orthodox standards, with restored 19th-century frescoes and an iconostasis from the early 2000s. Free; modest dress preferred.