5 of the most beautiful wooden churches of Maramures, Romania

Lot of green around, many hills and a church made completely of wood. You could think you’re in Norway, but no! You’re much more south: Maramures is a poor, agricultural region of Northern Romania, stretched between the mountains and the Ukrainian border.

Among the most interesting features of  Maramures are the wooden churches. They were built centuries ago, when the ruling catholic Autro-Hungarian empire had forbidden the locals to build orthodox churches with more durable materials. Anyway, the use of wood proved to be successful in building long lasting and beautiful churches. And, more, churches are built on a hill in the centre of the village, so their size appears greater and impresses more the faithful and the tourist.

 Almost 100 churches have survived in the entire region, and eight of them are listed in the Wooden Churches of Maramureș UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here is a list of the 5 wI liked the best during my visit.

1. Barsana

The wooden church of Barsana was built in 1720 but was moved to its current location, on a nearby hill, almost one century later. The move was made because the villagers believed that the plague victims buried without a funeral on the new location of the church would only find their rest if the church was moved there.

In Barsana there is also a more recent, bigger and more touristic monastery. It was built in the last decade of 20th  century. It’s also worth a visit but don’t mix up the two things!

2. Botiza

The wooden monastery of Botiza isn’t old as the UNESCO listed wooden churches but is beautiful and stands in a spectacular location. It was built in 1991 and made of fir wood; the porch is decorated with the typical Maramures arches. It stands on a green hill, completely surrounded by a beautiful rural landscape.

3. Ieud

Ieud is a village of 4.000, yet it hosts three wooden churches! The Upper Church of Ieud is the oldest one, and is listed in the Wooden Churches of Maramureș UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Made of fir tree wood, historians don’t agree on the date of its construction. The most cautious suggest the 17th century, others date it as far back as 1364 and deem it to be the oldest in Maramures.

The painting in the pronaos depict the Last Judgement, where the blaze of the inferno is about to engulf the sinners. In the attic of the church, an important discovery was made: the Codex of Ieud, a document dating from 1391, which is generally considered to be the oldest example of written Romanian. 

4. Poienile Izei

The Church of the Holy Paraskeva, built in 1632, was super elevated during the first half of the 18th century. The altar was painted in 1735. It’s one of the most beautiful and well preserved wooden churches of the region, and one of the eight buildings that make up the Wooden Churches of Maramureș UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features a double canopy and a bell tower erected above the narthex, harboring a bell room with open gallery and arcades resting on pillars, all covered by a high-pitched pyramid-shaped roof.

5. Surdesti

Church of the Holy Archangels, one of the eight buildings that make up the Wooden Churches of Maramureș UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Acknowledged as the tallest historical monument wooden church in the country, due to its 54-meter-high bell tower, the church combines all the features of wooden churches from Mararnures at the height of their development especially in terms of style and decorations.

It was built in 1721 after the last massive invasion of Tartars that ravaged the country and  is made entirely of oak wood. No iron nails were used in its construction. 

In 1783, three painters, including Stefan Zugravu from Sisesti (iconostasis and altar), shared the task of decorating the inside of the church. The two-level portico with double, scalloped arches and its tall bell tower date back to the 19th century. The framing “windows” of the door between the narthex and the naos were added in 1932.

The 54 metres high bell tower is recognized as the tallest wooden structure in the country

A beautiful iconostasis inside, organized in a pyramidal structure, its icons featuring golden backgrounds and richly sculpted frames.

 

Did you like it?

Would you like to read all my upcoming travel stories?

Just click here and subscribe to my newsletter.

I will mail you only when I release a new article

Your information is 100% safe and never shared with anyone

 

Or, if the above link is broken, just copy and paste into your browser this URl: http://eepurl.com/beHmLf

 

The fascinating wonders of the European Spoon River

Nested among high peaks and green valleys in Northern Romania, near the Ukrainian border, lies the tiny village of Săpânța .

It’s an ordinary village, close to the river, with the main road passing through. Like every ordinary village, also Săpânța  has a cemetery.

But it’s not an ordinary one. Think of it as the European Spoon River.

In Săpânța the whole scene looks much different than an usual cemetery: under wooden crosses painted in a characteristic bright blue, the departed past life is engraved with a humorous epitaph, a brief but poetically sincere story of the villager lying below, pointing out especially on his/her character flaws or dirty secrets.

Underneath this heavy cross

Lies my mother in law poor

Had she lived three days more

I’d be here and she would read

You that are passing by

Try not to wake her up

For she comes back home

She’ll bite my head off

But I’ll act in the way

That she will not return

Stay here my dear

Mother-in-law.

This original graveyard sprung off just before the blasting of WWII, when a local carpenter, Stan Ioan Patras,  started building those colorful and humorous tombstones.

At the times, the funerals lasted three days. All the villagers would gather and tell stories about the deceased. From these stories Patras took inspiration for the epitaphs.

As I lived in this world,

I skinned many sheep

Good meat I prepared

So you can eat freely,

I offer you good fat meat

And to have a good appetite.

Ioan Toaderu loved horses, but, he

says from beyond the grave:

One more thing I loved very much,

To sit at a table in a bar

Next to someone else’s wife.

Slowly the fame of the merry cemetery transcended the boundaries of Maramures, the region it belongs to. Today the area belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Protected Sites.

Stan Ioan Patras continued to work on his creations for 40 years and more than 800 tombstones and limericks, until his death, in 1977.

He even wrote his own epitaph.

Since I was a little boy
I was known as Stan Ion Pătraş
Listen to me, fellows
There are no lies in what I am going to say

All along my life
I meant no harm to anyone
But did good as much as I could
To anyone who asked

Oh, my poor World
Because It was hard living in it

Like any other master or innovator, Mr. Patras had a disciple, Dimitru Pop who’s still continuing this tradition in painting and engraving tombstones for the deceased of the village.

This way, the graveyard has become the tale of its own inhabitants: there is probably more history among those tombstones than in many little regional museums.

That’s really the European Spoon River, the place where you have under your eyes – with poetry and tenderness – the life of a rural small town of Central Europe.

Here I rest. 
Stefan is my name.
As long as I lived, I liked to drink.
When my wife left me,
I drank because I was sad.
Then I drank more
to make me happy.
So, it wasn’t so bad
that my wife left me,
Because I got to drink
with my friends.
I drank a lot,
and now, I’m still thirsty.
So you who come
to my resting place,
Leave a little wine here.

But there is a great difference! The Spoon River Anthology is poetic fiction, the result of Edgar Lee Masters imagination, while the Merry Cemetery of Săpânța is absolutely real, and what you find there is poetry of real life.

 

Did you like it?

Would you like to read all my upcoming travel stories?

Just click here and subscribe to my newsletter.

I will mail you only when I release a new article

Your information is 100% safe and never shared with anyone

 Or, if the above link is broken, just copy and paste into your browser this URl: http://eepurl.com/beHmLf