BUZESTI wooden church, near Farcasa, Maramures County, Romania

by Turist prin Romania

The wooden church general view and detail

The village was recorded in 1648. The wooden church has as its spiritual patrons the Holy Archangels. It was built in 1739 and displays the exceptional creative imagination of the unknown craftsmen in constructing the church, in the jointing technique used, and also in the decorations.

The construction is made of oak; it has a huge porch held up on pillars decorated with circular cuttings at its lower level and goblet-shaped decorations in the upper level. The pillars are connected to the corona by wolf-teeth joined braces. The front art of the corona is in high relief, carved in the middle with a row of rhombuses. The same decoration can be seen under the eaves, around the church.

The high roof overlapped over the apse, has a bell-tower with a half-spire the front. The

The wooden church detail

ceiling of the lower part of the spire is painted with an exceptional Wheel of Life. The parapet of the watchtower gallery is hidden by vertical boards, decorated at their base with two rows of upside-down triangles. They are bordered by a solid decorated railing.

The balcony has solid arcades with small openings, supported by short pillars, decorated at the bottom. They are surrounded by an exterior wooden frieze, without decorations.

The octagonal spire, with its square base, has four smaller towers at the corners, a watchtower, and a cross of wrought iron with four arms at the top.

The arcade of the entrance is shaped in pointed arches, while the frame and the main door are decorated in high relief with stylized floral motifs, ending in solar rosettes at the base.

Detail on the Iconostasis

The Holy Doors are decorated with elegant carvings of ornate grape vines displayed around large leaves. Eight medallions of the Annunciation (on to) and of the Evangelists (at the bottom) are placed) over these leaves.

The Iconostasis is painted directly on the wood of the screen. In the middle of the lower part we see Veronica’s raw silk headdress with Jesus face on it, held at its corners by Angels. Then, there is Jesus as a Priest, and in the upper part Jesus Crucified. Everything is painted according to the traditional iconography. Some fragments

Detail of painting on the frame of the Deacon’s doors

are still visible.

The painting on the wall is completely destroyed, except at the Altar, where the frames of

the Holy Doors still reserve the faces of Patriarchs Lavrentie and Malchizedek. Inside of the Iconostasis there is a vast composition, depicting Isaac’s Sacrifice.

Unfortunately, the Holy Doors and the Deacon’s doors are no longer preserved, but one can still admire an exceptional porch-cross. It is placed on the front wall on the Iconostasis and decorated with wonderful rosettes framed by coloured twisted ropes, at the ends and joints of its arms.

PHOTO GALLERY