DESESTI wooden church, Maramures County, Romania

by Turist prin Romania

Desesti wooden church, general view

The first documents that mention the village as belonging to GiuIa’s son, Dragos, date from 1360.

The wooden church has as its patron Saint Paraschiva, a patron Saint very frequently found in Moldavia, was built on the place of the old one around 1717 or 1770. The church was painted in 1780 by Radu Munteanu and Alexandru Ponehalschi. In 1865 Antonie Serban repainted it, the church having been restored.

The structure is all aligned and consists of Pronaos, nave and a disconnected Sanctuary with five sides. The access to the Sanctuary is through a door on the west side. The frame of the door is rectangular, made of thick beams carved with geometrical and vegetable motifs, framed by the “twisted rope”.

The framework rests, at its corners, on brackets cut in five steps, the top one being

Desesti wooden church, detail

doubled. This bracket continues with a decoration that surrounds the church from one end to the other.

The bell-tower has an extended watchtower supported by brackets fastened in four side pillars. Their arcades imitate the ones found at the bottom of the porch. The parapet in the watchtower is covered by clapboard bordered by a railing decorated with ‘twisted ropes’.

The iconography is specific to all wooden churches built in Maramures. The scenes are framed in brightly colored friezes decorated with vegetable motifs. The picture scenes from The Old and The New Testament, ”The Passion”, ”The Patriarchs’ Tree”, ” Doomsday”, ”The Parable of the Virgins” and so on.

Desesti wooden church, detail

The Iconostasis has three levels separated by a white frieze inscribed with Slavonic texts, and a floral frieze painted by Al. Ponehalschi, who also painted the principal Icons.

The church from Desesti was subject to extensive restorations in 1996, when the beams were changed, the framework was readapted, the spire was given its original shape. There was also an attempt to restore the front paintings, the first one in Maramures.

The Holy Doors are special because of their use of vine leaves and grapes and the medallions painted in heart-shaped frames, which portray the Four Evangelists and The Annunciation.

This ancient monument is a treasure because of the balance and harmony of the structure and its beautiful joints and detailed decorations.

PHOTO GALLERY

COSTENI wooden church, near Cupseni, Maramures County, Romania

by Turist prin Romania

The wooden church, general view

The village was first recorded in 1603. The wooden church whose patron saint is Saint Nicholas was built in 1870 belongs to the group of church buildings that are distinguished by their particular proportions. The simple roof covers the apse and has a very high bell-tower surrounded by four little towers that prove that the village is an important one.

The watchtower has a fret-sawn parapet decorated with two rows of hearts. It rests on supporting pillars that are joined by four side arcades. The pattern imitates the one on the porch. Above the watchtower there is an eight-sided spire.

The brackets are carved in round shapes; they are joined with the beams only in one point. The same pattern can be found on the arcades of the porch that are supported by four pillars with hollowed edges. They are united in a massive corona joined by half-arches to the pillars. There is also a linking wedge in the shape of a goblet (a common artistic symbol used by the wooden church builders of the region).

The frame of the entrance door is in the shape of a triple arch decorated with little squares

The wooden church, detail

equally distributed that enclose the top of the arch.

Imperial figures can be identified in the pronaos painted in colonnades in a naive style. They stand out because of the Romanian folk costumes they wear.

The spaces on the side walls are divided by wide friezes painted with folk motifs borrowed, from popular embroidery. There are also narrower ones in the shape of repetitive crosses and floral garlands on a blue background strewn by stars. The icons inspired by the traditional culture are painted directly on this background. The portraits of the saints or the biblical scenes are painted in dense colors without following any recognized pattern, the painter being evidently less talented.

The Holy Doors are distinguished by the shapes of the floral vines entwined at the bottom with bunches of grapes. The doors have four medallions instead of the six found on the Holy Doors of other churches in the region.

This wooden church was built by the craftsmen Petrut loan and Petrut Grigore from Magoaja for 800 guilders. Tura loan paid 700 guilders. The rest of the money came from the local Orthodox community.

PHOTO GALLERY

CARPINIS, near Copalnic Manastur, Maramures County, Romania

Posted on 18/02/2014by Turist prin Romania

The wooden church, general view

The village was first recorded in 1405. The wooden church, named “The Dormition of Our Lord’s Mother”, was built initially in the old centre of this village. Later on, probably around the year 1812, it was removed to the present site, called Dumbrava. Then its porch was enlarged and the entrance was moved from the southern side to the present site in the porch. The apse sides were also enlarged.

The porch is held up by four solid oak pillars, which are connected to the corona through saw-teeth braces, having at their centre a decoration of raised discs. The joining corona is decorated with a twisted rope in high relief, accompanied in the upper part by a row of wolf-teeth and by four other rows in their lower part.

The parapet of the porch is topped by a solid wooden railing, decorated at its outer edge by a twisted rope design.

The structure is not traditional as the apse is not separate, but the whole assembly

Holy doors

impresses through its uniform character. The roof is traditionally extended, with a slender bell-tower, which has a half-spire. Seen from its front, the church resembles a huge tower with an overlapping steeple or spire.

The bell-tower is covered with shingle up to the watchtower, and has a parapet hidden by horizontal boards. These boards are carved with two rows of fret-sawn triangles pointing towards the base. The balcony has arcades on both sides joined like the ones in the porch. The octagonal spire, with a large square base, is covered with shingles, in two rows, and it has a simple cross. This is a sign that the church was built through the financial effort of the faithful in the local community.

The Iconostasis is organized in the form of the pyramid, around a symbolical axis. It includes rectangular and circular surfaces separated by colonnades, with arches decorated by cross-shaped petals of flowers, forming

The Iconostasis

crosses. Above them they are decorated with tongues of fire, symbolizing languages (speaking in tongues) spoken by the Apostles after Jesus’ Ascension. The first row has at its centre a beautiful icon of Veronica’s raw silk scarf, which has Jesus Christ’s face on it. This is carried by two angels, and it is framed in a medallion surrounded by flames. The second tier has at its centre ”The Last Supper” and the Apostles, originally arranged in a circle. The third register, according to tradition, is painted with Jesus as Priest in glory. The last row, the upper part, presents

Principal icon

Jesus on the cross set in an oval frame surrounded by the Prophets.

The Holy doors are decorated with carved grape vines displayed in spirals. They frame

eight medallions symmetrically placed, in pairs, with the Annunciation in the upper pair, the Evangelists in the centre and two Angels in the lower air.

The Principal Icons are special and old; they reveal faces painted in Eastern Byzantine style with an aura of light or halo on a golden background. The background is decorated with miniatures inspired from bible stories and legends.

PHOTO GALLERY