Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 30 - Hărnicești, Romania

This Orthodox church stands on a small forest-covered hill in the village of Hărnicești in the Maramures region of northwestern Romania. It was built in 1770 on the site of an older monastery, and was dedicated to the Birth of the Virgin Mary. It is close to several other wooden churches in the Mara valley such as the one in the neighbouring village of Desești.

The church has a very irregular design when compared to other nearby churches in the region, and this is the result of a series of restorations and additions which have occurred through the centuries. In the original design the tower of the church was considerably taller than it is today and the length of the nave was several metres shorter. The first major changes were made in 1893 when a newly enlarged narthex (entrance room) was added on to the end of the nave, and when the old interior wall between the nave and the original narthex was removed the nave was also enlarged in size.

In 1911 a porch was added on the southern side of the nave with an extension made to the roof line with wooden pillars added to support the weight. The original decorated entrance portal on the western side was moved to the southern side to form part of the new entrance area. In 1942 the original iconostasis was replaced with a larger modern one, and in 1972 the tower was moved from its position above the end of the nave to a new position above the extended narthex.

The interior contains several valuable icons, the finest of which are 'Ascension to Heaven', 'The Annunciation' and 'Entry into Jerusalem'. These icons have been displayed internationally as part of touring exhibitions of Romanian folk art. The rest of the interior is not particularly memorable, so the local villagers have compensated for this by decorating the church both inside and out with white scarves and colourful flower arrangements attached to the eaves.

The addition of the bright scarves and wildflowers adds much to the overall impression given by the church, since these decorations are not seen in such abundance on other churches in the region. Around the exterior walls of the church below the eaves are the framed pictures of the Stations of the Cross which are used by worshippers during religious services. On the southern exterior wall of the nave there is a 'clapper', a wooden board which is struck to create a high-pitched sound which traditionally would have called the villagers to masses. A decorative wooden cross with a shingled roof covering it can be seen beside the pathway on the way up to the church from the entrance gate by the road.

The village of Hărnicești is directly on the main road between Sighetu Marmației and Baia Mare, so a number of buses pass through daily. Sighet is a good place to use as a base for exploring the region of Maramures and it has good onward transport connections by train and bus to other parts of the country. There is also a border crossing to Ukraine just north of the city if you would like to see some of the wooden churches in the neighbouring Zakarpattya region.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 28 - Sat Șugatag, Romania

This beautiful church stands in the centre of the village of Sat Șugatag, located in the Mara river valley in Romania's north-eastern Maramures region. Nearly every village in this part of Maramures has a historic church, but the one in Sat Șugatag is among the most impressive structures to have been built by the skilled Maramures craftsmen. The date of the construction of the church is thought to be 1642, and it is dedicated to Saint Parasceva.

The interior contains fragments of the original mural paintings from 1753, but most of the painted decorations are more recent. The narthex (entrance area) has a higher ceiling than is typically seen in Maramures churches, and on its western side there is an impressive image of the Last Judgement. The well-proportioned nave is shaped like a barrel vault and is decorated with 19th century paintings. The sanctuary also has biblical scenes which are painted directly onto the wooden walls.

The frame for the front door is lavishly decorated with braided rope designs and a series of interlocking triangles, which is a common folk design in the Maramures region. Braided ropes start on both sides of the door and continue right around the full length of the church, about one and a half metres above the ground (see the fifth picture from the top).

The double set of eaves and the huge mass of wooden shingles on the roof surface draw the viewer's eye to the end of the roof lines, where there are two small metal crosses affixed. The height of the tower and the steeple is considerably less than that of some other churches in the region, but the overall proportions of the building create a pleasantly balanced effect. Around the exterior walls under the lower set of eaves there are a series of framed pictures attached which are used as the Stations of the Cross during religious services (see the picture below).

A cemetery surrounds the church on three sides, with grave markers from many different eras and in a variety of styles. Most are made of carved wood (see below) and some are shaped like crosses while others are closer in appearance to those in the famous Merry Cemetery in Sapanta with a painted picture of the person going about their daily activities and a short poem describing them.

A typical wooden Maramures entrance gate stands in front of the church, with two side doorways for visitors. The designs carved into the beams of the gate include crosses and other traditional Romanian folk patterns. Such monumental gates are also built in front of people's homes in the region, and the larger and more impressive the gate the greater the status of the family who lives there.

Visiting Sat Șugatag and other Maramures villages with wooden churches can be difficult without your own transport, so hiring a car in Cluj-Napoca or Sighetu Marmetiei is advisable if you want to visit several of them quickly. Sat Șugatag is on the main road between Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmetiei, so there are a few buses per day which pass through in each direction. Sighetu Marmatiei is connected by train with Cluj-Napoca and the rest of the country and also makes a good base for exploring the region of Maramures. It is also a border crossing point into Ukraine, where many more wooden churches can be seen in the villages of the Zakarpattya region.

Surprising Signs # 7 - Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania

Travelling in rural parts of Romania can at times feel like you've suddenly warped back to the 19th century, and nowhere is that experience more awe-inducing than in the northern region of Maramures. Horses and homemade wooden carts remain a major form of local transport, not just in village laneways but also on major paved roads where they share the crowded lanes with passing Dacias and other horseless carriages of the modern steel variety. Driving on such roads requires added vigilance and a sense of adventure - you may need to brake regularly not only for horse carts but also for random herds of sheep or goats blocking both lanes.

This sign in the outskirts of the city of Sighetu Marmatiei indicates that horse-drawn carts are not permitted beyond this point, since the city streets are too narrow to allow cars to get safely past them. These signs are common in many towns and cities in Romania where it needs to be made clear that modern vehicle transport must take precedence and that there is to be no horsing around. :)

Folk Culture Destinations # 1 - Ieud, Romania

This small village is located in the centre of Maramures in northern Romania, a region renowned for its well-preserved folk culture, architecture and way of life. Much of Maramures could be considered a giant folk culture museum, a place where many rural villages seem barely touched by the 20th century. Many villagers live in traditional wooden houses without toilets or running water, and even electricity is a fairly recent addition. Locals rise early in the morning and go out to work in the fields by hand, and transporting goods or travelling to visit neighbours is done by horse and cart.

Cars can be seen on all the roads in Maramures, but in the most remote villages where the roads are rough the most common means of transport is by horse-drawn wagon. Ieud has a small outdoor museum of folk culture which was opened a few years ago to encourage tourists to visit. Locals dressed in traditional costumes can demonstrate how to use farming equipment, looms and spinning wheels. No English is spoken by the guides, but this is merely part of the experience as smiles, gestures and a few basic words in Romanian are enough to be able to communicate about the exhibits.

It is quite difficult to visit Ieud without your own transport as there are no train links and no regular local buses. Hiring a car in the city of Sighetu Marmetiei is a good option, or it is also possible to hitch-hike. If hitching, be prepared to pay the driver a few Lei for the ride.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains #5 - Desesti, Romania

The UNESCO-listed wooden church in Desesti is one of the best preserved in the Maramures region of north-west Romania. Known as the church of Pious Parascheva, it was constructed in 1770. The influence of the gothic style is clear in its design, and this was typical of the churches built in the region following the destruction caused by the Tatar invasions of 1717.

The interior contains an excellent collection of icons painted on glass as well as wood. The exterior of the church features a large cross shape formed in the shingles above the front entrance. The church is surrounded by a small colourful cemetery featuring wooden and stone grave markers and sits on a low forested hill above the village.

A highly decorative gate with wooden towers attached can be found below the church at the foot of the hill. A sign on the front of the church informs visitors that the church was struck by lightning in 1924 and that the tower of the church burned down and had to be rebuilt. It seems remarkable that a building made of wood with such an incredibly tall tower wasn't a more frequent target of lightning in the days before lightning conductors came into common use. I was unable to find any local person about who could locate the key to open the church, so this was one of the few Maramures churches I was unable to see the interior of. The village of Desesti has many of the typical Maramures-style wooden gates lining the streets in front of people's houses, and horse carts are a common sight in the roads and laneways.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains #3 - Plopis, Romania

This Romanian Orthodox church is found in Plopis, a village in the Cavnic river valley in the Maramures region of Romania. A superb example of vernacular wooden architecture, the church sits on a small hill above the rest of the village. It was constructed in 1796 by local village builders and consecrated as the Church of the Archangels. The interior wall murals were painted in 1811 by the local artist Stefan of Sisesti.

The murals include an evocative image of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, with the snake coiled around a tree. The layout of the church is rectangular, with a pentagonal chancel apse. There is a porch in front of the main door featuring six pillars supporting the beams that carry the weight of the roof.

The tall pyramid-shaped steeple on the tower is surrounded by four smaller pinnacles in each corner. These pinnacles indicate that the church once served as an official court of law for the surrounding region. The three-lobed ceiling vault of the nave is considered to be a unique feature among the Maramures wooden churches. The structure has been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, one of eight wooden churches in Maramures region to receive this honour.

Quirky and Unusual Sights #1 - Pot Trees in Maramures Region, Romania

Many villages in the Maramures region of Romania maintain a peculiar tradition involving placing cooking pots on the branches of a tree in front of their houses. This is done in order to dry them after washing, but placing a large number of pots on the tree was also intended to display the wealth and importance of the family who lived there.

I heard from a local in the region that there is a further element to this tradition; placing a red pot on the top of the tree signifies to any passing would-be suitors that a woman of marriageable age lives in the house. Nowadays the decoration of pot trees has taken on the additional function of aiding the local economy - they help attract tourists to come and stay in the village.

Top 10 places to visit in Romania

1. The Painted Monasteries of Bucovina - Moldovita, Voronet, Humor and Sucevita are the four main monasteries, which rank among some of Europe's greatest cultural monuments. Each is painted with bright frescoes not only on the interior walls, but on the exterior walls as well. The remarkable state of preservation of these outdoor frescoes after 500 years of snow and rain is what makes them memorable - the red tones of Humor, the Blue of Voronet, the yellow of Moldovita and the green of Sucevita make each of them rather like a giant biblical colouring book. The frescoes were painted at a time when christian armies gathered to fight the invading Ottoman Turks, and these armies would stay sheltered inside the protective walls of these monasteries. To keep the bored soldiers entertained, and to keep their religious passions running high, biblical scenes and scenes from the lives of saints were painted on the outside of the churches, where they could be more easily viewed by the soldiers. Many frescoes show saints being beheaded by Turks, and one memorable panel at Moldovita shows the siege of Constantinople by the Turkish armies. The Last Judgement wall at Voronet is generally considered to be the finest of the frescoes, although in my opinion the most spectacular is the wall at Sucevita depicting the ladder to be climbed to heaven with the aid of the angels flying above and over the temptations of the many devils that lie below. The monasteries of Dragomirna and Putna are less visually impressive than the 'big four' monasteries, but are also worth visiting.

2. Sighisoara - the grandest small town in Transylvania, with the added incentive of being the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (Dracula). A hilltop medieval citadel sits at the heart of things, packed with atmospheric laneways beyond a highly impressive stone gate tower that evokes thoughts of wooden stakes and bats flying out on a moonlit night.

3. The traditional villages and wooden churches of Maramures region - simply like going back in time, this region feels a world apart even from the rest of Romania. Horses and carts are a major form of transport, and traditional costumes are still worn by many, not only the elderly. Cultural heritage isn't practised for the tourists, it is represented in daily life; villagers go out to work in the fields by hand, and continue to live much as their ancestors did, often without any modern conveniences. The region has several dominant architectural features, the first being large, decorative wooden gates in front of people's houses, meant to reflect the family's wealth and stature to those passing on the road. The second is the abundance of beautiful wooden churches with tall, shingled steeples, some dating back six hundred years.

4. The fortified Saxon churches of Transylvania - Biertan is the finest of these, with a brooding church and towers perched on the hill in the centre of the village. Viscri is also recommended; both are pretty much impossible to reach without a car - hiring a driver for the day in Sighisoara is a good option.

5. Sibiu - The most vibrant medieval old town centre in the country, and with the most highly developed cultural scene outside the capital. Much of the historic centre was given a face-lift for the year the city held the title of European City of Culture in 2007, and much of that event's dynamic energy remains. The city feels much more like central Europe than any other Romanian city.

6. The Danube Delta - a corner of the country unlike any other, with endless opportunities for wildlife watching while zipping about between villages by boat. The highlight is to visit the end of the Delta and the small town of Sulina.

7. Brasov - The most popular destination in Transylvania, and a base for visits to Bran and Rasnov castles, Peles palace in Sinaia, and the fortified churches of Prejmer and Harman. The city has a pleasingly unrestored medieval quarter, surrounded by steep forested hills to either side. The huge 'Brasov' sign on the hillside above is intended to evoke Hollywood, but they stole the idea from the Romanian city of Deva, who came up with the idea first.

8. The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta - so much more than just a cemetery, this is a place of beauty, representing a love of life through its sense of grace and gentle humour. Each of the graves is indicated with a brightly-painted blue wooden marker, each with a carved and painted picture depicting the occupation the person had, or in some cases, how they met their end - several show car crashes, and one portrays a man drinking and smoking while being pulled downwards by a demon. Other notable markers to look for include one showing a church construction worker being struck by lightning, and the grave of the original maker of many of the markers, Stan Ioan Pătraş. Each marker also has a poem below the person's picture, usually telling something about that person's life and often making a light-hearted joke about them.


9. Bucharest - worth visiting to see the massive Palace of the Parliament, which can be viewed on a jaw-dropping guided tour of the interior. Another important stop is Revolution square, the site of the mass protests that resulted in the toppling of Ceauşescu. It's also intriguing to go church-spotting in the back lanes tucked out of sight behind all the grand communist edifices lining the main boulevards.

10. Hunedoara - Contains the country's most spectacular castle, cast against a backdrop of ugly abandoned factories and steel mills. This is the perfect place to get a feel for what life must have felt like under Ceauşescu, and to gain an understanding for how that wound is slowly being healed. The castle was left to decay during socialism, as the castle's long Hungarian history didn't sit well with Ceauşescu. Now it is his factories that are slowly collapsing into rubble, and the castle is gradually being repaired and restored to its former glory.