"Nativity of the Virgin Mary" wooden church from Ieud Deal, UNESCO.  

The wooden Church of the Nativity in Ieud din Deal dates back to the early 17th century, when it was built by the Bala family, part of the local nobility. In addition to its early dating, the church is also notable for the discovery in 1921 of the Ieud Codex in its attic, a document that some historians believe is the oldest text written in Romanian in Cyrillic letters. Since 1999, the church has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"Saint Nicholas" wooden church from Budești Josani, UNESCO.

The wooden church dedicated to “Saint Nicholas” in Budesti Josani, built in 1643, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999. With a length of 18 metres, a width of 8 metres and a height of 26 metres, the building is the largest wooden church in historic Maramures. Inside the church, there are a number of paintings and icons attributed to Alexandru Ponehalski, as well as some references to the outlaw, Pintea the Brave.

Wooden church of the "Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel", UNESCO, Şurdești.

Built in 1721 by the Greek Catholic community of the village and supervised by master craftsman Iona Makari from mountain oak wood, the church is impressive in keeping with wooden structures of the time, with a total height of 72 metres. The main tower is surrounded by four smaller towers, making this wooden church with its 54 metres the tallest in the world of the period. Combining all the elements of architecture, support, and decoration in the most developed form of the time, this church is the main reference point for wooden churches, achieving constructive and aesthetic perfection in its implementation. Since 1999, the church has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and in the new list of historical monuments.

"Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel" wooden church from Rogoz, UNESCO

The wooden church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Rogoz, Maramures county, is one of the most interesting and valuable in Transylvania. Rogoz is located 6 km from Tirgu Lepus.

The church is on the list of historical monuments from 2004, code MM-II-m-A-04618. This historical monument is also included in the World Heritage List under the code 904.

The church is constructed of massive elm beams closed at right angles and in some places reinforced with thick wooden plugs. The church has a less common type of plan: a polygonal narthex facing south, a rectangular nave and an apse of a retreat altar, polygonal, with seven sides (instead of the usual five).

The church is entered through a richly decorated door on the south wall.

Inside, the main beam of the nave vault and the consoles are decorated with a rope motif. The exterior of the church is richly decorated: the southern façade has a profiled rope motif in the middle, the entrance door to the church has a bracketed opening and a frame decorated with a simple profile, double rope and rosettes, and to the left of the door is a cross decorated with the same motifs. The cornice is supported by consoles with a cap, and the beams under the cornice have notched edges. The roof is asymmetrical (about 1.20 m from the axis) to protect the “mass of mansions” along the northern façade. The bell tower rises above the narthex, square, with an open bell tower, in a cantilever, with pillars and arches, and a high pyramidal roof with corner turrets. The tower with a truncated cone is made with great skill, and the conical helmet is divided into three steps.

The painting also contributes to the special value of this monument. The interior painting dates back to 1785, the grandstand was added in the 19th century, and the existing painting was completed in 1834. The original painting is well preserved in the altar, narthex, and with some imperfections in the nave.

The exterior decoration of the church gives the monument a special beauty due to its richness and complexity, while the interior decoration of the church is complex.

The village of Rogoz was first documented in 1488 (Rogoz), when it belonged to the fortress of Ciceului in the Someș valley (Bistriţa Năsăud county) belonging to Stefan cel Mare and other rulers of Moldavia. 

The church is located in the “Lapus Country”, in the valley of the Lapus River, and was built after the Tatar invasion in 1661, as evidenced by the inscription at the entrance: “since they were enslaved by fire”. The tradition of the construction of the church in 1663 by the village community on the site of the old church was, of course, preserved by the inscription at the entrance, which is undated but easily corrected over time. Structural features date back to the same period.

In 1785, it was painted by the artists Radu Munteanu and Nicolae Mane; as the following inscription on the altar states: “From the village of Mane, priest Todor and Vlăşin priest Ioan, and paid this servant of God, the man Gregory and his wife Ioana”. The inscription in the nave reads: “In June 1785, in 10 days, this holy church was painted and completed in 11 days in September.” The Tatar invasion of 1717 is also mentioned in the nave, and the artists’ signatures appear: “Veleat of the Tatars of 1717. Painted by Munteanu Radu from Ungureni and Man Niculai from Poiana Porkului”.

In 1834, a tribune was built on the western side of the nave, the parapet of which was repainted the same year, according to an inscription on its edge: “This bridge was painted in the year of Xs. 1834, son of Bod(ea) Hrihorii”. At the same time, the windows of the nave were modified and the ceiling of the narthex and the vault of the nave were repainted.

"Saint Parascheva" wooden church from Deseşti, UNESCO

Most experts date the wooden church of “Holy Pious Paraskeva” from Desesti to 1770, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999. Post-Byzantine paintings from the 18th century, typical of Maramures, still cover the walls of three rooms and are associated with the names of two great artists from the county, Radu Munteanu and Alexandru Ponehalsa.

The wooden church from Deseşti underwent extensive restoration work in 1996-1998, focusing on the general architecture and wall paintings, and in 1999 it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The church dates back to the mid-XVIII century (1770, by Titus Bud and Joby Patterson; 1780, by Alex Babosh). Initially, it belonged to the Greek Catholic cult, so later the Orthodox took over the place of worship.

According to experts, the church from Desesti was built ten years before the interior painting (parietal and iconostasis) was completed, is perfectly preserved, and is an example of 18th-century Maramurean post-Byzantine wall painting.

The painters of the church (educated by nobles from Maramures) were Radu Munteanu and Gheorghe, together with Alexandru Ponehalschi (originally a Polish artist, whose first work, recorded in 1751, was an icon of the Mother of God with the Child from the Barsana Monastery).

The iconostasis of the church from Deszest consists of three superimposed registers, with four royal (mobile) icons in the lower part. The scenes are: The Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection were painted on the upper temple. In the second register, God the Father is in the centre, and the prophets appear on the flanks. The scene of Deisis appears in the middle of the third register, with the apostles on either side of him.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Desesti Church has fourteen icons painted in tempera on wooden supports. The icon depicting Jesus Pantocrator was painted in the seventeenth century, and the rest date from the same century, XVIII. The Virgin and Child and Jesus were painted in 1752, according to the inscription on the first icon, and were probably part of the iconostasis of the old church.

Alexandru Ponehalschi painted icons depicting Jesus Pantocrator (15 May 1778) and the Virgin and Child in 1778.

It is believed that Radu Munteanu (originally from Ungureni, Lepugului Country) painted four icons here: The Ascension of Jesus, the Baptism of the Lord, the Transfiguration of the Lord, and St Paraskeva. The patron saint of the church is the icon of St Paraskeva (late 18th century).

The dome of the nave symbolises heaven. On the vault of the church were painted the Praying Virgin Mary, Jesus the Teacher, and four archangels – large images from the Old Testament. The Passion cycle includes sixteen scenes attributed to Radu Munteanu, and the faces of martyrs (military saints, hermits, and confessors) on the lower part of the walls attract attention.

In the narthex (a place of access and prayer reserved for women), one can see scenes from the Last Judgement – hell (three walls were allocated to it). The church from Desesti was represented in the paintings “Lenea”, “Death, Plague and Famine”. The upper part of the southern wall is dominated by the image of Moses leading the pagans to the judgement of Jesus. In the narthex, above the entrance, diametrically opposite to Jesus the Judge, the Virgin Mary appears in the form of a prayer.

   The wooden church from Desesti belongs to the category of large wooden churches, both in terms of the number of rooms and the system of vaults in the interior. The wood of the church was cut down in the town called Valea Caselor, not far from the church (Al. Baboș, Tracing…, p. 149).

Some documents stored in the DJC Maramureş archive state that it is made of elm wood (Traian Ursu, Brief History, 70s-80s), while others mention only “hard wood” (Monument Card, 1962, Al. Cumpănaşu).

In the latest restoration project, architect Niels Auner describes the church’s building system as follows:

A. Oak soles 20×25 cm.

Б. Closing and partition walls made of carved oak timber supported by a block system, with dovetail joints in the corners and intersections.

C. The vault above the nave is semi-cylindrical, made of spruce beams, supported by edge drumming.

D. The bell tower in the form of a rectangular prism is made of a system of pillars, fixed at the bottom on 2 pairs of crossed scaffolding resting on the walls of the narthex, and at the top on 2 pairs of contour beams, on which it rests on the tower arbour, above which the helmet is fixed, respectively, the rafters of the frame.

F. The frame of the church building is made of carved spruce trusses composed of rafters supported along the perimeter by baskets fastened with pliers (staples), which provide good rigidity of the system. The volume of the church is characterised by the presence of a double ceiling, typical of large churches in the Maramures region.

Dimensions: Ac: built-up area 91.43 m².

They have: usable area 78.47 m².

h: External ridge height 10.00 m.

H: Tower height 18.85 m.

The church’s painting, like other churches in Maramures, depicts scenes from the Old and New Testaments in a moralistic parallel. “The overall compositional organisation of the Deseşti painting is achieved by dividing the surface with stripes with floral motifs, round leaves and flowers or from the tulip family, deployed in a meander (… ) Both the scenes and the characters within them are juxtaposed rather than compositional, the effect of unity arising from the decorative rhythm reflected in the whole (…) Figures are most often depicted from the front, with extremely low gestures and stereotypes; a few profile images are actually only arms and legs, with the head and body visible from the front. The characters wear stiff clothing that falls in straight, sketchy, non-anatomical folds, drawn in black and sometimes accentuated with white to create a sense of volume. (…) The most varied and picturesque costumes appear among the sinful peoples of the Last Judgement: Turks and Tatars with shawls, tunics and capes, with various types of islichs, Germans in closed suits with brandenburgs and small boron hats, and finally, the elegant “fringes”, in short tunics and narrow trousers, with very high hats.” (Anca Bratu, The Maramures Fresco, pp. 188-189)

Church of the Ascension, UNESCO

The Yasinya community is rich in cultural and architectural monuments inherited from previous generations. Each monument reflects our heritage, historical past and achievements. The Church of the Ascension is an architectural monument of national importance that was built in 1824.  The iconostasis has been preserved inside the church since its construction. In 2013, the church became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The church consists of five parts of timber-framed walls, with smaller square wings adjoining the larger central part on all sides, cross-shaped parts covered with a gable roof with conical tops at the edges. The central part of the temple turns into an octagon, covered with an octagonal hipped roof, with a tiny tower, with a double helmet. The entire church is wrapped around a wide lower canopy, and the beams protruding from the timbered wall form the supporting consoles. Starting from the level of the canopy, the building is protected from above by vertical shingles. The church’s iconostasis has been repainted, and based on its structural elements, it can be assumed that it was created before the church was built (in the second half of the eighteenth century).

The church is one of the most perfect wooden churches in the entire Hutsul region. There is some magic in the proportions of the side and central parts, in the smoothly hewn logs of the log cabins, in the shingle roofs and in the small lanterns above them.

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, UNESCO.

According to the legend, the present-day Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built with opryshkivskyi money by Hryhorii Melnyk, who lived for 114 years and was buried right next to the church. The donor inscription in front of the entrance names Hryhorii Semeniuk and “other pharmacists” and indicates two dates: 1788 and 1808. The first date is obviously the year of the church’s construction, and the second, with such a detailed specification, is probably the date of its final decoration and consecration. Local historians Mykhailo Lasiychuk and Ivan Ludchak believe that the construction of the church began in 1756.

Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, UNESCO

The oldest surviving wooden church in Ukraine, a monument of folk architecture and monumental art of national importance. The Church of the Holy Spirit in Rohatyn was probably built in the first half of the seventeenth century, although it is still officially dated to 1598 – this date was found in the interior of the church on the northern wall of the central log house (nave) and read by the church’s pastor, Fr Ippolit Dzerovych, in the late nineteenth century. The church was home to one of the first church brotherhoods in Ukraine, which funded the creation of a unique Renaissance-Baroque iconostasis dating back to 1650 and one of the three oldest surviving iconostases in Ukraine. In the XIX century, a bell tower was added to the Babynets.