The wooden church "The Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel" from Plopiș
The wooden church "The Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel" from Plopiș

The wooden church "The Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel" from Plopiș

Biserica de lemn Obiective turistice

Plopiș 437331, Romania

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The village of Plopiş located in the Cavnic Valley is truly amazing in terms of how man's creativity intertwines with the beauty of the nature. Harmony, elegance and suppleness make the whole area a true temple, whose central point is the wooden church dedicated to the "Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel". The church cemetery can be entered through a gate which opens the path crossing through the tombs of the founders of this monument.

In 1789, forty-nine families from the Cavnic Valley (in the current township of Şişeşti) began the construction of a new place of worship, which was consecrated in November 1811. The church in Plopiş, 47 meters high, 17 meters long and 7 meters wide, still stands on the plateau of the village cemetery, giving the feeling that, without it, nature would be incomplete. The edifice, erected on a stone foundation, consists of a porch, narthex, nave and altar. Included in the Maramureș style of construction, the church has, however, some characteristic elements: the upper beams of the walls do not extend into the console, the very narrow eaves confer suppleness to the monument.

The ornaments of the porch arches, created with great accuracy, are made of several stepped or round-shaped wooden segments, so joining those using wooden nails solves the technical problems, as well as the artistic aspirations. All of this gives us another testimony of the mastery of the craftsmen from the Cavnic Valley.

The iconography is impressive due to the theme chosen by the painter Ştefan, the author of this painting, as well as from Şurdeşti church. The Baroque style of the iconographic ensemble offers the painter the opportunity to develop metaphorical images that plastically illustrate complicated events from the Revelations according to St. John. The entire semi-cylindrical vault of the nave depicts the second coming of Christ, announced by the trumpets of angels. Archangel Michael, patron of the church in Plopiş, appears victorious above the balcony. On the western wall of the nave, Jesus Christ appears in the form of the sun, offering John the Evangelist the text of the Revelations. This whole iconographic ensemble, which speaks of the end of the world, is surrounded by the council of the twenty-four elders in John's vision, painted in the lateral lobes of the only three-lobed vault in Maramureş.  

Although small in size, the stunning church in Plopiş shows a great sense of proportion, reason why some researchers consider it to be the most unitary and well-balanced wooden church in Maramureş.

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Erected at the beginning of the 18th century, as a place of worship for an important monastic community, the current UNESCO heritage church was the cathedral of Bishop Gavriil of Maramureş. Born in Bârsana, the bishop patronized a monastery school and a book distribution center there. The events that have taken place in the last three hundred years on the Iza Valley have left their mark on the beams of the church in Bârsana, more than on other monuments.  At the end of the 18th century, the imperial court in Transylvania and Maramureş would impropriate the monastic properties and the close down of the monastic communities. This campaign directly affected the monastic community, which was forced to withdraw to Moldova. Left unprotected, the church would be saved by villagers, who dismantled it piece by piece and, around 1800, would rebuilt it on its current site. For a proper reassembly, the beams bear signs that can be admired today. Standing on a pedestal, the beams carved from large oak trunks - from which the walls were built - were joined at the corners in a "swallow's tail" pattern. For two hundred years, the church has been guarding the peace of the people of Maramureş, buried in the cemetery on Jbârului Hill, to the left of the road that starts from Sighetu Marmaţiei, along the Iza River. The layout of the church is rectangular, composed of four rooms: porch, narthex, nave and altar. The apsis of the altar has five sides, being covered with a simple roof. Above the other rooms of the worship place, the roof has two ridges, housing a balcony to the west. The ornaments and the manner in which the western façade is made are identical to those of the porches of traditional houses. The carved wooden decoration uses motifs common in Maramureş, such as the twisted rope or the solar disk. The whole church seems to be surrounded by a twisted girdle, discontinued by a circle-shaped solar motif. After moving to the village, it was painted by Toader Hondor and Ioan Plohod, the iconography of the monument being considered to be the best expression of Baroque and Rococo in folk painting, in this part of the country. The scenes are depicted within stylized medallions binding the entire iconographic ensemble. The impressive wooden church from Bârsana is an example of perfect stylistic unity and an impeccable artistic sense.
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