The wooden church "The Holy Archangels" from Șurdești
The wooden church "The Holy Archangels" from Șurdești

The wooden church "The Holy Archangels" from Șurdești

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Biserica de lemn Obiective turistice
10:00 - 16:00
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Șurdești 437332, Romania

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0766 011 444
contact@bisericadelemnsurdesti.ro
https://bisericadelemnsurdesti.ro/

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At the foot of the Gutâi Mountains, at the intersection of the roads that connect the towns of Baia Sprie and Cavnic, there is a beautiful hilly area, surrounded by mountains. Here, the splendor of nature's harmonies is matched only by the monumental wooden church that rises in this depression. Raised above space and time, the 54-meter tower of the church in Şurdeşti gives the feeling of complete peace between people and nature.

The church was built in the middle of the 18th century by the master carpenter Macarie, whose name is preserved in a visible inscription today verandah above the porch. Initially, the place of worship had three rooms: a narthex, a nave and an altar. In the 19th century, a spectacular porch with two rows of arches was added (on the ground floor and upstairs), thus obtaining a harmonious decoration for the western part of the building. A carved belt in the shape of a rope surrounds the monument, and the entrance to the narthex is made through a portal, decorated with the same motif of the rope, but also with solar symbols. In the nave there is another unique architectural element: two columns carved in stone, which support the balcony for the choir. The monumentality of the building is underlined by the way the tower is built. To achieve the astonishing height, the carpenters build a structure with a very generous base, which rests on the wooden walls of the church. 

The iconographic appearance of the Greek-Catholic Church in Şurdeşti is similar, stylistically and thematically, to that of the Orthodox Church in Plopiş. The altar was also painted by the painter Ştefan, who uses here in a unique way the theme of the council of the twenty-four elders from the Apocalypse. The nave, it seems, was painted by a certain painter named Stan. The style remains Baroque, and the theme of the semi-cylinder completes the history of the end of the world in the vision of Saint John the Evangelist, so well captured in Plopiş. In addition to the common themes, here one will find the theme of "Jacob's Ladder"; supported by the cloud surrounding the icon of the Trinity, the ladder allows angels to ascend and descend, thus mediating between God and man.

The sister churches from Plopiş and Şurdeşti prove over time that the confessional difference, which appeared at the beginning of the 18th century in Maramureş, did not change the way of being of the inhabitants and did not bring radical changes in the architecture of the places of worship or in their iconography.

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Patrimoniu UNESCO

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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.
Bârsana 437035, Romania