Churches, cathedrals and monasteries

Churches, cathedrals and monasteries

 

Orthodox Church of DENSUS

Built in the 12th-13th centuries in the Romanesque and Gothic styles; made of stone taken from the ruins of the ancient citadel of Sarmizegetusa, in its near proximity; its murals (1443) resemble the ones at "St. Nicholas" Church at Curtea de Arges (southern Romania).

 

Orthodox Church of STREI

Placed south of Calan; founded by the Romanian boyard Ambrozie in the 13th c., it combines the Romanesque and rustic Gothic styles; valuable paintings on the walls, on the nave and especially on the altarpiece which exhibits the peasant artist's self-portrait and signature.

 

Orthodox Church of SANTA MARIA-ORLEA

Built in the 13th c. by the Romanian princely family of Candea in the village of Rau de Mori; it illustrates the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style; the paintings of the walls and of the nave combine the Byzantine and the Renaissance styles and are the oldest ones to be found in an Orthodox church in Romania (1300-1330).

 

JESUS' Chapel

A 13th c. chapel of a Catholic graveyard to be found at Odorheiu Secuiesc; of a quadrolobated plane and of small sizes. (8.4 x 8.4).

 

Catholic Church of Virgin Mary at SUMULEU

Placed at Miercurea Ciuc, the church and monastery were built in the Gothic style by the Franciscan friars in the 15th c.; a gymnasium and a printing house were added (17th c.); rebuilt in the 18th c., with baroque elements; the church is famous for the miracle-working statue of Virgin Mary (2.27 m high, carved in lime-tree wood)

 

Reformed Church of TURDA

The oldest hall-church (with a single nave) in Transylvania (15th c.); designed in the Gothic style; its tower is 60 m high; in the 16th c. the Calvinist church was surrounded by a fortified precinct with bulwarks, which nowadays has almost disappeared; its builders used stone taken from the ruins of a nearby ancient Roman camp dating back to 168 A.D. (completely pulled down in the 19th c.)

 

Reformed Church of DEJ

Hall-church built in the 15th-16th centuries, in the late Gothic style; severe appearance on the outside, tall walls and a tower with a sharp pointed rise; stone-carved pulpit with relievo floral motifs (1752)

 

 

Orthodox Church of FELEAC

Built near Cluj, with the support of the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great in the 15th-16th centuries; former Romanian metropolitan church and monastery with a painting school; Gothic vaults and portals; it stands for the spiritual communion of the Romanians from both Transylvania and Moldavia.

 

Orthodox Church "St. Paraschiva" of RASINARI

Situated 12 km away from Sibiu, it is a hall-church (18th c.) with valuable murals and paintings on its southern façade; among them, the Wheel of Life holds pride of place.

 

Armenian Church of GHERLA

Built in the 18th c. by the Armenian community of the town (who emigrated from Moldavia to Transylvania in the 17th c.; the Armenians founded the first laid-out town in Transylvania, namely Armenopolis - present Gherla -, at the beginning of the 18th c.; baroque style; dynamic aspect, with a belfry flanked by another two lower towers placed a little backwards; holds three valuable Gospels (14th c.).

 

Cathedral of the Roman-Catholic Archiepiscopacy of ALBA-IULIA

 

Built in the 15th c.; it displays the late Romanesque style, i.e. the basilical part and the transept, alongside Gothic elements, i.e. the choir, alongside the Transylvanian Renaissance style, i.e. the Lază³ Chapel (1512); princely tombs among which those of Iancu of Hunedoara and Ioan Sigismund.

 

Cathedral of the Reunion at ALBA IULIA

Built in 1921-1922 in the Romanian traditional style; made up of the church proper and of a rectangular precinct overlooked by a 58 m high belfry; murals in the neo-Byzantine style made by Costin Petrescu (whose paintings can also be seen at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest); votive paintings representing prince Michael the Brave and his wife, Lady Stanca, in the pronaos. On its premises, King Ferdinand of Hohenzollern and Queen Mary were crowned Great Romania's King and Queen on the 15th of October 1922.

 

Orthodox Cathedral at HUEDIN

Its architect was Victor Smighelschi from Sibiu (1931-1934); local master builders from the Apuseni Mts.; the altar screen was made by teachers and students of the Vocational School of Arts at Huedin; thousands of people from the Apuseni Mts. took part to the ceremony of its dedication in 1934 - among them, the salient Romanian poet, Octavian Goga.

 

CâRTA Monastery

Located between Sibiu and Fagaras; one of the most important monasteries built by the Cistercian monks in South-Eastern Europe by the beginning of the 13th c.; early Gothic style with Romanesque elements; the choir (become now part of the parish evangelical church), the entrance tower, and the ruins of the monastic buildings have been left to the present day; the former central nave of the church has turned into a churchyard (where German soldiers who died during the fights at Sibiu in WW I -1916 - have been buried).

 

RâMET Monastery

Lying against a picturesque background, in the valley of the Geoagiu river in the Trascau Mountains, near Teius; built in the 14th c., the monastery belonged to the estates owned in turn by Hungarian King Mathias Corvinus and Radu the Great, ruling prince of Wallachia (1496-1508); the latter received them as a reward for military services from the Hungarian king Ladislas II; beneath the altar, 1.6 m deep into the ground, there is a fresh water spring suitable for drinking, whence the name of the monastery's wake, i.e. the Healing Spring; valuable murals (9 coats of painting), which were washed out in the 1980's; the church's foundation has been raised above ground-level by 2.08 m in order to save it from caving in; at present, a nunnery.

 

PRISLOP Monastery

It is situated in the village of Silvasu de Sus near Hateg; founded by princess Zamfira, daughter of Wallachia's ruling prince Moise (1529-1530); it displays fragments of murals painted in 1759; set on fire by the Austrian general Bukow (1762), it was restored several times; it is a nunnery with a Theological Seminary.

 

SâMBATA DE SUS Monastery

Founded by the Wallachian princely family of the Brancovans (17th -18th centuries), it is placed in the valley of the Sâmbata river, at the foot of the Fagaras Mountains; rebuilt in 1926-1936 and expanded in 1985-1993; old centre of monastic education and culture which used to have a grammar school, a painting school and a printing house; in 1954, monk Timotei Traian Tohaneanu has set up a school of painting on glass; the fountain known as the Healing Spring (16th c.) is actually the core around which the monastery was built and, according to a local legend, it is endowed with miracle-working powers; at present, administered by monks.