Barsana Monastery

The orthodox Bârsana Monastery, convent for nuns and devoted to Synaxis of the holy, glorious and all-praised Twelve Apostles, on June 30, existed for centuries. A document dated on 6 November 1405 mentions a field of the monastery. The existing church was built in 1720 with interior paintings done in 1806 by local artists Hodor Toader and Ion Plohod according to an inscription in the naos. 

The legend says that the monastery originally stood across the river Iza, in the Slatina Valley, and that it was moved later to the right of the river, on The Monastery Bridges. The church’s plan includes: the gate, the narthex and the nave, with a rectangular form, adding the altar’s apse; the exterior seems like a hall, but the inside is divided into separated walls according to the traditional Orthodox ritual. 

The wooden churches from Maramures (north of Transylvania) are the beautiful synthesis of the major architectural elements of Eastern and Western Europe, synthesis of the Byzantine plan and the Gothic forms rendered according to an original autochthonous architectural interpretation. In a rich country, blessed with forests, the wood offers the possibility for everyone to become artists and Maramures region is famous for its wooden churches but also for the wooden gates. The wooden churches with their tall steeples are representative symbols for the landscape in Maramures.