Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Șurdești
Biserica de lemn din Șurdești
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The village has a second, much smaller wooden church at its upper end, brought before 1940 from Bontăieni, about 6 kilometres away.
- Local tradition claims the smaller church came originally from the Oaș region via Ferneziu, which would make it one of Transylvania's most-travelled churches.
- Șurdești is one of eight wooden churches of Maramureș inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.
- The tall tower rises directly from the pronaos, the first room of the church, and is braced against the wind along its entire height.
- The windows in the wall between the pronaos and the nave were only cut in 1932, more than two centuries after the church was built.
- The interior paintings were executed directly on the timber walls, and the floor is laid with large stone slabs.
- In the pronaos the painters placed a Last Judgement, a Doubting Thomas and a painted guardian standing watch beside the entrance doorpost.
- In the nave's Elijah scene, the prophet rises in his fiery chariot while throwing his mantle down to his successor Elisha.
- A carved wooden chandelier hangs inside, alongside the staircase hewn from a single oak trunk.
Why it is worth it
The wooden churches of Maramureș are known for their tall, needle-like towers, and Șurdești has the tallest of the group on the UNESCO list. Its tower, flanked by four small corner turrets, is usually given as 54 metres high, which makes this one of the tallest wooden churches of its period anywhere. It stands in the village of Șurdești, in the old district of Chioar, and was built in 1721 by the village's Greek-Catholic community under the master carpenter Ion Macarie, from mountain oak.
The body of the church is a simple rectangle with a polygonal apse, but everything is done with care. A double roof eave runs all the way round, the windows are cut with ogee tops, and a carved twisted-rope band encircles the walls. The west porch is built on two levels with two rows of stacked arches, which gives the entrance an unusual lightness, and the joints of the log walls can be seen most clearly on the outside of the apse. The crosses on the roofs carry a crescent at their base, which local tradition links to the Tatar raids, the last of which reached the area in 1717.
The interior was painted at the end of the eighteenth century by several painters, the best known being Ștefan of Șișești, and it shows a clear Baroque influence, especially in the iconostasis, which is the church's main treasure. On the vaults are the Holy Trinity and scenes from the Apocalypse; on the nave walls, Jacob's Ladder and the prophet Elijah rising in his chariot of fire. There is also a staircase carved from a single oak trunk, and the churchyard holds stone graves in the form of sarcophagi.
Getting there
Șurdești is in Șișești commune, Maramureș County, about 9 km from the small town of Baia Sprie. Maramureș International Airport (BAY), at Baia Mare, is about 24 km away. The church is still in use.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel is a Greek-Catholic church in Șurdești village, Șișești Commune, Maramureș County, Romania. Built in 1721, it is one of eight buildings that make up the wooden churches of Maramureș UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is also listed as a historic monument by the country's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.
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