New church architecture - Nicula Monastery

We set off on a journey to the springs. Metaphorically speaking, I mean the origins, the roots, the places where our adventure on earth began. When I say our, I mean my wife and I and, when I say origins, I mean the places of our childhood. A coincidence quite common among couples, we both now live far away from our childhood place and our childhood place is in the north of the country, in two regions separated by the Carpathian Mountains. This happens in Romania and we now live in the south of the country, in Bucharest, which also happens to be the country's capital.

From time to time we make such trips, fortunately, we still have relatives in places we left long ago. Relatives who are happy to see us again.

Our old memory is showing signs of fatigue and so I thought I would write a series of reports about these journeys, to remain here, in the blockchain, as proof and memory of us.

I have three great communities that are dear to me, Photography Lovers, Architecture+Design and
Haveyoubeenhere, Of course, there are a few smaller ones that I love just as much, but right now I'm talking about the ones that have a connection to each other and to my passions. I love to travel, I love architecture and I love photography.

The problem arises when I have to choose the right community for my post because in the same story I refer to travel, and architecture, and photography, without which it is impossible.

That's why I will extract some parts of the whole trip, some related only to travel, some to architecture and some to photography...

Today I start with architecture. When one refers to Romanian architecture one cannot ignore church architecture. In Romania, there is at least one church in every town. Some older, some newer, some more beautiful, some rather uninspired and unbeautiful. Of course, I will look for the older ones, with a history behind them.

The first trip I'm referring to is to the place of my wife's birth and childhood. In Northern Transylvania, a region of the more world-famous province called Transylvania. Known because of Count Dracula... We have to get to a small isolated village, surrounded by woods, called Garboul Dejului. Coming from Bucharest, before reaching our destination, we pass by a famous monastery complex, called Nicula Monastery, and through the most important town in that area, called Dej. Following the order of appearance of these sights, Nicula Monastery is first.

Nicula Monastery

The monastery is located 15 km from Dej, on a hill, where the Transylvanian Plain meets the Somesan Plateau, in a particularly beautiful place with a superb view. It was our first stop.

This is a place of pilgrimage, my wife, as a child, came here every year with her parents and relatives. They would come on foot, walking more than 20 km. In the meantime the place has changed a lot, a new church has been built and several buildings for cultural and administrative purposes. In the center of the complex is the oldest building, a small wooden church.

These wooden churches are characteristic of medieval Ardeal, when this region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Romans were not allowed to build stone and masonry churches. They could only build small wooden churches. The builders of those times were very skilled in woodworking.

The wooden church is closed and cannot be visited. The only thing that remains is the pleasure of seeing the exterior and the way the wood from which it is made has been worked. But this church is not the purpose of our visit. The purpose is to see how the new church, built after 2001, is built and decorated.

Before going into the new church, which is still under construction, I must say that there are several churches here, built as a result of the growing importance of this complex.

A brief history. In this place where there was only a forest, the first monastic settlements were in 1326, when a hermit monk settled here. This is only oral testimony, perhaps a legend. The first record of a church refers to the wooden church, built-in 1552. This church was destroyed by fire, the one we see now is a copy.

Because the fame of the place grew so much after an icon here was torn to tears, according to the documented testimonies of the Austrian military, it was necessary to build a much more enclosing church, a walled church. This was built in 1875. Now, with the start of construction of the third church in 2001, the wall church has been closed. It is the church you can see in the far part of the photo.

Tens of thousands of believers come here for the pilgrimages that take place in August. Two aspects result from this. More pilgrims and believers mean more money, more income. The second aspect is the need for a bigger, more imposing church, necessary both to be able to welcome more believers and to impress. This led to the need to build the third church, parts of which I want to show you.

Fortunately, we arrived at this place at a time when there were no religious ceremonies and not many people around. This made it somewhat peaceful for me to photograph, although I did it somewhat surreptitiously as I didn't know if it was allowed.

Strangely, although it is a historical place, if they are run by monks, photography is not allowed! More for religious reasons and obscurantism.

This is starting to look like a cathedral. I could look up the information and write here what the different parts of the church are called but I don't think it's that important. I'm a visual person, I mean I like to see and when I like what I see I don't necessarily need to know a lot...

This church is Orthodox Christian. Orthodox churches have this characteristic: all the interior walls are painted, in the churches of Bukovina, in the north of Romania, the exterior walls are also painted, making these churches truly unique. This church will be painted only on the inside.

As for painting, there are two great schools for images on walls and icons. The Russian Orthodox school and the Greek Orthodox school. As far as I can tell, the paintings in this church are under the Russian influence of the great painter-monk Andrei Rublev!

It has nothing to do with this church, but since this is one of my all-time favorite films, I'll remind you of Andrei Tarkovsky's superb film about icon and church painter Andrei Rublev. I'm posting a few images, a short trailer. You can find the film on youtube.