Wooden Gothic of Maramureș region
Maramureș region is a historical region divided between Ukraine and Romania. Here you can find unique architectural monuments, which have no analogues anywhere else in the world. These are wooden gothic churches.
We are all fascinated by German stone gothic. And imagine the same buildings, only made of wood. Wood is a completely different building material. It allows you to create fresh and light shapes. Wooden gothic, when you are in close proximity to it, feels completely different than stone.
Unfortunately, wood is an unstable building material. As a result, most of the unique architectural monuments have been lost. However, some remain and are worth seeing.
Nicholas Church in the village of Kolodne
This is one of the oldest wooden temples in Transcarpathia. Most of its parts date back to the 1470s. Other parts were updated or completed later. This temple still retains the features of medieval fortress architecture.
This church is not very big, but it looks very monumental. There are even round windows, which are very similar to the loopholes.
The height of the tower is 24 meters. It is crowned with a baroque top, which was completed much later.
The church has preserved paintings and iconostasis of the 17th century.
Nicholas Church in the village of Serednie Vodiane
This church is even older than the previous one. It dates back to 1428.
The tower of this church is 22 m high. The building has narrow Gothic windows, resembling loopholes.
The interior of this church is very similar to a secular hall, as in the movies about medieval kings. There is a carved gilded iconostasis of 1761, as well as wall paintings of the 17th century.
St. Michael's Church in the village of Kraynikovo
This church was built in 1666-1668. It differs from the previous ones by a magnificently decorated exit: the door jamb is decorated with carvings in the style of medieval Gothic portals.
The tower of this church is square, has a high spire and four smaller spiers at the corners.
The ancient iconostasis has been preserved in the church, but its condition is not the best.
Paraskeva Church in the village of Oleksandrivka
And here we come to the architectural top of the wooden Gothic churches.
This church was built the latest and absorbed all the best of its predecessors. This church looks so majestic that you involuntarily feel in the Middle Ages in the middle of a huge city. This building is very harmonious and fits perfectly into the surrounding natural landscape. It stands on a hill, which adds even more to its grandeur.
The tower of this church is the highest. Its height is 25.5 m.
Inside the church there are paintings from 1779 and a unique four-tiered iconostasis decorated with carvings.
If you are a fan of unusual architecture, I kindly invite you to Ukraine to Transcarpathia. A tour of wooden Gothic churches will stay in your memory forever and will be inexpensive.
Personally, I have seen only one such church, but as a child. So I don't even remember which one. I only remember that I was very afraid that I would be taken to the tower to look at the scenery. I had a strong phobia of heights, which has largely remained with me to this day.
Thanks for reading.
Wow! XVth and XVIIth century churches with the Slavic touch! I adore it!
In Poland, most of those sorts of buildings were destroyed in the XXth century but it can be still seen in Bieszczady, which is southern-east. I loved to visit that area, as it's very peaceful, quiet and in some way... magical, like the buildings from your publication.
I have childhood memories of one such church, but I did not realize its value. For me, it was an old wooden church of a strange shape in an unknown village, where I once visited with my parents. It wasn't until much later that I realized what I had seen when I was a child.
In Poland, wooden churches look much better maintained. I judge from a Wikipedia article.
Our church lives on community donations. Accordingly, if the village is small, the church does not have the funds for restoration. Then you need some rich patron.
Well, sometimes I feel that Poland is more religious than the Vatican, besides that church still gets the money from the government as the recompensate for the communism and what was taken from them at those times (although they should stop getting that cash a long time ago, nowadays it's more like a political bribe to approve the government which is slightly undemocratic). Besides that, there is a money fund from the EU for all the historical buildings.
It looks like you can already use #club75 tag - the SC01 upvotes may be higher then.
Thank you, I forgot that two months have passed ☺️⏰
Muy hermosas las imágenes de las Iglesias. Espero que puedan lograr conservar estás en el tiempo aprovecha do que aún están en pie.
Exito y bendiciones.
#travelers-say
¡Muchos gracias!