{"id":490085,"date":"2024-07-25T16:09:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T13:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=490085"},"modified":"2024-07-25T16:09:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T13:09:34","slug":"romania-has-1440-wooden-churches-a-legacy-of-a-hostile-edict-in-transylvania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/romania-has-1440-wooden-churches-a-legacy-of-a-hostile-edict-in-transylvania\/","title":{"rendered":"Romania has 1,440 wooden churches: A legacy of a hostile edict in Transylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Romania&#8217;s cultural heritage includes over 1,400 wooden churches constructed before 1918, according to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/pressone.ro\/pe-urmele-bisericilor-de-lemn-din-romania\">PressOne<\/a>, supported by the National Historic Cultural Tourism Program &#8220;Attractive Romania.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These wooden churches are almost evenly distributed throughout the country, although the figures might suggest otherwise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>650 in Transylvania, Banat, Cri\u0219ana, and Maramure\u0219<\/li>\n<li>~500 in Muntenia, Oltenia, and Dobruja<\/li>\n<li>300 in Moldavia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The number in Moldavia seems small, but historical Moldavia also includes Northern Bukovina, Bessarabia, Budjak, and the Hertsa region. Early 20th-century documentation by Ion Halippa, later continued by the Bishop of Hotin in 1920, indicates that over 700 wooden churches existed, with 185 meeting the criteria for inclusion in Romania&#8217;s national heritage.<\/p>\n<p>Eight of these churches have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1999. They are located in Bude\u0219ti Josani, Dese\u0219ti, B\u00e2rsana, Poienile Izei, Ieud, \u0218urde\u0219ti, Plopi\u0219, and Rogoz.<\/p>\n<p>Romania&#8217;s wooden churches form a large, cohesive, and distinct group within humanity&#8217;s cultural and historical heritage.<\/p>\n<p>According to the source, until the early 20th century, Romanians created and expressed themselves predominantly in a wood-based civilization of remarkable richness, variety, and refinement, with wooden churches reaching their peak of expression.<\/p>\n<p>It is an ancestral heritage that specialists say dates back to the Daco-Getae. Beyond language, this artistic and craftsmanship expression in wood is another mark of Romanian unity.<\/p>\n<h1>Most were built following a hostile edict against Orthodox Christians<\/h1>\n<p>Paradoxically, a hostile edict against Orthodox Christians in Transylvania resulted in a more extensive heritage of wooden churches.<\/p>\n<p>In 1279, King Ladislaus IV of Hungary prohibited the construction of stone Orthodox churches throughout the Kingdom of Hungary. Orthodox stone churches were built in Transylvania only after 1918.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Attractive Romania&#8221; web application offers tourists 12 proposed routes, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/romania-atractiva.ro\/ro\/routes\/ruta-bisericilor-de-lemn\">Wooden Churches Route<\/a>, featuring 53 sites.<\/p>\n<p>Among these is the wooden church in B\u0103lu\u0219eni, Boto\u0219ani County, highlighted by PressOne in the cited article. Built around 1600 in a completely different location from its current site, the church remains standing even after being relocated twice.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Emanuela Ene<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on X.com: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/basilicanews\">@BasilicaNews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romania&#8217;s cultural heritage includes over 1,400 wooden churches constructed before 1918, according to a report by PressOne, supported by the National Historic Cultural Tourism Program &#8220;Attractive Romania.&#8221; These wooden churches are almost evenly distributed throughout the country, although the figures might suggest otherwise: 650 in Transylvania, Banat, Cri\u0219ana, and Maramure\u0219 ~500 in Muntenia, Oltenia, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":490066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[53,20416],"class_list":["post-490085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-en","tag-romanian-orthodox-church","tag-wooden-churches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}