Ghosts in Romanian Traditions
As every European country has its own set of traditions related to the way life evolves after death, the Romanians also have their own folkloric superstitions about ghosts and undead entities.
According to Romanian traditions, there are several kinds of ghosts, dependant on the way a person died. The first kind is represented by the ”building sacrifices”. This is a common superstition to many South-Eastern European populations, according to which no construction can be finished until a sacrifice is performed. Among other variants, this superstition generated the beautiful legend of the master mason Manole, who had to sacrifice his own wife, in order for the Monastery of Arges to be completed.
A related ceremonial is that consisting in taking or stealing a man’s shade and burying it at a building’s foundation. The master mason measures the shade, preferably belonging to persons bearing names like Oprea (derived from a Romanian word meaning “to stop”) or Stan, Stanca, Stana (derived from a Romanian word meaning “to stay”) with a reed and then he walls it. The consequences were fatal to that whose shade has been stolen – he or she died at maximum 40 days after the ceremonial. The masons’ bad reputation was enforced by some cases of illnesses and deaths of people accusing they were victims of the “stealing the shade” practice. Today, the humans were replaced by animals as sacrifices for the successful completion of a building.
In some areas, the oldest in the family used to step on the threshold of the new house first, because it was said that the first person to enter in a newly constructed building would die within a year and he or she would become a ghost, a guardian spirit of the house.
The friendly ghosts are said to get out every night, just after the roosters announce the midnight, in order to patrol their houses. When the night is over they return to the place they or their shade has been buried. Usually, the ghosts do not reveal themselves and do not disturb those living in the house, but they appear in front of the strangers who mean harm and scare them away; they also fight other evil spirits who try to destroy the house.
There are places where even the friendly ghosts enter the house and make noise so the owners give them food offerings, consisting in bread, boiled corn and salt.
A different kind of ghosts is represented by those who were victims of violent deaths: drowning, thunderstruck, murder and hanging, especially. These ghosts are generally aggressive with everyone, because they have been condemned to roam through unwanted spaces (inns, isolated roads or mills). There are also vengeful ghosts who came from people who suffered injustices, sinned and were not forgiven during lifetime, were victims of evil charms or they were people who were buried inappropriately.
The wandering ghosts have the same social needs as the living. They gather to have council and throw parties in places people usually avoid, in order not to be disturbed: graveyards, mills, ruins or deserted houses. If these meeting places are destroyed or moved, the ghosts scatter and seek revenge. These ghosts can be seen, but they cannot be touched; they resemble living humans, but they wear white, red or black garments. Mostly, the ghosts just give people a scare, but sometimes they can make them trip, get dizzy or they can even kill a living. That is why, when passing by a haunted place and seeing a ghost, one should cross himself, not look at it and not speak to it.
The holiday of Saint Andrew, celebrated on the 30th of November is a moment related to the Romanian ghost superstitions. During the night before the holiday, it is said that “strigoii” (ghosts with vampire features) came out, attack the animals, steal the men’s virility and play with the beasts (especially wolves, as this superstition related to Saint Andrew dates from pagan times, when this animal was the most important in the Dacian bestiary). The people try to prevent the nefarious actions of the “strigoi” by making great use of the garlic’s protective properties.
Saint Nicholas – An Alternate Santa Claus
A couple of weeks before Christmas, during the night between the 5th and 6th of December, Romanian children, but also adults, clean their boots until they shine, because they wait for Santa Claus’ close collaborator, Saint Nicholas, who would also bring them gifts.
Saint Nicholas’s figure is surrounded by legends and only a few historical facts are known. He was born in the Middle East in a wealthy family, in the IVth century and he was cardinal of Myra (located on the territory of modern Turkey). When he inherited his parents’ fortune, he used it to help the poor and unhappy.
There are many stories about his fine deeds. One of them is that about three sisters, who were so poor, that it would have been impossible for them to get married, because they had no dowries. When the first of them reached the appropriate age, Saint Nicholas (a cardinal at Myra that time) left a bag full of gold coins on the threshold of their house. The same thing happened when the second sister was old enough to get married. Their father was very curious to find out who their mysterious benefactor was so hid himself outside the house when the youngest girl reached the age. He saw Saint Nicholas dropping a bag of gold on the chimney into a sock drying at the fireplace. The saint asked him to keep the secret, but the father was so grateful, that he couldn’t help telling the others. From that moment on, everyone who received an unexpected gift thanked Saint Nicholas for it.
Another legend recounts how the saint made a journey to the Holy Land and decided to return by taking a ship back to Myra. A terrible storm started and the sailors were sure they have met their doom, but Saint Nicholas prayed and the clouds scattered. Since then, he became the protector of sailors and travelers.
Another story explains how he became the protector of children and pupils. It is said that there were three young theologians who were travelling to Athens to complete their studies. They stopped at an inn and they were robbed and killed by the owner and their remains were secretly buried. Not long after, Saint Nicholas came to this inn and, at night, he dreamt about the crime and forced the inn-keeper to confess and reveal the place where he had hidden their remains. Saint Nicholas fervently prayed to God and the three were resurrected.
Nicholas is a popular figure not only in Romania, but in many parts of Europe, as well. In the Xth century, the Tsar Vladimir travelled to Constantinople and, hearing about the miracles the saint had accomplished, decided to make the spiritual patron of Russia. In France, he is called Père Fouettard, an old man with a small wooden stick, who punishes the bad children and rewards the good ones and his tradition has spread to Germany, Belgium or Netherlands. The Dutch called him Sinter Klaas and introduced the holiday celebrated on the 6th of December to America, when they emigrated. In time, this holiday and Christmas merged and Sinter Klaas became Santa Claus. The Italian corresponding figure is a woman named La Befana, who was said to have refused to help the three mages to find the place where Jesus was born and, since then, she has wandered alone from house to house, trying to bring her gifts to the Holy Child.
Besides the general ones, Saint Nicholas is also the subject of some specific Romanian stories. He is believed to have been a spy to the devil. God and the infamous hell ruler made a contract which stipulated that the living belonged to God and the dead to the devil. But this deal seemed unfair, because the devil took in his possession all the souls, no matter if they were good or bad, so He sent Saint Nicholas to hell, in order to find out how one could take the contract back. After thirty years, the saint finally managed to find out from a lesser devil that only one born of the Holy Ghost was capable of accomplishing this. So God sent Jesus Christ among humans to redeem them, and, from that moment on, we are rightfully judged according to what we did during our lifetimes.
Another popular tradition is that winter starts with Saint Nicholas. He is described as a very old man, with a long white beard, which he shakes and it starts snowing. He usually appears on the back of a white horse, while Saint John (celebrated on the 7th of January), the one who is said to take the winter away, appears on a black horse. On the 6th of December, people make charms and weather predictions and small fruit tree branches are put into water, to see if they blossom until New Years’ Eve – if this happens, the next year harvest will be rich.
The Snake, Wolf and Dragon Symbols in Pre-Romanian Culture
The flags and the flag poles of the Geto Dacians were adorned with a warrior's symbol, a spear with a strange beast at its tip. The beast had a wolf's head and a snake's body and tail and it's also famous thanks to the depictions on Traian's Column. But what is the meaning of the wolf, the spear and the snake? Let's find out!
The wolf defines solitude and wilderness, disobedience and courage, a positive symbol, considering his abilities (night sight), that make him a hero of the fiery elements, like the Sun and also a mythical warrior. Greeks and Northern peoples also see the wolf in the same image, as a combat symbol.
Analyzing the image of the wolf, we discover a totem-like symbol, that, from a Freudian point of view can stand for the father killed in a certain ritual, in order to protect the entire tribe. We must also mention the myth of the White Wolf, some sort of Cerberus, guiding the dead to the "other side".
It's also important to notice that among the most important agricultural occupations in the Carpathians area, there was the shepherding, so the wolf was the main threat towards sheep, the only means of the existence for the locals. Thus, they respected and feared the beast, but they fought it each time they had the chance, aided by dogs and using fire to scare wolves away.
The White Wolf is a solar symbol, but also an earthly one, like the female wolf that fed Romuls and Remus, the two founding fathers of Rome. Moving on to another symbol, the snake stands apart from all the other animals, since it has no feet, no hair and its veins drip cold blood. In many cultures, the snake is considered the opposite of man and the Bible certainly created a bad reputation for this reptile, hunted ferociously by avid believers.Many associate the snake with the dragon, that in turn is associated with the devil. Since we've mentioned dragons, we must talk about Saint Gheorghe, a patron of agriculture, who slew the famous "Balaur" (dragon or snake in Romanian) with the aid of a spear, thus becoming the symbol of a steady life and the reason for nomads to stop living on the go and have a normal life. Gheorghe's name signifies “the one that takes care of the earth, performs agricultural activities”.
In Christian paintings, the lance of Saint Gheorghe is facing downwards, towards the past, while the lance of the Geto Dacians is facing up, towards the future, like a prophecy.
The Hydra is also another creature that appeared in ancient Dacian mythology and is now reflected in the name of a couple of villages in Romania, like Hida (Salaj), Hidis, Hidisel (Bihor). They can be considered the Dacian alternative to the Hidrasund Norwegian settlement, Hidrolandia in Brazil and Hydro in the US and Canada. The hydra is a huge monster resembling a giant snake with seven heads, that once chopped off grew back from the neck.
There geto dacian flag pole was called Dracones, the snake with a wolf's head we’ve mentioned above, and fixed in a pole made out of bronze or silver. Through an ingenious system, using air currents, the flag pole let out a hissing sound that encouraged the soldiers and scared the enemies, specially those who never heard the sound before.
The dragon comes once again into play, as the symbiosis between the snake and the wolf and its main traits are the pride and force, the image of a true warrior. An important aspect of this image is that the Romans were so impressed with the strength of the Dacians’ symbol that they carved it in stone on a monument that lasts till this day and celebrates the victory of the Roman Empire over Dacia (Trajan’s Collumn). How many times have you seen a conquering army celebrating the courage and symbols of the conquered?
The occupation of Dacia didn't mean that the symbol was extinct, since a number of free Dacians still existed (the Carpodacians and Costoboci tribes) and they kept raiding the area, still using the dragon flags and poles. They played a vital part in the great rebellion in 117 and kept attacking the Roman Empire even in 238, together with the Goths, whose joint offensive caused the retirement of the Roman army from Dacia and eventually the breakdown of the Empire.
Capidava and Carsium – Guarding The Waves
The Southern border of Romania is mostly represented by the Danube, but, 20 km far from Cernavoda, the river decides to curve towards North, before joining the Black Sea. In the piece of land formed between its course and the Bulgarian frontier there are two ancient fortresses: Capidava and Carsium.
The name “Capidava” is of Dacian origin and the Romans have preserved it, even after they conquered a great part of Dobrogea region around 30 B.C. That time, the Roman Empire had reached the right shore of the Danube and befriended a local ruler, Roles. The Romans’ ally was attacked by another Dacian chieftain, Dapyx, who had the capital of his kingdom at Capidava. The Empire reacted and sent an expedition lead by Marcus Licinius Crassus, proconsul of Macedonia and the nephew of that Crassus who shared the Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompei. The story of Dapyx’s defeat and occupation of Capidava, connected to the discovery of some human bones in a nearby cave, gave birth to a sad and heroic legend.
The Dacian king had a beautiful daughter, Gebila, and she was in love with a young nobleman, Gebeides, and he shared her feelings. The king agreed to this marriage, but the harmonious life of Capidava’s inhabitants was spoiled when two emissaries from Crassus asked Dapyx to surrender his fortress, people and wealth and to send his daughter to be married to a Roman, as a sign of loyalty.
Of course, the king refused and the Romans ravaged the country and ended up besieging Capidava. Led by Gebila, the elders, the women and children took refuge in a nearby cave and the Dacian warriors fell one by one, while defending the fortress. In the end, only two remained: the king and Gebeides. They made a lot of noise and put straw dummies on the walls, so the Romans won’t notice they are the only ones left.
One day, a man dressed like a Dacian came near the gates and he was received inside. He was surprised that the two of them could resist the siege and he advised Dapyx to sent Gebeides for help to the other Dacian tribes. The king followed his advice, but the young man was captured as soon as he stepped out of the fortress, the fake Dacian revealed his true nature and tried to kill Dapyx, who quickly beheaded the traitor and took his own life before the Romans, who had entered the fortress, could get him. Disappointed that he could not kill Dapyx himself, Crassus swore to himself he will make Gebila his wife (and slave).
So the Romans asked those who were hiding in the cave to surrender the king’s daughter. The Dacians asked for one hundred and one horses, to be used by Gebila and her virgin followers, as their customs demanded. The Romans accepted, but, to their unpleasant surprise, the women attacked them from the back of the horses, with weapons hidden under their wedding gowns. When they were finally defeated, they threw themselves in the Danube. In their fury, the Romans walled the cave’s entrance, while the remaining Dacians were still inside.
Years after these tragic events, a blind old man could be seen wandering around the ruins and telling his story to everyone would listen to him. It was Gebeides, mourning his beloved one and his people.Historically, Capidava was revived and continuously evolved under Roman rule, as it was part of a key defensive point in the region. Emperor Trajan made important improvements here, in the eve of his wars against the Dacians.
Today, the fortress has the shape of a rectangle, oriented from North-West towards South-East, with the lengths of 127 m and the widths of 105 m. The walls had a width of 2 m and a height of 5-6 m, while the seven towers were 10 m high. The fortress had two access points, a horseshoe shaped gate that connected Capidava and the nearby settlements and a rear exit, on the South-Eastern wall, where the harbor was.
The fortress belonged to the Byzantines and to the Bulgarian kingdom and some claim it was the residence for a bishopric, during early Middle Ages. Inside the fortress, one can visit the residential area, where some of the houses had private heating facilities, the Roman-Byzantine basilica, the harbor and the interior road, provided with a drainage system.Besides Capidava, another important fortress in the defensive and commercial system of this area was Carsium, located on the site of the present town Harsova (Constanta County).
It was built by Emperor Trajan around 103 A.D. and it was a stationary point for Classis Flavia Moesica, the Roman fleet that operated in this region. The Genovese merchants used it during Middle Ages and its harbor appeared on navigation maps from that period. It was rebuilt by the Byzantines in the Xth century, Mircea the Older occupied and fortified it in the XIVth century and, after the Turks took over Dobrogea, it functioned as an Ottoman fortress until 1829.
The Controversial Tartaria Tablets
The discovery of some mysterious tablets at Tartaria (Alba County, Transylvania) has lead some enthusiasts to question the generally accepted theory that Sumer is the cradle of civilization.
Tartaria is a rural settlement of approximately 5000 inhabitants, situated on the Northern side of Sureanu Mountains, on river Mures, not very far from Zlatna region (famous since Antiquity for its gold and copper deposits) and 18 – 20 km far from the sites of two important Neolithic cultures: Turdas and Alba Iulia – Lumea Noua. Some archaeological excavations were executed here between 1895 and 1910 and the results (the discovery of some intriguing artifacts, among which a pot dated as being older than the seals from Sumer) triggered the interest for this area.
In 1961, Nicolae Vlassa (archaeologist at the Cluj-Napoca Museum) discovered three little inscribed plates of baked clay, together with some funerary offerings and the bones of a mature human being. The Romanian archaeologist asserted that the person was a 35-40 years old man, possibly a shaman or priest, but later research on the bone structure revealed that it was an old woman (usually referred to as Milady Tartaria), possibly a holy person. The way this character died also started a controversy: some say she or he was burnt, other claim that he or she was part of cannibalistic rituals.
But the most passionate controversy concerns the tablets. They are engraved with some pictographic signs that have led some to claim that we are dealing with the oldest writing system in the world, even a millennium older than the one from Mesopotamia.
The first tablet is rectangular and contains mixed pictographic symbols, zoomorphic, isomorphic and primal symbols – An animal tree, a spiral and an animal head.
The second tablet is round and it is divided in four quadrants by two engraved lines. The sky is depicted in the upper left one and the underground universe in the lower right one. The third tablet is rectangular and contains only zoomorphic and phitomorphic representations – a tree, a goat and a third engraving which seems to be the root of a tree.
The followers of this theory began finding arguments to sustain it. An example is a fragment from one of Plato’s writings, in which it is recounted how some bronze tablets were brought to the Delos Temple by some virgins from a region identified as North of Danube (Baia de Arama).
A professor from Sankt Petersburg offered a translation of the enigmatic pictograms: “NUN KA SA UGULA PA IDIM KA RAI” – ”The nobleman that knows the secrets will go to heaven”. This version is widely accepted by the defenders of the Tartaria tablets, who connect this idea of life after death to the cult of Zamolxis, an ancient Dacian mithological figure. This doesn’t mean it is the only version available until now.
Another detail they exploit is that two of the tablets have holes in them and can be assembled as a whole; the result – a superimposed esoteric amulet, used in the sacred ceremonials. The signs were considered related to another mysterious artifact, a stone shere covered with pictograms, discovered at Lepenski Vir, a Neolithic village or, perhaps, necropolis, on the Serbian side of the Danube. Similar tablets were discovered in Bulgaria, in archeological locations such as Karanovo or Gracianita.
Still, there are many that don’t approve this theories at all. The arfifacts can’t be dated using the Carbon 14 technology, because the tablets’ state (they are mostly made of sand, which contain any or too little carbon) doee not allow to precisely determine their isotopic chronology. Other incovenients are the unsure stratigraphy of the tablets inside the pit and the uncertain location of the pit inside the stratigraphy inside the archaeological dig. So, the tablets were dated by being compared to similar precisely dated artifacts.
Some claimed that they are fakes and there were some accusations that their discoverer, Nicolae Vlassa, had them brought from Sumer and planted in the tomb, where he claimed he discovered them. A less fierce version is that prehistoric migrating civilizations, coming from Mesopotamia, brought them to the Danubian area when they settled here.
Sumerian writing or genuine cultural European product? The controversy is far from being elucidated.
The Unnatural Phenomenon of Bucegi, “Gura de Rai”
It's said that in the Bucegi Mountains there's a one square kilometre area where any living beings won't ever feel tired and their physical and chemical functions are reset to their normal state. Specialists claim that this area links the sky and the Earth.
Back in 1999, a private research institute from Bucharest found something that resembles the legendary "Gura de Rai" (Mouth of Heaven). This is presumed to be a one square kilometre slope that shows a very strange magnetic abnormality, as it's defined by experts. This area has stunning effects on the human body and it's probably the strangest discovery in Romania.
In popular Romanian tradition, the “Gura de Rai” is a sacred place, a road to Heaven that's situated near a mountain and opens up in a large field or a mountain area. The private research institute Terra, hired in 1999 to research this myth, discovered that an area near the Ialomicioara Cave had strange effects on the human body.
They started off with a research meant to find out if hotels could be built in the area and the project included physicists, geophysicists mostly, while the tools used were geodetection devices. After a couple of days of walking up and down the area, geophysicist Dumitru Stanica, a member of the crew discovered that somewhere around the Doamnei Height his tiredness disappeared immediately. All the other researchers tested this feeling and theory and found it to be true.
The first stage of investigation involved the analysis of all the surrounding slopes and the researchers found out that no matter how tired you were when you started walking, it'll all go away, as soon as you reach the “Gura de Rai” area. Dumitru Stanica claims that all the physical and chemical functions of the body are rapidly restored.
Moving on to the second phase of the tests, a medic was brought to verify if the participants to the experiments were really more rested when they reach the mysterious place. What the medic found was stunning: the cardiac rhythm became normal, once the people reached the “Gura de Rai” area and the older folks enjoyed a general status of welfare, once they entered the zone. Keep in mind that this pleasant feeling comes after climbing a steep slope, which is quite strange.
Afterwards, it was time to take the differential magnetometric tests, the X ray scan of the underground section, using Partington devices, that measure the Earth's magnetism. The result was the discovery of a magnetic abnormality on an area of a square kilometre. Traditions and rumours claim that more areas like this can be found in the Retezat reservation area.
Rumour has it that every "evil" area, charged with negative energy is only a couple of metres away from a “Gura de rai”, charged with positive energy, for the sake of balance. Predictably enough, it seems the Romanian army became interested in the matter and the researchers of Terrra Institute hope to cooperate with military forces and create a magnetic map of Romania, emphasizing these unusual areas.
As far as the "evil areas" are concerned, these places have been known as geopatogen nodes, that show unnatural phenomena, hostile to living beings. These were considered malefic places by locals. Even in ancient China, imperial specialists tested every piece of land before building a house. The specialists were people with paranormal powers, who searched for the "Dragon's fangs", as the areas filled with negative energy were called.
In Romania, 20 years worth of research have shown that such negative energy zones have a bad effect on the well being of people living nearby. After 10 months of dwelling in such an area, one would experience insomnia, nausea, headaches, followed by a disturbed heart rate and finally cancer. These studies were not 100% confirmed yet.
There's also a conspiracy theory, claiming that in the area of Bucegi and Retezat Mountains there's an underground civilisation, controlling the world's disasters and other climate changes. The same exaggerated theory says that the Retezat reservation was created in order to keep the civilisation away from the mass public and we also found out that, apparently, people are sometimes kidnapped and introduced to the strange world of the mysterious dwellers of the area.
Geomagnetic abnormalities usually surface in areas where tectonic plates meet and get ruptured, or violent geologic phenomena have taken place, but sometimes they're grouped following a strange network of lines, generating coordinates and nodes of malefic energy or good energy. We remind you that this sort of research and speculations are always under development and updates will always appear, sometimes contradicting everything we knew so far.
The Legend of Pestera Ialomitei (Ialomita Cave)
Ages and ages ago, in ancient times a mighty and cruel wizard lived in Bucegi. His name was Bucur and that Bucur had a nasty habit: he used to kidnap beautiful young women and girls and take them to his cave, up in the mountains.
The tricky thing was that they followed him on because Bucur laid a spell on them so they could not recognize the magician and see Bucur as a handsome young man… or maybe he was handsome indeed, no one knows. Many lads and furious husbands went up the mountain to search for Bucur and the ladies but all of them were lost for ever, never to come back, never to be seen again.
The legend tells us about a beautiful girl who once lived in Rucar, a nice village at the bottom of Bucegi mountains and her name was Ialomita. She was very proud and bold and swore she would not go at Bucur’s calling. One Sunday afternoon the wizard showed up in the village. He was looking like a young shepherd and no one recognized him – anyway, no one in the village knew how Bucur actually looked like.
He went straight to the place where the dance area was and there he started playing his flute in such a wonderful and strange way that people were astonished and none of them thought of asking the handsome stranger who he was. It seemed that the stranger’s flute was magic. At a certain point the shepherd stopped singing and offered his flute to Coman, a handsome lad from Rucar who was also present at the dance area. This was another trick of Bucur: you see the wizard knew that Coman was very much in love with Ialomita and he was the only person in the spot who might have spoiled Bucur’s plans.
When Coman started playing the flute he could not stop any more. The shepherd disappeared as mysteriously as he came. When night came people went back home only Coman and Ialomita could not leave the place. Coman was not able to stop singing and Ialomita was under the flute spell as well. A nightingale came and sang along with Coman. Then the bird left for the forest and the two spellbound youngsters followed the nightingale deeper and deeper in the wood.
When the dawn came the spell was over and Ialomita was struck with dismay as she did not know where she was and she had a terrible bad hunch… she wished to had been a bird to be able to go up the sky and find the way back home. Suddenly the girl was turned into a pigeon but then a big falcon rushed at the little bird and took Ialomita up to the rocks. Undoubtedly that falcon was Bucur who would have done anything to catch his prey. Then Ialomita wished to be a deer but again a terrible hunter came out of nowhere and pointed at her. The deer ran towards a cave which was in fact Bucur’s cave and inside it she noticed that all the dripstones and stone columns in this cave were actually all fair maidens. They all cried at Ialomita to run away fast because if Bucur managed to kiss her she would be petrified like they were. Suddenly an arrow flew by and pierced the deer. Ialomita was seized with fear more than ever and prayed to be a river so she could run away. Again she was turned into a fast river but the furious Bucur turned himself into a huge rock so he could stop the water.
But Coman heard his lover’s cries and rushed towards the place where they came from. He stroke a blow at the rock using the magic flute… at that moment the wizard lost all his powers and was doomed to remain a rock forever and Ialomita a river but she found a way to flow over Bucur’s rocky arms. Coman never came back to his village: he became a monk and built a small monastery in front of the cave so he could be with his lover for the rest of his life.
True facts:
Pestera Ialomita (Ialomita Cave) is indeed situated in Bucegi Mountains and it is part of the Horoabel – Ursilor natural reservation. This is a very beautiful cave which is also very large – its official length is around 480 meters but according to other scientists it is actually much longer and they speak of 1120 meters of cave galleries. Its location is in Cheile Pesterii at 1660 meters altitude. Apart from its beauty the cave is also well known for the Ialomita Monastery which was built right at the cave entrance. The first church was built here by Mihnea cel Rau, governor of Wallachia in the 16th century and it was raised for the local monks. Being a wooden building it burnt down because of a lightning in the 19th century. The present church dates back to 1901.Author: Irina Petre
Photo: Lucian Fratila
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