Frankly, I am a sucker for wooden churches, so much so that I see myself as biased and would implore you to not take my judgements at face value. For instance, I generally loath serial sites. And yet with wooden churches, I am delighted that Eastern Europe is full of them and I get to see even more in the future.

I have spent some time reflecting why I like wooden churches so much. Visits tend to be brief (30min tends to be a lot), the artistry rather simple ... And still I enjoy these visits more than the big run of the mill, awe inspiring cathedral. Or the absolutist Baroque palace. Or...

What I like about Wooden Churches is that these rarely are the buildings of the elite. These are village churches built by the local population with the limited means they had at their disposal. And yet they vary and each has an individual story to tell. While the artistry may be simple, it tends to be sincere and personal.

With this in mind I set out to visit the Wooden Churches of Maramures. Maramures is the Northwestern most region of Romania. Historically, it used to span into what is now Southwestern Ukraine. Nowadays, it's somewhat of a backwater.

Coming as a day trip from Cluj I visited the two easiest to reach churches: Plopis and Surdesti. Both are a 20min drive from Baia Mara and in viewing distance of each other. The Plopis one was closed and I hadn't made the effort of arranging the key. But Surdesti has fixed opening hours and I got to enter.

What sets these churches apart from the many other Central and Eastern European wooden churches, is that they have pretty tall, lean wooden towers. In addition, the interior of Surdesti was richly decorated by fabrics. As usual, I wish I could have seen more, but the two I managed to see were a delight.

Getting There

Hub for the area is Baia Mare. There are train and bus connections to all over Romania, the bus connections being more frequent and faster. I came and went with Fanny Bus from and to Cluj. Fanny operates both direct mini busses as well as normal busses.

Note: The Fanny bus station is several kilometers outside of the town. On my return, I had the cabbie drop me off at the town center and it took me more than 30min to get back to the bus station on foot.

While I am certain that there are bus connections from Baia Mare to get to the churches (see John), I only had 4h in town. I grabbed a cab off the street to take me to the closest churches from Baia Mare, the afore mentioned Plopis and Surdesti. Both are within walking distance of each other (but I was driven). The cab driver had a meter and total was around 150 LEM (25 EUR) including waiting during the visit. He didn't really know where to go, so we took some funny gravel roads on the approach. Parking is indicated from the main road; trust your eyes more than google.

While You Are There

The town of Baia Mare doesn't get the best rep. I found the hour I spent having a massive lunch at the market square quite nice.

Maramures as a region feels a bit lost, stuck in a corner between rural Eastern Slovakia and rural Western Ukraine. There are some beech forests in the area. Around Suceava, there are more churches (made from stone and painted, though). Along the way to Suceava, there is one more tentative site. In addition, you can visit the Dacian Limes (T).