3. Wooden Churches

A substitute name for Maramureş is "The Land of Wooden Churches“. When you travel through small villages, you can easily notice how they preserve their old wooden church, a testament to local builders. Eight of these monuments, located in Bârsana, Budeşti, Deseşti, Ieud, Plopiş, Poienile Izei, Rogoz, and Şurdeşti, have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The wooden churches are not only tourist attractions: they are also places of worship for the villagers, who, dressed in their traditional clothes, show up every Sunday morning to pray and pay respect. With high steeples, meant to take people closer to God, heavy hand-sculpted fir tree or oak logs, shingle roofs, and antique paintings and frescoes, every such church has its history and tales carved in its wood.