Borsa Church
Year built: 1717
Location: Borşa sits on the upper course of the River Vişeu, 81 km southeast of Sighetu Marmaţiei following the national road DN18.
Summary: The interior was painted by an unknown artist in 1775. The iconographic programme is not very typical for the mural decoration usually found in the historical Country of Maramureş, for the scenes found here are isolated in theme, and there is no logical order to them. A great cultural venue for your First Choice Holidays, Borsa offers preserved beauty at its finest.
The church is rectangular in its plan, the main roof with two sets of eaves covering the porch, the pronaos and the naos. The pentagonal chancel apse is covered with a slightly lower roof. A tall tower sits atop the pronaos, like in all Maramureşean churches. The open porch at the west end of the church is on two levels. Three rounded arches support the west façade on both levels. On the north and south sides there are two smaller arches both upstairs and down.
The paintings contain stylistic features seen in churches of the end of the 18th century around the town of Baia Mare. For instance, the decoration on the vault of the naos, painted in a free style with fragmented curved lines, reminds the style of painter Ştefan, who had worked in 1783 in the wooden churches of Şurdeşti and Plopiş. Besides paintings, the interior of the church is decorated with wooden carvings.
Around 1800 the chancel and the eastern end of the vault of the naos were repainted to cover the signs of a fire. The surfaces were covered with pieces of cloth, on top of which paper was stuck and then painted in vivid colours.
On the ceiling of the pronaos are painted Angels and in the corners Seraphs, while on the walls are The Entrance to Jerusalem, Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, The Banishment from the Garden of Eden, The Stoning of the Holy Archdeacon Stephen, St. Nestor Fighting Lie the Pagan, Alexie the Man of God, Hermits, The Parable of the Ten Virgins, as well as The Last Judgment.
On the vault of the naos are painted The Ascension of the Holy Virgin, The Holy Trinity and The Four Evangelists. On the walls the scenes are painted inside big rectangular fields, framed in white or with painted columns. The scenes are from The Life and Passions of Christ, but they are not placed in any kind of chronological order, as is usual. Inscriptions naming the themes are placed in between the registers. On the lower registers of the walls are also scenes from Genesis and the Lives of Saints.