Cuhea as the example of structural churches în Moldova și Transilvania

Abstract

The article describes a group of churches, made of stone, in the structure of which the specificity of the construction technique of wooden buildings has been preserved. The name of the village Cuhea, where the oldest churches of this type is located, gave the name of the group, having a symbolic meaning, the village being of Bogdan, the first voivode of Moldova.The place of genesis of this churches is located in Maramureș, where the forested natural environment provided the building material, suggesting the construction technique and architectural forms. A specific of this group of churches are the short nave and the elongated apse of the altar, features characteristic of Romanesque basilicas, and the separation of the women’s room that was later. Another specific is the transposition in stone of the crowns from the beams, through an ancient process, which simultaneously offered the thickness and length of the walls of the crowns. The Carpathian Mountains are in the contact area of Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy) and Western Christianity (Catholicism), where the old local folk methods were enriched with new ones, which the master builders spread far along the eastern and western slopes of the Carpathians. In historical Moldova, churches with similar structural-planimetric characteristics are attested only in the villages: Cotnari, Iași country, and Lipceni, Rezina district.