Barsana Monastery and towering steeples

Barsana Monastery, Barsana, Romania

Romania boasts many monasteries, with each style representing a historical period with its invasions and need for defense, and culture group differences.

In Maramures as elsewhere, many monasteries and churches are unpainted wood, see Barsana at http://www.puzzleworld.org/Maramures/barsa01, with stratospheric spires. The timbers are massive. Surrounding forests are being deforested (is the government overseeing anybody? reseeding?)










Monastery near Barsana, post and beam construction, Romania

In another monastery, under construction near Sapanta, we were able to climb up. Here is one outside staircase to the interior. The basic construction was post and beam.

Instead of a railing, the circular stair around the main post has figure-like flat guards on each step, far more practical than carving out a rounded rail.