Marcu-Istrate, Daniela - Rusu, Adrian Andrei - Szőcs Péter Levente (szerk.): Arhitectura religioasă medievală din Transilvania 3. (Satu Mare, 2004)
Alexandru Baboş: Invisible features in the Design of the Timber Curches of Maamureş
large churches, like Steblivka, Sokyrnytsia and Apşa din Jos Părău soleea reached 4 ells, in general, while in the small ones, like Hărniceşti and Văleni, only 2 ells. Particularly, the lengthy nave at Săliştea de Sus dos appears clearly partitioned between the 12/3 yards of the soleea and the men’s floor of 7 x 7 yards, whereas a perfect semi-cylindrical vault covered the entire room, 8 yards above. Since the nave was determined, the dimensions of the narthex unfolded from this easily. The narthex — or the ‘women’s church’ - was always incorporated in the same oblong plan as the nave, separated only by a cross wall. Therefore, the two rooms shared the same starting width. The ‘women’s church’ was often dimensioned about as long as the men’s church, excluding the soleea. This it was was a natural solution, because the women were as many as men, if not more. The two delimiting cross sills, however, always calculated within this room, reduced the floor inside the narthex. It took long time to understand the meaning of this decision, but it turned out, that the answer is very plausible. In order to mount the tower above, the narthex was built as a stable prismatic structure, planned considering all enclosing bearing walls. Through this way of thinking, the churches of Sat Şugătag and Sârbi Josani were planned with longitudinal ground sills, divided identically in 5+5+2 yards. This unveiled not only a very conscious planning, but also the same person of builder in the construction process (fig 7:a-b). The churches of Danylovo, Oleksandrivka, Fereşti, and probably those of Breb, Dragomireşti, and Domneştiul Mare, together with many other ones, follows the same pattern. A different model is presented by the monastery churches of Giuleşti, Moisei and Bârsana, where the narthex is just half of the nave. This pattem indicates that the monasteries were accommodated to the monks’ preference. If it is easy to understand the presence of the short narthex at the monasteries, it is hard to comprehend this situation in case of some parish churches, like Budeşti Josani and Sârbi Susani. On the contrary, the ‘women’s church’ in Hărniceşti, Apşa de Mijloc Josani and Apşa din Jos, is longer than the men’s one, providing a rare but fair balance between the number of men and women, admitted inside the church. Whenever a porch was erected to shelter the western entrance, the width of this part was identical to the church’s one. Its length was usually limited to 2VS, 2 or 3VS ells, only in the case of small moanseries of Moisei, Bârsana and Giuleşti, this building part reached 4 and respectively 4VS ells. At the other end of the church, behind the icon screen, was the unconditional place of the sanctuary. As a rule, this holy room was - with a remarkable exception at Valea Stejarului - narrowed from the large nave. In most of the cases, it was narrowed by 3 ells, in all kind of churches: as well in the small ones, like Comeşti, as in the middle ones, like Apşa de Mijloc Susani, Strâmtura, and Deseşti, and in the large churches, like Neresnytsia, and — the very large one at - Budeşti Josani. Furthermore, the length of the sanctuary was The Timber Churches of Maramureş 295
