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
Susani and at some churches with double porches, however, the basement was laid above the last row of beams. As a rule, the neck of a tower was raised on the massive beams of a basement, using the entire narthex, sometimes even the porch as well, as its anchoring area. Therefore, the dimensions of these structures are in intimate relation. At Corneşti, the 6 yards long narthex was superposed by a 3 yards wide tower. At Sat Şugătag, the relation was 5 to 3 yards, while at Dragomireşti 6 to 4 yards, and at Cuhea S'A to 4 yards (fig. 7:b-d). At Sokymytsia, the narthex and the porch were 7 yards long together, allowing a 4 yards wide tower, whereas at Steblivka, the relation between the length of the narthex and the porch on one side, and the tower’s width on the other side, was IVi to 5 yards. Thus, the longer the bearing structure was, the wider was the base of the tower. The height of a tower resulted even much more from the length of the comer uprights. These robust uprights were dimensioned 3 times the tower’s width at Sat Şugătag (fig. 8), and Borşa din Jos. In fact, in most of the cases, this size was more or less around this proportion. Beyond any doubt, the new parish church of Cuhea, crowned by the mightiest tower, overshadowed the all other monuments. Here, the uprights measured almost 4 times the width, as much as the long ground sills - no less than 15 yards. The second highest tower was erected above the church of Vişeul de Jos - now in Botiza - where to the triple width of the tower another 2 yards were added to reach the 112/3 yards long uprights. The church of Budeşti Josani has a shorter, but still impressive, tower, the uprights there have a length of 10 yards, as much as the width of the church. The frame of the neck was built straight, in general, with the same width under the bell chamber as at the level of the basement. From this basic rule derived the towers at Dragomireşti and Steblivka, narrowed upwards with 1 yard. Distinctively, in all known churches “with eyes” the tower was appreciably narrowed upwards. The tower at Sârbi Susani presents a singular case: here the tower was unexpectedly widened upwards with 1 ell. The bell chamber was often laid on consoles above the neck of the tower, stretching outside seldom with more than 1 feet on each side. Its numerous uprights forming open arcades towards the four cardinal points were usually cut short, between 4 and 6 feet. The tower was finally ended with a high pointed roof of long poles, most often being difficult to measure. In some cases, repairs were carried out, which made possible to measure them. Accordingly, the poles at Budeşti Josani have a length of \A'A ells, an identical size with the rafters of the roof, while at Sârbi Susani the pole were 10 ells long, equal with the width of the church. During a visit in Deseşti in 1996, the dismantled old poles of the spire were measured 19 ells long, equivalent with the length of the church. Unfortunately, the original poles rising the iron cross to the sky were not ‘worthy’ of the The Timber Churches of Maramureş 297
