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

church of Steblivka, although devastated by a fire, still enables good measurements of its plan.

The angel 's measure

Once the measurements were made, it can be asked: what significance had the church-width of 720 cm and the church-length of 1039 cm in Sârbi Josani? Do these numbers tell us something about the thinking of the master carpenter in 1684? Perhaps, the successful interpretation can be achieved, when these meaningless numbers are converted in the measurement-units used by that people.

The units for length, used in Maramureş before the generalization of the Austrian measurement system, at the end of the 18th century, are barely known so far. From the beginning of the 19th century, the sizes of the old parish churches, and the plans of the new churches too, were all submitted to the oficials in the Austrian system. The basic unit of this system was the fathom (orgia or klafter, 1,89648 m), divided in 6 feet {schuh, 31,608 cm) and 60 inches {zoll, 3,16 cm). Occasionally, in Maramureş were also mentioned the double fathom {ruda),3 the ell4 and the yard,5 some of them pertaining to an older measurement system. The introduction of the metrical system in 1874, did not replace the older one at once. During the first half of the 2011' century, the master carpenters continued to use the Austrian system along with the metrical system in Maramureş,6 and even today, some living senior carpenters keep a good knowledge of it. Surprisingly, the older units have survived also, despite of the two radical changes of the system.7 The reason of this situation must be found in the successive adaptation of the old measures to the legal systems. For instance, the yard {pas), today is approximated to one meter, while the ell {râf or col), the hand {palmă) and the palm breath {latul de palmă) are either adapted as divisions of the meter or only used to approximate sizes.8

The Timber Churches of Maramureş

3 Ruda, as loan Bârlea explained, was the double of the Austrian fathom: I. Bârlea, însemnări din bisericile Maramureşului, Bucureşti 1909, 241. Yet, ruda used in the partition of the cemetery of Borşa in 1725 might have been a different one from the Austrian rut he, known two centuries later: Ibidem, 45.

4 In 1763, during the works at the monastery of Giuleşti, 8 ells (sing) of iron cost 2 florins and 34 dinars. National Archive, Baia Mare, fond 23, Familia Rednic, doc. 107/1763.

5 In 1867, in Vadu Izei, a distance between two buildings was approximated to 10 yards (paşi). National Archive, Cluj-Napoca, fond 149, 133/1867, fila 13.

6 Pop Ştefan a lu Toader zâs Chidru, a farmer and builder bom in Săpânţa in 1864, related in 1926 that “like the elders, we measure a meter with three feet (şucuri) and two inches (Joli)." Museum of the Romanian Language (Muzeul Limbii Române), Cluj-Napoca, Răspunsuri la Chestionarul Casa, C 366, V 87.

7 Gheorghe Focşa recorded in 1961 units both pertaining to the Austrian system and to the older. Gh. Focşa, Valori perene din creaţiile populare maramureşene, in: Ethnos 2 (1992): 141.

8 “Even today the women use the ell to measure the linen. A mein who wants to approximate a meter calculates it as five hands or three feet (şuci). One yard is also set to one meter.” Interview with the master carpenter Găvrilă Ilotico a lu Ilerenta (Ieud 1938) in 2001.

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