Church & monasteryMaramureș & Bukovina

Desești Wooden Church: the painted UNESCO church of Maramureș

The wooden church of Desești (Biserica de lemn din Desești), dedicated to Saint Parascheva, is a Romanian Orthodox church in Desești Commune, Maramureș County. Built around 1770 and painted in 1780, it is one of eight wooden churches of Maramureș on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and its murals cover every wall of the interior.

In Maramureș locals call the narthex of a wooden church “the women’s church”, and the painter of Desești filled the Hell scene with personifications of Laziness, Death, Plague and Famine.

WhereDesești Commune, Maramureș County, in northern Romania

TypeWooden Orthodox church of the 18th century, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999

Best forPainted interiors, the Last Judgement mural and Maramureș wooden church heritage

Getting thereBudești Josani church is about 9 km away and the church of Bârsana about 16 km

The history of the Desești wooden church

The church of Saint Parascheva in Desești belongs to the group of wooden churches that made Maramureș famous. In December 1999 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with seven other wooden churches of the county, and it is also a listed historic monument in Romania. Specialists describe it as one of the characteristic monuments of 18th-century Maramureș.

The date of building is debated. The Greek-Catholic vicar of Maramureș, Tit Bud, recorded that it was built in 1770, and the researcher Joby Patterson proposes the same year. The historian Marius Porumb placed it in the middle of the 18th century, while Alexandru Baboș dated it to 1780. Since the murals and the iconostasis were made in 1780, the church was probably raised a few years before it was decorated.

The decoration is the church’s great treasure. Inscriptions in the apse and the narthex name the painter Radu Munteanu, who came from the village of Ungureni in the Lăpuș area, and a second painter, Gheorghie. One inscription of 1780 states that “the hosts of the village”, the leading villagers, paid for the painting of the porch; another, above the iconostasis, records that a priest’s family paid thirty-five florins for it, as a remembrance for ever. The iconostasis is attributed by style to Alexandru Ponehalschi, an itinerant painter whose activity is first recorded in 1751. That two of Maramureș’s best-known painters worked in one church makes Desești especially important.

Today the church holds fourteen icons on wood, one of them from the 17th century and the rest from the 18th. The oldest pair, of 1752, probably belonged to the earlier church, and Ponehalschi painted another pair in 1778. The building was a Greek-Catholic church until 1948, when it passed to the Romanian Orthodox Church; the Greek-Catholic Church still claims it. Extensive restoration of both the architecture and the murals was carried out in 1996, 1997 and 1998, shortly before the UNESCO listing.

Curiosities about the Desești wooden church

In Maramureș wooden churches the narthex is called “the women’s church” by locals, because women follow the service from there. At Desești this is also where the Last Judgement is painted.
The Hell scene in Desești stretches across three walls. A river of fire flows from beneath Christ’s feet into the mouth of the monster Leviathan, and above it sit Laziness, Death, Plague and Famine, which the same painter later repeated at Rogoz in 1785.
One scene in Hell carries the inscription “the girl who sleeps on Sunday”, a sign of how openly the murals preach a moral lesson.
In the nave, five scenes from Genesis run along the base of the vault, and the Passion cycle has sixteen scenes, the most detailed part of the painting.
The iconostasis is painted straight onto the east wall of the nave and rises to the vault in three registers, with only four movable icons in the lowest row.
Radu Munteanu’s earliest known work is an icon of the martyr Parascheva painted in 1754 at Sălnița, and a Saint Parascheva icon from the end of the 18th century was probably the patron icon of the church.

Tours near Saint Parascheva Wooden Church, Desești

Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:

Private Maramures Walking Tours

★ 5 (29 reviews) · 4 h

See details ›

The Best of Maramures in One Day

★ 5 (17 reviews) · 7 h

See details ›

Maramures in a nutshell

★ 5 (15 reviews) · 9 h

See details ›

Maramures Guided Tour

★ 5 (7 reviews) · 6 h

See details ›

Visiting the Desești wooden church: what to see

The murals are the main attraction, and they survive in good condition on all the walls of the three rooms: the narthex, the nave and the altar apse.
In the narthex, look for the Last Judgement, with Christ as judge on the east wall, the apostles and trumpeting angels, and the long Hell scene.
The nave pairs Old Testament scenes from Genesis with New Testament miracles, parables and the Passion, in a strongly moralising spirit, and the west wall holds a large tree of the patriarchs.
Other wooden churches are close by: Budești Josani church is about 9 km away, the church of Bârsana about 16 km, Stephen’s Tower about 24 km and Săpânța-Peri Monastery about 26 km.
The sources do not say how visits are arranged, so check the current opening hours before you go.

Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.