Church of the Dormition in Strei

The Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God stands in the cemetery of Strei, a village belonging to the town of Călan, Hunedoara County. It is a small rubble-stone building made up of a bell tower on the west front, a rectangular nave with a timber vault and a rectangular sanctuary with a cross-rib vault on massive stone ribs. The tower has a stone spire of pyramidal-conical shape, and two Roman funerary stelae are built into its base. The combination of Romanesque forms (the massive tower, narrow windows) with early Gothic features (the rib vault, the pointed west portal) led scholars to date the church to the late thirteenth century. It was the court chapel of the local knyaz family; remains of the medieval residence were found about 80 m north-west of the church. The present cemetery overlies an eleventh to thirteenth century burial ground and a Roman villa rustica, which supplied part of the building stone. A narthex was added in the fifteenth century and removed around 1717. Inside there is a cycle of mural paintings, restored in 1970-1972 by the painter Nicolae Sava: Christ in Glory with the procession of apostles in the sanctuary, and the Annunciation, Saint Nicholas and other saints in the nave. An inscription in the sanctuary apse, beside the painter's portrait, names the master: "Grozie, son of master Ivaniș, painted the church". The church was once painted on the outside as well. The church is a Category A historic monument, LMI code HD-II-m-A-03452. The medieval residence (HD-I-s-A-03209) and the villa rustica within the cemetery (HD-I-s-B-03208) are listed separately as archaeological sites.