Wooden Church of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Bârsana

Bârsana is a village in the Iza valley, the seat of the commune of the same name, first recorded on 26 September 1326 in a charter of King Charles Robert. The village is known for its carved wooden gates in the Maramureș style, and its woodcarvers include Teodor Bârsan, Ion Bledea and Ion Marchiș. The old wooden church stands in the cemetery on Jbâr hill, within the village, and should not be confused with Bârsana Monastery, the new complex built after 1993 at the edge of the village towards Strâmtura. The national List of Historic Monuments and the UNESCO nomination file date the church to 1720. According to the history published by Bârsana Monastery, the church belonged to the village's old monastery, and after the monastery was dissolved on 12 July 1791 the villagers moved it into the village to protect it from desecration. Its movable heritage, restored by Sanda and Pavel Bucur, is now kept in the museum of Bârsana Monastery. The church is built of logs on a rectangular plan, with a narrower polygonal altar apse. A bell tower with an open gallery and a tall pyramidal spire rises above the narthex, and the roof has a double eave. Inside, the nave has a polygonal vault rather than the semicircular barrel vault usual in the area. The two-storey porch on the west side, with arcades on carved posts, was added later, and the windows were enlarged. The interior painting was executed in 1806 by Toader Hodor of Vișeu de Mijloc. The church is a class A historic monument (LMI code MM-II-m-A-04517) and since December 1999 has been part of the UNESCO site "Wooden Churches of Maramureș", together with the churches of Budești, Desești, Ieud Deal, Plopiș, Poienile Izei, Rogoz and Șurdești. The church has no electricity.