Church of Saint Nicholas in Ribița

The Church of Saint Nicholas stands on a low hill in the centre of Ribița, the seat of Ribița commune, in the Brad area of northern Hunedoara County. The village is recorded in 1439 as "Ribicza". Built of stone blocks dressed at the corners, the church has a rectangular sanctuary with a barrel vault, a thick-walled nave and a bell tower with a Gothic portal, fronted by an open wooden porch; on the first floor the tower opens onto the nave through two windows, forming a gallery for the founders. The inscription beside the votive portrait names the founders as the nobleman Vratislav (Vladislav) and his brother Miclăuș, with their wives, in the reign of King Sigismund. The inscription cannot be read in full, and the construction date is debated: most historians give 1417, with 1404 and 1414 also proposed. The three founding brothers, Matia, Vratislav and Miclăuș, gave rise to the noble families Ribiczey, Nemes and Brádi. The present appearance results from renovations in 1869-1870 and 1927-1928. The painting, covered with plaster in the seventeenth century, was partly uncovered in 1994 and 2009-2010 by the restorers Dan Căceu and Dan Petrescu. The sanctuary shows Saints Basil the Great and Nicholas and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel; on the south wall of the nave is the votive portrait of the brothers Vladislav and Miclăuș presenting the church model to Saint Nicholas, with the costume of the period rendered in detail, and on the north wall are the Hungarian king saints Stephen and Emeric and Saint George. The style points to the same painter who decorated the church at Crișcior. The church is a Category A historic monument, LMI code HD-II-m-A-03431, and is an Orthodox church.