Strâmba Monastery

Mănăstirea Strâmba, also known as Mănăstirea Strâmba-Păduriș, is one of the old Orthodox monasteries of Transilvania, set in a forested area on the edge of the village of Păduriș, in the commune of Hida, Sălaj County, less than 50 km from Zalău. It is the only monastery for monks in Sălaj County. The date of its founding is uncertain: historian and canon Augustin Bunea, as well as the testimony of Basilian abbot Nichifor from 1761, place its origins in the year 1470. Academician Marius Porumb considers the settlement to have been founded in the 15th century, while other historians place it in the first decades of the 18th century. The founding legend is well known locally: two monks renowned for their spiritual gifts lived on the edge of the forest in Păduriș, offering support and counsel to the faithful. A very wealthy woman with a deformed spine — referred to by locals as "strâmba" (the crooked one) — promised to donate her estate and to build them a church and cells if her gravely ill daughter were healed through their prayers. The girl recovered, the woman kept her word, and the monastery received the name "Strâmba" after the founder's nickname. The only structure still preserved from the original monastic settlement is the wooden church dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, a monument of traditional religious architecture. Monastic life was resumed in 1993, after a long period of interruption. The monastery is accessed from the Cluj–Zalău direction: in the village of Sânmihaiul Almașului, turn right towards the village of Hida, where signposts in the village centre point towards the monasteries of Voivodeni, Bălan and Strâmba; for Strâmba, turn right and continue for a few kilometres along a road that is unpaved at the exit of the village but is well maintained and passable.