Păltiniș Hermitage

Păltiniș Hermitage stands at 1,350 m at the entrance to the Păltiniș resort in the Cindrel Mountains, a component locality of the city of Sibiu. The wooden church dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord was founded by Nicolae Bălan, Metropolitan of Transylvania, and built between 1925 and 1927. The church and the main buildings of the hermitage were built by a group of craftsmen from Rășinari under the guidance of an architect. The church is built of fir wood and roofed with shingles in the style of the old wooden churches of Transylvania. The free-standing bell tower beside it holds two bronze bells cast in 1927, a wooden and a metal semantron. The iconostasis was painted in 1944-1945. Restoration began in 1975 under Metropolitan Nicolae Mladin and continued from 1982 under Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală, and the interior fresco was painted in 1985 by Ovidiu Preoțescu. Beside the church is the grave of the philosopher Constantin Noica (1909-1987), who spent the last years of his life at Păltiniș, where he settled in 1975 and held the seminars known as the "Păltiniș School", with disciples such as Gabriel Liiceanu and Andrei Pleșu. Noica died in Sibiu on 4 December 1987 and was buried at the hermitage on 6 December 1987, with the service led by Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală.