The wooden Church of St Nicholas in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, Anghelești village, Pietrari commune, Vâlcea County* (I)

Monograph

Motto: ‘In their ignorance, they fail to realise that these new churches, however large and grand they may be, fall far short of the beauty and true artistic value of the small wooden churches inherited from eras of faith, built by devout Christians, by craftsmen inspired by faith and guided by the tradition handed down from their forefathers. They do not realise that art can only be created with faith in one’s soul, and that in an age of materialism and superficial culture such as ours, one cannot even aspire to such a thing” (N. Ghika-Budești)1.

Preamble

Three years ago, whilst searching for other forgotten wooden churches in Vâlcea County, we too (re)discovered, following in the footsteps of other historians from the 1970s and 1980s of the century just ended, an ancient ecclesiastical monument, moving not only for its architectural harmony but also for its humble stature. The small church in the middle of the cemetery in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, in the village of Anghelești, Pietrari commune, withstood the ravages of time and secularisation with the dignity characteristic of places of worship. Our attention was drawn from the very outset to the church’s rather unusual layout (a nave with an altar and a polygonal narthex), as well as to the absence of a porch – a sure sign, though difficult to prove through documents, of the church’s antiquity. Even on first viewing the monument, several facts stood out clearly: it had undergone repeated repairs and alterations over time, sometimes using materials unsuitable for the building’s original structure (oak beams), its state of preservation was precarious (massive infestation by insects and fungi), the structure was compromised, it had been plastered and painted in the nineteenth century, and the external beams bore signs of having been moved, at the very least. And perhaps last but not least, like other precious wooden ecclesiastical monuments, the church had long since been deconsecrated and was being used as a store for various materials and tools used in the cemetery. Presumably, all that was left to happen was for it to collapse one day, thereby freeing up a plot of land.

The first step taken by the HAR Foundation 2 was to survey the church, photograph it, draw up the plans and then draft a monographic sketch, using the data available at that time. The history of the monument was as scant as that of almost all wooden churches, because few art historians, far too preoccupied with the importance of princely and boyar stone-built foundations, have, over time, accorded these ancient places of worship the importance they deserve.

In a village in Suceava County (at Lămășeni), the locals gave the small 18th-century wooden church, inherited from their ancestors, a most evocative name: they called it ‘the grandmother of the churches’ – newer ones built in the area. In our case, we were to discover not a grandmother, but a great-grandmother, still standing, of the places of worship in Northern Oltenia, and perhaps even of the whole of Wallachia – a great-grandmother of the Muntenian churches, the custodian of a long and mysterious history.

During the summer and autumn of 2009, the monument underwent assessment and technical evaluation, followed by digital surveying and triangulation (3D scanning), and work was carried out to dismantle the wooden church in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, in the commune of Pietrari, with a view to its restoration and relocation to the Vâlcea Village Museum in Bujoreni. During the same period, the frescoes were removed from the monument’s two tympanums. The big surprise came on the final day of work when, as the layer of fresco was being removed from the tympanum between the narthex and the nave, something came to light, after almost two centuries, something we rarely find today in wooden churches: the monument’s original inscriptions (even rarer still, there are two such documents, both written on the same beam). Their discovery and deciphering prompted us to resume our monographic research into the monument and, in a sense, to reconsider the views we had expressed in previous studies regarding the antiquity of wooden churches in northern Oltenia. The church dedicated to ‘Saint Nicholas’ in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, Anghelești village, Pietrari commune, dates – based on the combined evidence of the two inscriptions carved into the beam between the narthex and the nave, as well as certain observations regarding the structure and typology of the building – to the late 16th century and early 17th century. It is, it seems, the oldest surviving wooden church in Northern Oltenia, the existence of which can be unequivocally proven.

On the antiquity of wooden churches in Wallachia

The origins of the construction of wooden places of worship are lost in the mists of time. Most of the existing documents attest to their presence across a vast area as early as the dawn of the Middle Ages, throughout the Balkan region, and particularly in areas which, from the very beginning, developed what we now commonly refer to as a ‘wooden civilisation’. Such a civilisation characterises most of the areas within the borders of present-day Romania, and wooden architecture—both secular and religious—undoubtedly represents an important chapter in the history of our art. One piece of evidence for the widespread use of timber in architecture in Wallachia during the Middle Ages is provided by Dinu C. Giurescu in his work Wallachia in the 14th–15th Centuries:

‘The obligation to fell trees and transport them appears repeatedly in documents. Exemption from the tax known as “copaci” is also granted to certain inhabitants of Târgoviște (…). The same exemption is recorded in other documents as ‘wood’ or ‘timber’ (…). It is certain that all the timber required for construction was fashioned from the tree trunks brought to the feudal lord by the dependent villagers, in accordance with the obligations to which they were subject. Part of this, namely the ‘tălpile’ – the thick beams upon which any above-ground structure rested – had to be worked by serfs for the benefit of the lord and constituted a specific tax mentioned in those times3”.

In his fine book entitled The History of the Romanian Church and the Religious Life of the Romanians, Nicolae Iorga emphasises both the antiquity and the importance of the wooden church within the national context:

“The very first Romanian churches in Wallachia and Moldavia and in the regions beyond the mountains were built of wood. (author’s note) It was in such wooden churches that all divine services were held in our villages and in our few, very few, market towns, right up until the 14th century. (…) Even the earliest rulers, having no stonemasons or brick at their disposal, had wooden churches built in which they could attend services and rest after death. (…) It was not until the 14th century in Wallachia, and in Moldavia during the 15th century, that stone churches began to be built, namely by the princes. Not even the boyars possessed the necessary means or expertise to erect such buildings. It was not until the 16th century that they too began to build, but not parish churches for the peasants, rather crypts for themselves and monasteries. The villages continued to have wooden churches until around the 17th century (author’s note). It was only in the last 300 years that the custom of using wood for churches was abandoned”4.

For his part, the historian Dinu C. Giurescu notes that in the 14th–15th centuries the pre-eminence of wood was evident, including in sacred architecture:

“In this field too, wooden architecture was overwhelmingly dominant, all the more so as the forests then extended from the mountains and hills down to the Danube Valley (…). No wooden churches from the 14th–15th centuries have survived. However, some monuments of this kind, which have survived to the present day, reflect in their layout and technical methods the realities that existed over 500 years ago’5”.

In one of his studies on wooden churches, Paul Petrescu also emphasises the antiquity of these monuments:

“Many of the monuments preserved to this day, dating from the 17th or 18th centuries, represent architectural styles that are several centuries older, essentially illustrating the art of building from the High Middle Ages in Romania. Not only are most of them built on the sites of earlier places of worship, but in most cases the repair and restoration of these wooden buildings took place gradually, over the years, with the occasional replacement of a beam or a log here and there, so that at some point there may no longer be a single beam left from the old structure, yet the architectural form and sometimes even the details are preserved exactly as they were in this lengthy process of repeated and multiplied replication. (…) Romanian wooden churches dating from the 18th and 19th centuries can only be described as a final stage representing superior artistic forms, of a long evolution, the origins of which are directly linked to the beginnings of our people’s architectural tradition”6

The ethnologist’s observation is particularly valuable as it demonstrates both a process of continuity in the construction of wooden churches and the fact that the old church served as a model for the one that eventually replaced it, either on the same site or on a new one. This idea is also supported by Ioana Cristache-Panait in her study on wooden churches in the central Getic foothills:

‘Whether destroyed by enemies or worn down by the elements, a wooden church was generally succeeded by another made of wood, and it is to this succession that we owe the preservation of ancient floor plans, archaic structural elements and prehistoric decorative motifs, which remained consistent throughout the entire area where our people took shape’7

In the chapter devoted to the reign of Matei Basarab in Professor Răzvan Theodorescu’s volume entitled The Civilisation of the Romanians between the Medieval and Modern Eras, the antiquity of the wooden church in Oltenia is attested by concrete examples 8. The distinguished author recalls the founding in 1633 at Sadova, by Matei Basarab, of a monastery “on the site of a wooden place of worship in Craiova”. Furthermore, Arnota, the prince’s monastery-necropolis, stood, prior to 1637, on the site of a wooden church “belonging to Danciu the steward, the voivode’s father”. From the long and partly mysterious history of the monastery rebuilt by Marica Brâncoveanu at the beginning of the 18th century (Surpatele), we learn today that at the beginning of the 16th century (1512), its church was made of wood. The same is true of the much more famous Dintr-un Lemn Monastery, also built in the 16th century. The antiquity of the wooden monastery church in Oltenia is also affirmed and emphasised by Ioana Cristache-Panait in an extensive study already mentioned:

“The wooden places of worship in Vâlcea with historical and artistic significance amount to nothing more than a handful compared to the vast number that have disappeared (…). We have selected a few examples to support this assertion, with a view to highlighting the ancestral wooden place of worship and marking the passage of time. Thus, the Jghiabul Hermitage preserves, from its origins in the 16th century, the memory of a wooden hermitage. The Brâncoveanu foundation at Mamu took the place of the earlier one at Buzești, dating from the 15th century. Sava Șifarul built the Robaia Hermitage from stone before the mid-17th century, to serve as a successor to the wooden one that had existed in the previous century. From 1676, the small church of Turnu Monastery took over the legacy of that wooden church. The stone church at Genuneni replaced the wooden one in 1797; this did not happen among the neighbours in Frâncești until more than a century later9”.

Sacred wooden architecture is closely linked both to the theological foundations of Christianity and to the mentalities and social status of the founders and beneficiaries, and ultimately to the identity of Christians in the Romanian Principalities. We can easily observe that the oldest known wooden churches in Wallachia in general, and in Oltenia in particular, were generally monastery churches and princely or boyar chapels. An account by Paul of Aleppo also demonstrates that, in the Romanian Middle Ages, the boyars themselves built their churches of wood. Visiting such a chapel at Fărcașele in Olt County, built by the boyar Badea Comăneanu near his palace, the chronicler notes: ‘The biv-vel-comis invited us to visit his new wooden church, which he had built as a hermitage nearby, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul’10

Sacred wooden architecture is closely linked both to the theological foundations of Christianity and to the mentalities and social status of the founders and beneficiaries, and ultimately to the identity of Christians in the Romanian Principalities.

The spread of the wooden parish church—a project undertaken by the entire community—in the traditional villages of northern Oltenia appears to have taken place, it would seem, in light of the recent discovery of the inscription on the wooden Church of St Nicholas in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, in the village of Pietrari, a century earlier than previously thought, that is, in the 17th century. Over the following two centuries, the founding of parish wooden churches became a veritable phenomenon with a dual significance: spiritual and cultural. The small wooden churches scattered across a vast area, sharing many similar stylistic and architectural features, yet each one a unique architectural gem in its own right, stand as testaments to the faith, living traditions and mentalities of a social class with a distinct status, during the period between the end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of modernity. In certain cases, some of the wooden churches, like some of the stone churches in Wallachia, were commissioned by local minor boyars or even by prominent church figures.

This is explained by the nature of the building material (wood is far more perishable than masonry); consequently, most of the wooden churches that have survived to the present day were founded in the 18th and 19th centuries. As regards their dating, Paul Petrescu goes even further, dismissing as false the notion that most wooden churches date from the centuries in question: ‘The structural perfection, the great art of composing volumes, the architectural vision of the whole, the skill in the placement of decoration – qualities possessed by these churches ‘dated’ to the 18th and 19th centuries – presuppose a long-standing knowledge and practice of the art of timber construction’11 The ethnologist’s conclusion is that wooden churches have a long history throughout the Romanian-speaking world. It is, however, appropriate—precisely in order to unravelling the history of the small wooden church in the hamlet of Cărpinișu—to clarify the subtle differences between monastic wooden churches and rural parish churches in the medieval Muntenia region. The former is, however, older than the latter.

The construction of sacred wooden architecture required the presence of craftsmen whom we might today describe as ‘highly skilled’. They were true initiates in the purest sense of the term and, at the same time, the custodians and transmitters of the secrets of a long and distinctive building tradition. The craftsmen who built wooden churches differed from those who built houses, farm outbuildings and traditional engineering structures. Alex. Lepedatu points out in a 1912 study that local craftsmen appeared in Wallachia in the 16th century; until then, Serbian craftsmen had predominated, and that many stonemasons and carpenters were brought in from Transylvania (Christian, the governor of Târgoviște during the reign of Vlad Țepeș, requested two carpenters – carpentarios – from Brașov12).

History of the settlement

Imagine

Thirty kilometres west of the town of Râmnicu-Vâlcea, on the road to Horezu and just 18 kilometres away from it, in the valley of the same name, lies the old commune of Pietrari. The village is situated in the foothills between the Bistrița Vâlcii and Olt rivers (in the area of the high terraces of the Sub-Carpathian hills). Across the Negrulești Pass, situated at an altitude of 500 metres, to the west of which lies the Hurezi Depression, runs the national road linking the towns of Râmnicu-Vâlcea and Târgu-Jiu beneath the mountain. It appears that the ‘salt ridge road’13, used to transport salt from Ocnele Mari towards western Oltenia and the Danube, once crossed this area. The monograph on the commune of Pietrari notes that:

“The development of the village was linked to the passage through its present-day territory of the Sub-Carpathian road, which had existed since the very beginning of the political organisation of Wallachia and connected Turnu Severin with the country’s capital, Târgoviște. The road was sheltered from possible Ottoman interference, was under the protection of the Grand Ban of Craiova, and connected with the great salt road that ran down the Olt Valley. Another salt road was the one that started at Ocnele Mari, passed through the village of Bârlogu, then over Strâmba Hill via Pietrari, and reached Gorj County, heading towards the Cladovei salt works. The salt was transported by packhorses and carts, and a customs duty14 was paid for its transport.

The commune of Pietrari was founded on both sides of the Otăsău stream. The village centre is situated on the eastern slopes of the Motești and Cârlige hills.

The first documentary mention of this ancient settlement dates from 23 May 1536 (7044) and appears in a document issued by Radu Paisie Voivode, in which the ruler “confirms the estate in Pietrari for Negomir and his brother Coman”15.

The exact date on which the villages of the commune of Pietrari were united is not known with certainty. We first learn of this situation after 1875, when the commune of Pietrari, in Vâlcea County, Ocolu District, appears in the Great Geographical Dictionary of Romania. The hamlets of Albota, Anghelești, Cărpinișu, Schit and Manta were included within the main settlement of Pietrari, whilst the hamlets of Sărata, Motești, Ograzu and Vârtoapa were part of the main settlement of Pietrari de Sus 16. According to the information contained in the locality’s monograph, the villages comprising the commune were often split off to form separate communes, and the boundaries of the two villages’ territories constantly shifted due to disputes over primacy.

In 1901, V. Vladimirescu drew up the Boundary Survey of the Petrari de Sus freeholders’ estate, in the Cozea region, Vâlcea County, which established the boundaries of the commune of 17.

Today, the village of Pietrari is situated on the south-eastern slopes of the Motești and Cârlige hills and on both banks of the Otăsău, and comprises the hamlets of: Coastele Cernii, Anghelești, Schit, Brodele, Manta, Pătiraști, Motești, Ograzu and Cârlige, situated along the roads connecting to the national highway. The centre of the village of Pietrari de Sus is situated on the eastern and northern slopes of the Cuculici and Sărata hills and along the course of the Sărata Valley. Pietrari de Sus comprises the hamlets of: Albota, Cuculici, Linia Nouă, Sărata, Bucheni, Valea Ciuhurezeștilor, Linia Băilor18

Various local legends offer several hypotheses regarding the village’s name. One of them suggests that the place name derives from the inhabitants’ former occupation of transporting limestone from Bistrița to Râmnicu-Vâlcea. Another version of the name suggests that in the village, most house foundations were built from river stone extracted from the bed of the Otăsău River, but this hypothesis is somewhat implausible, as wooden houses built on stone foundations represent an architectural style specific to the entire northern region of Oltenia and beyond. A local legend has it that 500 years ago the village was founded by inhabitants who had fled, fearing raids, from another settlement called Piatra Călmățui and settled on the floodplain of the Otăsău stream, in a village called Păișești. It is said that the inhabitants of Păișești used to come to visit their ‘stone-mason brothers’19 There is also a rather plausible theory, though one that cannot be confirmed by documentary evidence, according to which the village’s name derives from the boyar Pietraru, who is said to have had his manor house at a place called Schit.

What we know for certain today, having examined numerous archival documents (over 50 deeds of land grant, sale and purchase, donation, inscriptions and various notes dating from 1627 to 1816), is that Pietrari was by no means one of the insignificant settlements of northern Oltenia. The village was not only ancient, but also a very prosperous settlement populated by free peasants who owned estates. After 1536, the date of its first recorded mention, the name of the village or of some of its inhabitants—wealthy peasants, boyars of higher or lower rank, church dignitaries, are recorded in these numerous documents, which bear witness to the virtually continuous habitation and prosperity of the inhabitants of Pietrari.

Dated 7 May 1627 (7135), the oldest document—after the one recording the village’s first mention—in which the name of a resident of Pietrari appears is the Deed of the village of Valea lui Dobre. The document records a land transaction in Băteșani. Among the witnesses to the transaction, who came from neighbouring areas (Boteni, Cismănești, Folești, Chiceni), is ‘Ioan i Coman ot Pietrari’20 Al. T. Dumitrescu, the author of the article published in 1909 in the Revista pentru Istorie, Archaeology and Philology, states that the records of the Pietrari of Vâlcea, of which the aforementioned document forms part, were preserved “with great care by Mr C. Petraru, Member of Parliament”. The same article mentions the 1799 boundary charter, according to which “the Stonemasons of Vâlcea are freeholders with a charter of ownership dating from the time of Pătrașcu Vodă, the father of Mihaiu Viteazul, that is, dated 19 July 1557, as confirmed by the boyars sent to the site in 1799 to survey the boundaries, who state that they saw ‘a copy of a charter issued by His Highness the late Pătrașcu Vodă, dated 19 July in the year 7065 (1557), which the Pietrari landowners brought to us’21. This appears to be a document of crucial importance for the village of Pietrari, as it proves beyond doubt the antiquity of a free community in northern Oltenia. Indeed, the author of the article himself emphasises the importance and exceptional qualities of the freeholders of Pietrari:

“The Pietrari clan, who once owned a third of the entire village’s territory—the strip of land known as Rotăreasca—still hold the small estate today, which they have maintained with great difficulty. Judging by their deeds, the people of Pietrari were indeed sturdy folk, for had they not been so, they would have lost their land long ago’21

A moment of serious crisis for the village is also recounted in the above article. It concerns the ‘break-up of the village’ and the ‘dispersal of the freeholders’, which are also mentioned in a deed of sale dated 28 March 1810, in which a priest named Anghel from Ștefănești, in southern Gorj, sold a portion of his estate within the boundaries of Pietrarilor. In the document, the priest states that the land was inherited and had been held by his ancestors until “the destruction of the village during the time the Turks were here”22

It appears, however, that not all the inhabitants of Pietrari were free peasants, as a document dated 28 May 1628 (7136) mentions a certain Lady Maria who was to divide the estate and the ‘Rumani’ of Pietrari in two with the grandsons of Anghel Comis 23. ‘Rumani’, as is well known, was the name given to serfs.

Towards the end of the 17th century, documents referring to Pietrari or its inhabitants became increasingly numerous. Thus, a document dated 8 February 1694 attests that a plot of land in Pietrari was sold to Bistrița Monastery by Pătrașco, son of Marin and grandson of the priest Drăghici of Budești. The same document mentions a certain Vâlcu from Pietrari, whom we shall encounter again in the course of this monograph 24. Most of the documents relating to the village of Pietrari date from the second half of the 18th century, which, by all accounts, was a fairly prosperous period for the settlement, given the numerous records detailing land transactions of one kind or another. The name Pietrarii de Jos (today’s Pietrarii, distinct from Pietrarii de Sus) first appears in records from 1756 (7264) in two deeds dated 12 January. The first is a boundary demarcation document in which the priests Matei Stoienești, Ilie of Bodești, Gheorghe of Otești and the neighbouring landowners Matei Tîlvîc of Păușești, Radu Bârzescul, Radu Anghelescu and Sima Moțea, demarcate the Pietrarii de Jos estate belonging to the local freeholders, which they had purchased from the boundary of Folești and upwards. The demarcation is carried out by order of Ștefan Pârșcoveanul, former Grand Steward, and Ilie Zătreanul, former Grand Sheriff25 The second document features roughly the same protagonists and, in turn, establishes certain boundaries. Six neighbours are summoned, by order of the same Ștefan Pârșcoveanul, former chief steward, and Ilie Zătreanul, former chief of the village, Nedelcu of Pietrari with his men, and Neacșu Vintilescu with his brother Sima Cârstănești, to measure and select their share of the inheritance from the Pietrarii de Jos estate. The name ‘Cărpenișu’ appears for the first time in this document as a boundary of the Pietrarii de Jos estate, alongside the Săliști forest and the Folești boundary26 The name ‘Cărpinișu’ reappears later in a will (diată) dated 10 April 1781 (7289), drawn up by the priest Pătru of Pietrari: Ion, son of the priest Gheorghe of Pietrarii de Jos, bequeaths, amongst other things, to his daughter Maria “10 stânjeni from the woodland at Cărpiniș (n.n.), the Zăpozii orchard, a strip of vineyard by the hillside, the fruit trees and two stânjeni from the meadow by the church’27 It should be noted that in this instance ‘codru’ does not mean ‘forest’ but rather a place or a plot of land, and, in all likelihood, the church in question mentioned in the will is the wooden church dedicated to ‘Saint Nicholas’ in the hamlet of Cărpinișu. We thus have the first evidence that the church was located here in 1781. Dated 28 April of the same year is what appears to be an addendum to the will of the same priest Ion, son of priest Gheorghe of Pietrari, who bequeaths to his son Gheorghe five vineyard plots, orchards in the hazel grove, in Valea cu Anini; to his godson Toma, half a ‘falce de pământ’; the same to his grandson Constandin; and to his daughter Oprea, he gives as a dowry a woodland called Cărpiniș (author’s note). This deed was drawn up by the priest Popa28

Among the written records concerning the commune of Pietrari are the inscriptions on the three stone crosses in Pietrarii de Sus. These were deciphered and published by Constantin Bălan in his comprehensive work Medieval and Modern Inscriptions of Romania. One of them was situated on a moșnen estate and is dated 1741; the second was at St Nicholas’ Church and is dated 1773. Both are memorial crosses bearing the names of the donors. Finally, the third, dated 20 December 1743, located on the estate of the logothete Ioniță Pietrarul, was erected through the efforts of Bishop Climent, born in Pietrari29

In 1778, the Austrian General Von Bauer mentions in his memoirs two villages: ‘Petrari de Sus’ and ‘Petrari de Jos’, as well as two churches ‘situated on the Otessul’30.

In the second half of the 19th century, more precisely in 1864, most of the inhabitants of the village of Pietrari were free peasants. In 1885, Pietrarii was still divided into two localities: Pietrarii de Sus and Pietrarii de Jos, independent communes belonging to the Cozia region and known collectively as ‘Pietrăriile’. After 1876, the two villages merged to form the commune of Pietrari, in Vâlcea County, within the Ocolul district. The village centre included the hamlets of Albota, Anghelești, Cărpinișu, Schitul Manta31 To this day, the commune has undergone successive splits and reunifications of the villages of Pietrarii de Sus and Pietrarii de Jos, due to divisions amongst the inhabitants. In 1952, the two villages merged for the last time. Since 1968, the former village of Pietrarii de Jos has been known as Pietrari32.

In the past, various traditional crafts were practised here, such as carpentry, wheelwrighting and loom weaving, all of which have now disappeared. In 1901, George Ioan Lahovari recorded the existence of four mills on the River Otăsăul, within the commune’s district, and noted that “the inhabitants are freeholders, with the exception of 12 who acquired ownership in 1864 of 24 ha from the estates of Messrs G.I. Pietraru and G. Pietraru”33.

In an article devoted to the wooden church in Pietrari-Anghelești, Andrei Pănoiu maintains that the local freeholders were renowned for trade and cartage 34. Eugen Petrescu states that the traditional occupation of the peasants of Pietrari was ‘traveling the roads’, that is, trading in fruit (dried apples and plums), potatoes, lime, salt lumps from Ocnele Mari, and that lime was also produced here from the limestone of Builei, which undoubtedly brought prosperity to the settlement’s inhabitants 35.

Today, Pietrarii has a population of around 3,400, who are mainly engaged in agriculture, livestock farming and beekeeping. The layout of the village has remained the same, with houses lined up along the main road and scattered farmsteads on the side streets branching off from it. The village’s wide lanes extend right down to the foot of the hills.

Priests and churches in Pietrari

The presentation in this chapter of religious life and places of worship in Pietrari, a free village in northern Oltenia, towards the end of the Middle Ages, as well as the documentary overview in the previous chapter, are not overly lengthy introductions to this monograph. Their role is to attempt to clarify certain aspects which, with few and notable exceptions, have not been researched, relating to social and religious life, mentalities, and the general mood of the free communities in northern Oltenia between the second half of the 17th century and the 18th century. The discovery of the inscriptions on the wooden church in Anghelești-Cărpinișu—themselves written documents of major importance for understanding the phenomenon of church foundation, both in the Vâlcea region and in Wallachia, proves beyond doubt that Orthodox places of worship in this area began to be founded by free communities a century earlier than had been believed until recently. For this reason, we have undertaken archival research and are presenting its findings.

It is quite clear at this stage that the flourishing material circumstances of the free peasants, on the one hand, the coalescence of rural communities into clans with a clear affiliation to a well-defined territory, on the other hand, and the need to pass on, alongside material possessions, of faith and traditions from one generation to the next—in short, the need to create a lasting identity—led to the emergence and gradual perpetuation of the collective act of endowment. The ‘right of foundation’, attested in Wallachia during the 14th–15th centuries and initially granted to princes, boyars and priests 36, expanded from the 17th century onwards, becoming a right also enjoyed by communities of freeholders.

The village of Pietrari, frequently mentioned in 18th-century archival documents, stands out not only for the status and standing of its inhabitants, but also for the large number of priests born in the area, who were, naturally, involved in the religious and social life of the local Christian community. In ‘The Records of the Pietrari of Vâlcea’, the aforementioned article by Al. T. Dumitrescu from 1909, the author noted: ‘Many priests, archpriests and a Bishop Climent have come from the Pietrari family. He wrote that the tradition of building churches on one’s ancestral land is a custom ‘in honour of the country and the homeland’ and that this custom ‘wasestablished in our country from ancient times and from the settlement of the land’”37

The oldest document in which the name of a priest from Pietrari is mentioned dates from 2 April 1726. It concerns Priest Matei, who was involved in a boundary demarcation of the estates in Pietrari alongside Priest Ion of Bodești, Vasile of Pietrari, Priest Nicodim of Bistrița, Gheorma of Pietrari, Stan of Hrizei and Mihalcea 38.

A will dated 23 December 1753 is signed by Priest Gheorghe of Pietrari, son of Pătru. He bequeaths various possessions to his wife Tomița and his favourite son, Ion, requesting that the customary memorial services and alms be performed in his honour. Interestingly, the will also mentions Priest Gheorghe’s brother, who was also a priest, Priest Constandin, and the will was drawn up by Priest Ilie of Bodești, the brother of Priest Gheorghe 39. We can see from this very deed that the priesthood in Pietrari was a charism bestowed upon members of the same family. A document dated two years later, on 8 April 1755, attests that, at times, in Pietrari, the priesthood was passed down from father to son: Priest Nicolae, together with Priest Gheorghe, son of Priest Mihalcea of Pietrari, granted to Priest Ioan of the same village (n.n.), son of Tudosie Popescu, ‘a plot of land in Piscul Cireșului for the remembrance of him and his relatives’40 Even more telling from this perspective is the document dated 31 January 1756, whereby, following a court ruling, Priest Mihalcea of Pietrarii de Jos is to take possession of an estate there. A certain Ion the deacon, mentioned in the same document, states that he too was entitled to a share of the inheritance in the same place and cites as evidence a deed from the year 1678 drawn up by one of his ancestors. This deed states that the portion of the estate in Pietrari was sold to his brother, Deacon Pătru, who is the grandfather of Priest Mihalcea41 (author’s note).

A priest named Ion, son of Priest Gheorghe of Pietrarii de Jos, appears in two documents from 1781, already mentioned, whilst a document dated 25 April 1794 lists as signatories the priests and village elders of Pietrari (author’s note) 42 In 1800, we find Ion, son of Deacon Dobre of Pietrari, and Ion, son of Priest Constandin of Pietrari43, listed in a deed of sale for a property.

Finally, directly linked to the history of the wooden Church of St Nicholas in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, Anghelești village, Pietrari commune, there is an entry dated 1815/1816 on pages 5–6 of an Apostol from 1747 (7254), held at the Pietrari Hermitage. From this we learn that in the second decade of the nineteenth century, the priest Ioan Cazacu served at the small wooden church: “And let it be known that I, the most sinful priest Ioan Cazacu of the church in Cărpeniș, have written this; and may whoever reads it be blessed(blessed) by God and by me, and may they forgive me, a great sinner. Year 7324’44”.

It is clear that, with the exception of Dionisie the Churchwarden—who was also a native of Pietrari—the most prominent figure in the village at the end of the Middle Ages was Bishop Climent, born around the year 1685 to parents Radu and Paraschiva. The future bishop was given the name Constantin at his baptism. He had two brothers, Simion Vătășelul and the priest Mihu, who became a monk as Macarie the hieromonk at the Pietrari Hermitage, and two sisters. One of them, who took the veil after marrying a priest named Matei, is known as Mother Ștefana45.

Climent, a former disciple of Damaschin Voinescu who became a monk at Hurezi Monastery, was consecrated as a bishop in 1735. He was granted the title of ‘Exarch of Severin and ruler over all of Mehadia and other regions’ and became one of the greatest founders of churches and monasteries: he rebuilt the church of the Diocese of Râmnic and the infirmary in its courtyard, and founded the Pietrari hermitage (together with his brothers Popa Mihul of Pietrari and Simion Vătășelul of Pietrari) between 1742 and 1744, on his ancestral estate, situated on the eastern edge of the village of Pietrari de Jos, he was also the founder of the hermitages of Colnic and Pătrunsa and of the churches in Bodești, Folești and Gorani. In 1746, he took part in the campaign to abolish the Romanian language, undertaken by Prince Constantin Mavrocordat 46. The distinguished character of Bishop Climent is also highlighted in a study by Răzvan Theodorescu:

“We thus come to one of the high points in the history of Vâlcea’s monuments, namely the ministry of a bishop who was a native of the region: namely Climent, abbot at Bistrița and subsequently bishop at Râmnic between the summer of 1735 and the spring of 1749, when he made his ‘paretisis’ (resignation from office). A founder in his own right, like no other bishop of Râmnic in that century, Climent was a contemporary of other founders—minor local boyars—who would follow his example”47.

The Pietrari Hermitage, his foundation on his ancestral estate, where he himself lived between 1749 and 1753, (the year of his death), under the name of Cosma, after having received “the great rite of monasticism”48, is counted amongst the representative ecclesiastical monuments of northern Oltenia. In the summer of 1746, the Metropolitan of Ungrovlahia, Neofit the Cretan, accompanied by Bishop Climent, visited several churches and monasteries in Vâlcea and subsequently recorded the event: “On Wednesday 30 July, we arrived in the evening at an estate belonging to Bishop Climent called Pietrarii, where he has a stone house and a stone church, and we remained there on Thursday 31 July”49.

No fewer than nine inscriptions, including the inscriptions on the stones, the names on the portraits of the founders, the names on the gravestones – as the monastery became a necropolis for some members of the bishop’s family – and the names of monksand painters – are published by Constantin Bălan, providing valuable information about the Church of the Annunciation at the Pietrari Hermitage 50. Among the painters’ names recorded in several inscriptions dated 1744–1745, we note “Popa Gheorghie, his brother Andrei (brat ego)” and Danciu Filip.

Al. T. Dumitrescu’s 1909 study refers to the concluding part of the deed of the Pietrari Hermitage, in which Bishop Climent asks his successors to the See to look after his church and its estates, just as, he says, “I too took pity on this holy bishopric, so that I did what had not been done before, and renewed what had fallen into disrepair, and raised up what had collapsed, and repaired what had been damaged”. The author of the study cannot resist offering a eulogy to the founder of the Pietrari Hermitage: “There is no doubt that Bishop Climent is the most prominent Romanian figure of that era. He leaves an indelible mark on the diocese and a legacy of piety within his family. That is why, on many occasions, Bishop Climent’s great-grandchildren and brothers, when at odds with one another, would reconcile, fully realising that ‘by taking close heed of our ancestor’s legacy’ from the year 7259 (1751) 4 March, “the discord amongst us”, they say, “would be a disgrace to him”51

The free community of Pietrari, like other such traditional communities in northern Oltenia, is a founder of churches. The free peasants, landowners in Wallachia, just like the răzeși in Moldavia, began, from a certain point in medieval history, to build their own places of worship, whether of wood or stone. Until recently, we were led to believe that this practice in Wallachia only began in the 18th century, but the spectacular discovery of the inscription at the wooden Church of Saint Nicholas in Pietrari proves that the phenomenon of founding wooden village parish churches predates this by a century.

Răzvan Theodorescu highlights a specific category of founders, drawn from among the church officials in the traditional villages of Vâlcea:

“A special category of founders in Vâlcea – and this remains a characteristic feature throughout the 18th century and the first decades of the following century – is the clergy. This category includes, as we shall see, archpriests, who were of a higher social standing (…), ieroi – that is, priests authorised to hear confessions and administer Holy Communion (…), and hierodeacons, namely monks who were also priests within monasteries. The first explanation for this situation lies (…) in the role and prestige of the Diocese of Râmnic; a second, very important one, in the fact that, from an economic point of view, they were superior to the rest of the villagers due to the fundamental fact of their exemption from taxes”52

Sometimes, the priest was the founder of the local church, together with the village, as was the case with the wooden Church of Saint Nicholas in Pietrari in the 17th century. The cultural and socio-economic context of the last two centuries of the Middle Ages in this area (free communities existed in almost all the villages neighbouring Pietrari) proved conducive to the foundation of churches by local communities, the founders being members of those communities themselves, free peasants supported by a church official or a local boyar. ‘The fate of the founders’ memory became intertwined with that of the valley. From what has been preserved through inscriptions, documentary sources and traditions, a broad spectrum of founders emerges: hierarchs, priests, monks, members of princely families, minor boyars, teachers, but above all the community”, noted Ioana Cristache-Panait in her authoritative study dedicated to the wooden churches of the central Getic foothills, 53.

The people of Pietrari in Vâlcea had several churches within the territory of the present-day commune, built between the 17th and 20th centuries. The oldest is, without a doubt, the wooden Church of Saint Nicholas in the hamlet of Cărpinișu, which has been relocated and restored at the Vâlcea Village Museum in Bujoreni. The most famous ecclesiastical foundation of the Pietrari is, equally beyond doubt, the hermitage dedicated to the ‘Annunciation’, built by Bishop Climent, with his portrait and those of his brothers Simion Vătășelul and the priest Mihul painted in the narthex, a historic monument of regional importance.

As regards the history of the wooden churches in Pietrari, almost all the documents and studies examined only serve to deepen the mystery and confusion that generally surround these places of worship. Nicolae Stoicescu notes the existence in 1840, in Pietrarii de Jos, of two wooden churches: St Nicholas from 1737 and St Nicholas-Cărpeniș from 1810, ‘one of them a monument’ (sic)54. Ion Popescu Cilieni also notes that in Pietrarii de Jos there were two wooden churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas, one in the Cărpinișu neighbourhood, “built by Father Matei of Genunenii on 6 December 1810” and the second “built by Anghel, Pătru and Stan Moghină and the other parishioners on 6 December 1737”55. The monograph on the locality, however, turns the situation on its head, recording the existence of a church half timbered and half brick, with a porch, dedicated to ‘Saint Nicholas’, built in 1810 and situated in Pietrarii de Jos, in the courtyard of the stone church dedicated to ‘Saint Parascheva’. Even the inscription attesting to the date of the church’s foundation—in place of an older one dedicated to Saint Paraschiva—in 1810 is transcribed. By contrast, the church in the village of Anghelești (Cărpinișu) is attested as early as 1737, its founders being Anghel, Pătru and Stan Moghină, and built of oak timber 56. The reverse, so to speak. Moreover, the catalogue of churches in Vâlcea County, held by the County Directorate for Culture, Religious Affairs and National Cultural Heritage 57, lists the wooden church dedicated to ‘Saint Nicholas’ in the hamlet of Anghelești, Pietrari commune, as a historic monument built in 1737.

In Pietrarii de Jos there is also the church dedicated to ‘Saint Paraschiva’, built in 1907, and the newest one, dating from 1995, erected in the Cărpinișu neighbourhood, next to the old wooden church which, until recently, was awaiting demolition.

Among the churches of Pietrarilor de Sus, we should also note the wooden church, built in 1865, during the reign of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza (in the shape of a nave without towers, with an open porch) and the parish church dedicated to the Holy Voivodes, consecrated in 1922 58.

(To be continued in the next issue)

* The church is listed in the Register of Historic Monuments under classification code VL-II-m-B-09869.

• 1

  N. Ghika-Budești, ‘A Few Wooden Churches in Oltenia’, in B.C.M.I., vol. XIX, no. 47, January–March 1926, p. 2.

• 2

  The continuation of a wide-ranging project to study, document and even restore churches of this type in northern Oltenia, which has been carried out by the HAR Foundation in partnership with the Vâlcea County Museum since 2000.

• 3

  Dinu C. Giurescu, Wallachia in the 14th and 15th Centuries, Editura Științifică, Bucharest, 1973, chapter ‘Crafts and Techniques’, pp. 115–116.

• 4

  Nicolae Iorga, The History of the Romanian Church and the Religious Life of the Romanians, 2nd edition, Ministry of Religious Affairs Press, Bucharest, 1929, pp. 34–35.

• 5

  Dinu C. Giurescu, op. cit., Chapter III, pp. 131–133.

• 6

  Paul Petrescu, ‘The Unity of Structural and Decorative Design in Romanian Wooden Churches’, in S.C.I.A., Volume 14, 1/1967, Published by the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania, Fine Arts Series, pp. 23–24.

• 7

  Ioana Cristache-Panait, ‘The Wooden Churches of Central Getic Piedmont: Olt, Vâlcea and Argeș Counties’, in S.C.I.A., Fine Arts series, Vol. 42, pp. 29–62, Bucharest, 1995, p. 32.

• 8

  Răzvan Theodorescu, Romanian Civilisation: From the Medieval to the Modern Era, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1987, vol. II, chapter ‘Muntenian Traditionalism under Matei Basarab and the Paths towards the Future’, pp. 17–18.

• 9

  Ioana Cristache-Panait, op. cit., p. 31.

• 10

  Paul of Aleppo, Foreign Travellers on the Romanian Lands, Editura Științifică, Bucharest 1976, vol. 6, p. 220. Paul, Archdeacon of Damascus, Aleppo and all the Arab lands (1637–1667), known by his Arabic name Bulos ibn az-Za’im, companion and secretary to his father, Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, visited the Romanian Lands between 1653 and 1658 in order to secure financial aid for the Patriarchate of Antioch.

• 11

  Paul Petrescu, op. cit., p. 23.

• 12

  Alex. Lepedatu, ‘Historical Research on the Church Craftsmen of Wallachia in the 15th and 16th Centuries’, in B.C.M.I., vol. V, no. 20, October–December 1912, cited in Iorga, Doc Hurmuzachi, XV, p. 95, I. Bogdan, The Documents of Brașov, I, p. 358.

• 13

  L. Badea, Constanța Rusenescu, Vâlcea County, R.S.R. Academy Press, Bucharest, 1970, chapter ‘The Sub-Carpathian Depression and Hills’, p. 61.

• 14

  Constantin Mereșescu, Crina Popescu, Pietrari, a village named after flint (Monograph of the Municipality of Pietrari), Ofsetcolor Publishing House, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, 2010, Chapter II, p. 48.

• 15

  “By the grace of God, I, Radu Voivode and Lord of the whole land of Ungro-Wallachia, son of the most gracious and great Radu Voivode. I, the Prince, hereby issue this decree of my reign to Negomir and his brother Coman, and to their sons, however many God may grant them, that they may hold the estate in Pietrari, because they purchased it from Stan for 260 aspri, and again purchased it from Albu for 260 aspri, and again purchased it from Stoica for 250 aspri, and again purchased it from Stănislav for 300 aspri, and again purchased it from Vladu for 150 aspri, and again they bought from Oprea’s brother for 80 aspri, and again they bought from Stănislav for 80 aspri, and again they bought from Radu for 80 aspri, but from the riverbed as far as Valea Mare and Cârstian’s pond. And they bought again from Radu for 120 aspri, two jaws, and they bought again from Stoica one jaw for 90 aspri and they bought again from Stan for 55 aspri, and then Negomir and his brother Coman stepped forward and made an exchange with Radu of Pietrari (n.b.) and his brother. Thus they gave him the lower part of Valea Ursului, whilst Radu and his brothers gave Negomir and his brother Coman the upper part of Valea Ursului, estate for estate, in the fields, in the mountains, and everywhere. And once again, I granted to Micleuș and his brother Dumitru a holding in Pietrari (n.b.), Negomir’s share, whatever part he may choose, because they purchased it for 440 aspri. And let Radu’s share be half, for they bought it for 60 aspri. And they gave me the horse. For this reason, I have granted them, so that it may be their hereditary estate—for them, their sons, their grandsons and their great-grandsons—and may no one encroach upon it, as I have decreed. Here are the witnesses I have appointed: Jupan Drăghici, vornic; Jupan Șerban, Grand Ban of Craiova; Vintilă, Grand Vornic; Jupan Vlaicul, Grand Logofăt; Udriște, Treasurer; Stroe, Spătar; Staico, Commissioner; Dragul, Stolnic; Stroe, Paharnic; and Badea Izvoranul, Grand Postelnic. The steward Vlaicul, Grand Logothete. Written on the 23rd day of the month of Iu‹nie›, in the year 7044 (1536)”. Archival Treasures of Vâlcea (Catalogue of Documents from the State Archives in Râmnicu Vâlcea), vol. II, 1467–1800, Bucharest, 1985, p. 56, document no. 196, a work compiled by Corneliu Tamaș, Ion Soare and Carmen Manea-Andreescu.

• 16

  George Ioan Lahovari, The Great Geographical Dictionary of Romania, Bucharest, 1901, vol. IV, p. 705.

• 17

  The commune’s territory borders the following localities: to the east, the commune of Stoenești and the village of Bârlogu, from which it is separated by a conventional boundary line running along the ridge of Dealul Mare; to the south, the commune of Păușești-Otăsău, from which it is separated by a conventional boundary that crosses the Otăsău stream and extends eastwards to Dealul Govorei and westwards to the point known as ‘Valea Mare’; to the west, the commune of Tomșani, with a conventional boundary starting at the point known as ‘La Lac’ and running along the crest of Tomșani Hill in a south-east to north-west direction for a length of 1,730 metres to the mound in Valea Bună; to the north, it is bounded by the commune of Bărbătești (the villages of Bârzești and Negrulești), from which it is separated by a conventional boundary 1,750 metres long, starting from the point known as ‘Răduț’, running to the peak of Chicirla, and from there, along a winding line, to the bed of the Otăsău stream.

• 18

  Constantin Mereșescu, Crina Popescu, op. cit., Chapter II, pp. 43–44.

• 19

  In the Romanian Middle Ages – and not only there – it was often the case that a community fleeing from invasions would establish another settlement in more sheltered locations.

• 20

  Al. T. Dumitrescu, ‘Historical Documents: The Records of the Stonemasons of Vâlcea – Bishop Climent of Râmnic’ in the Journal of History, Archaeology and Philology, vol. X, issue covering January, February and March, Bucharest, “Carol Göbl” Institute of Graphic Arts, 1909, p. 327.

• 21a21b

  Ibid., p. 324.

• 22

  Ibid., pp. 325–326.

• 23

  Document 39, (DRH, B, XXII, pp. 194–195, no. 87, Rez. Catalogue III, no. 804) in ‘Archival Treasures of Vâlcea’ (Catalogue of documents from the State Archives in Râmnicu Vâlcea), vol. II.

• 24

  MS 184, f. 83v–84, in Tezaur Medieval Vâlcean (Catalogue of documents from the State Archives in Râmnicu Vâlcea, 1388–1715), Bucharest, 1983, p. 305, volume compiled by Corneliu Tamaș, Ion Soare and Carmen Andreescu.

• 25

  Ibid., document 516 (DI, XLIII/14), p. 126.

• 26

  Ibid., document 517 (DI, XLIII/12), p. 126.

• 27

  Ibid., document 854 (DI, XLIII/19), p. 198.

• 28

  Ibid., document 858 (DI, XLIII/27), p. 199.

• 29

  “By the will of the Father, with the help of the Son, and through the working of the Holy Spirit. This holy cross was erected on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, through the efforts of the God-loving Bishop Climent of Râmnic, a native of the village of Pietrari, during the reign of his lord, Io Mihai Racoviță, voivode, on 20 December 7252” in Constantin Bălan, Medieval and Modern Inscriptions of Romania (Historical County of Vâlcea, 14th century–1848), Romanian Academy Press, Bucharest, 2005, pp. 770–771.

• 30

  “Oltenia according to General Von Bauer’s memoirs (1778)”, in Arhivele Olteniei, vol. III, No. 14/ July–August 1924, p. 304.

• 31

  Constantin Mereșescu, Crina-Steliana Popescu, op. cit., p. 45.

• 32

  Eugen Petrescu, Vâlcea, The Land of the Getic Wolves or The Vâlci Region, Conphys Publishing, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, 2007, vol. II, p. 75.

• 33

  George Ioan Lahovari, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 705.

• 34

  Andrei Pănoiu, ‘An Unknown Monument of Folk Architecture in Vâlcea County’ in BCMI, no. 2/1970, p. 70.

• 35

  Eugen Petrescu, op. cit., p. 76.

• 36

  Dinu C. Giurescu, op. cit., Chapter VII, p. 430.

• 37

  Al. T. Dumitrescu, op. cit., p. 326.

• 38

  Document 196 (DI/7) in Archival Treasures of Vâlcea (Catalogue of documents from the State Archives in Râmnicu Vâlcea), vol. II.

• 39

  Ibid., document 495 (DI, XLIII/8 and 9), p. 122.

• 40

  Ibid., document 512 (DI, XLIII/10), p. 125.

• 41

  Ibid., document 537 (DI, XLIII/18), p. 130.

• 42

  Ibid., document 1183 (DI, XLIII/40), p. 267.

• 43

  Ibid., document 1424 (DL, LII/6), p. 316.

• 44

  P.S. Năsturel, ‘The Former Hermitage of the Annunciation in Pietrarii de Jos (Hurezi District)’ in Mitropolia Olteniei, no. 3–4/1955, p. 209.

• 45

  Mircea Păcurariu, ‘Bishop Climent of Râmnic’ in Mitropolia Olteniei, no. 1–2/1965, pp. 23–24.

• 46

  Eugen Petrescu, op. cit., p. 79.

• 47

  Răzvan Theodorescu, Bishops and Founders in 18th-Century Vâlcea, Patrimoniu Publishing House, Vâlcea, 2009, p. 143.

• 48

  The Diocese of Râmnic and Argeș (monograph), Râmnicu-Vâlcea, 1976, vol. I, p. 126.

• 49

  Mircea Păcurariu, op. cit., p. 46, quoted in Ghenadie Enăceanu, ‘Metropolitan Neofit I of Ungrovlahia’ in The Romanian Orthodox Church, vol. II (1785–1786), p. 11.

• 50

  Constantin Bălan, op. cit., pp. 764–768, inscriptions: I 1242–I 1250.

• 51

  Al. T. Dumitrescu, op. cit., pp. 326–327.

• 52

  Răzvan Theodorescu, op. cit., p. 8.

• 53

  Ioana Cristache-Panait, op. cit., p. 35.

• 54

  Nicolae Stoicescu, Bibliography of Feudal Settlements and Monuments in Romania, Vol. I, Wallachia, published by the Metropolitan See of Oltenia, 1970, p. 480.

• 55

  I. Popescu Cilieni, Churches, Market Towns and Villages in Vâlcea County, Ramuri, Craiova, 1941, pp. 32–33.

• 56

  Crina Popescu, Constantin Mereșescu, op. cit., pp. 185–186.

• 57

  A catalogue published on 1 April 1972 in collaboration with the Diocese of Râmnic and the Vâlcea County Museum.

• 58

  Ibid., pp. 188–189.