Densuș Church

The church of Saint Nicholas at Densuș looks like no other building in Romania. It is small, thick-walled and asymmetric, with a squat tower rising directly over the nave, and its masonry is a patchwork of Roman material carted from Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa a few kilometres away: inscribed altars, column drums, funerary stones and carved fragments, some set upside down, all built into the walls. Four Roman columns support the tower inside. The date of the building is argued over, with proposals ranging from the seventh century to the thirteenth, and the current consensus places the standing structure in the thirteenth, on an earlier Roman-period foundation. Fifteenth-century wall paintings by a painter named Ștefan survive inside, damaged but legible, among them a Christ in Romanian peasant dress, with later work of the eighteenth century; the building is counted as the oldest Orthodox stone church in Romania. It is still a functioning Orthodox church, which is remarkable for a building of this age and this strangeness, and the surrounding village is quiet farmland.

What to look for

• Roman spolia - inscribed and carved Roman stones built into the walls.
• The interior columns - Roman column shafts supporting the tower.
• Medieval frescoes - fifteenth-century painting surviving on the walls.
• The village setting - the church standing among farmyards and hay meadows.

When to go

April to October. The church may be locked outside service times, in which case the key is held nearby and asking in the village usually works. It is dark inside, so a bright day helps for seeing the frescoes.

Good to know

It is very small, and a visit takes twenty minutes unless you spend time reading the reused Roman stones. Interpretation is minimal. The interior is dim and photography is discouraged. Getting in can require patience if no one is about. There are no facilities in the village.

Nearby

Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa is a few kilometres away; Corvin Castle lies north at Hunedoara.

Key facts