Mănăstirea Săpânța-Peri
Part of Maramureș
The tallest wooden church in the world, rebuilt on a site abandoned since 1783.
History
A stone monastery stood on this site from 1391, when descendants of Moldavia's founding voivode Dragoș endowed it, and it served for three centuries as the seat of the Orthodox Diocese of Maramureș before it was destroyed in 1783. The site sat empty for over two centuries until 1997, when parish priest Grigore Lutai began rebuilding it in wood, to a design by architect Dorel Cordoș, reviving the tradition of Maramureș's carpenters. Finished between 1998 and 2003 and continued by a community of nuns after 2005, the new church's spire reaches 78 meters — making it the tallest wooden church on Earth, and the third-tallest wooden structure of any kind in Romania. Despite its record-breaking height, it draws far fewer visitors than the region's older UNESCO-listed churches, standing quietly at the edge of the village better known for its Merry Cemetery.