The village of Densu\u015f is located in a region known as the Ha\u0163eg Land,
\nsituated in western Romania, close to Ulpia Traiana Sarmisegetuza, the capital
\nof the former Roman province of Dacia. This small village at the foot of the
\nmountains is mainly known due to a quaint old church with a hazy history: the
\nSt. Nicholas Orthodox Church, built around 1360. Here is father Florin Dobrei
\nwith the Orthodox Archbishopric of Deva and Hunedoara with more on the origins
\nof the church in Densu\u015f. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The church was believed to have been a
\nsynagogue of a Jewish community built back in the time of Dacian king
\nDecebalus, which was taken over by the conquering Roman troops and turned into
\na pagan temple first, where human sacrifices were being performed. There is
\nanother hypothesis, namely that the church was built by the Goths, being from
\nits early days a Christian place of worship. But according to most of the
\nstudies conducted by historians, the church belongs to the large family of
\nbuildings from Moesia around the 12th-4th centuries. All
\nthese historians have also identified the builders, the local voivodes in Densu\u015f,
\nfrequently mentioned in the Hungarian medieval documents, the M\u00e2njina family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Part of the mystery shrouding the church is related to its role prior to
\nbecoming a Christian place of worship. The church’s appearance has, along the
\nyears, fuelled controversies as to its origin. Built out of white stones with a
\nhigh steeple placed on a massive, almost rectangular structure, the edifice is
\ndifferent from any other place of worship in Romania or anywhere else. The
\nsteeple, maybe the most famous element of the church, is roughly 20 meter high,
\nbeing supported by four pillars, each made up of two overlapping Roman altars
\nof almost three square meters. It was built almost entirely out of stones
\ncoming from altars, tombstones etc, brought from Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa or
\nfrom the neighbouring rustic villas. Here is father Florin Dobrei with more on
\nthe pre-Christian period of the church.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the 18th century, experts claimed the construction was of
\nRoman origin. The first to formulate such a hypothesis was an Austrian officer
\nwho settled in Transylvania, baron Sylvester von Hochenhausen. In 1775, he
\npublished a book featuring some of the Romanian churches in the Ha\u0163eg Land.
\nThis book pays special heed to the building in Densu\u015f. Hochenhausen claims
\nthat, initially, the church was a pagan temple devoted to the Roman God Mars,
\nerected upon the order of the Roman general Longinus, who was the governor of
\nDacia for a temporary period of time, more precisely between the two Dacian-Roman
\nwars. Starting from this hypothesis, some historians claim that, at the turn of
\nthe 4th century, the old sanctuary became a Christian place of
\nworship. The current building has a series of elements specific to an old pagan
\nsanctuary. Some of the elements and decorative pieces are indicative of an
\ninitial pagan character of the building, and I would like to mention the three
\nfunerary lions, two on the upper vault of the apse and one on the tower,
\nhorse-like figures sculpted in the lower part of the column near the entrance
\nto the naos, as well as on two other columns near the iconostasis, the Latin
\ninscriptions, copied, reconstructed and translated into German by Hochenhausen,
\nthat mentioned the name of Longinus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As of the 13th
\ncentury, the history of the church in Densu\u015f became easier to understand. Here
\nis Florin Dobrei again: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
At the dawn of the
\nwidely accepted history of the Romanian voievodates or princely states in the
\n13th-14th centuries, they made the assumption it was a
\nchapel of the Mu\u015fina princely court. Later on, in the 15th century,
\nit belonged to the Orthodox parish in the region. In the absence of a Slavonic
\ninscription, experts accept the idea that, between the 16th and 18th
\ncenturies, the chapel was used by both the Orthodox community and the small
\nReformed Church community. In the early 18th century, the building
\nwas administered by the Greek-Catholic Church, whereas in the mid 18th
\ncentury it appeared in documents as an Orthodox place of worship, following the
\ncensus of 1761-1763. It was then returned to the Greek-Catholic church, until
\n1948, when it became an Orthodox church again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In recent years, the
\nchurch in Densu\u015f has been included in tourist circuits, being an attraction for
\nmany people practicing cultural and religious tourism in the area of Hunedoara
\nand the Retezat Mountains.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The village of Densu\u015f is mainly known for to a quaint old church with a hazy history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":168373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45326,44180],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-densus","tag-hateg"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n