Romania and especially Transylvania they provoke in most of us a slight restlessness together with the memory of a multitude of films and readings related to the Count Dracula , Vlad the impaler and other terrifying beings that seem to have populated this area of the world. In Supercurioso we have spoken to you about Abhartach that could have inspired Bram Stocker to create the figure of the famous Count Dracula and this time we want to approach some mysterious and little known buildings: The impressive Devil Churches in Romania . Join us to discover them!
The impressive Churches of the Devil
The iconography of the Eastern Orthodox church is in general quite different from the one we know. We rarely see paintings dedicated to the devil in the murals and paintings of Catholic churches. In general, this is a secondary character, present, but rarely protagonist. In many of the Eastern Orthodox Eastern Christian churches in the Romanian region of Transylvania, it is not unusual to find vivid representations of the devil and the other angels who fell with him and who reign in hell. Usually they happen to images of the Final Judgment and usually make clear what will happen with those who will not go to heaven, but to the eternal torment in the underworld.
In Transylvania, Romania , there is a group of Orthodox churches that are known as Devil Churches or "bisericile cu draci". They were built between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries and on their walls predominate representations of the devil, hence the name. In them there is no cult to the devil, but the images of its walls are really impressive.
One of the most notorious of these devil churches Its the San Miguel Arcangel which rises in the village of Gurasada, in Hunedoara County .
The original church was from the thirteenth century, but the murals with scenes of demons are from 1765. In them you can see terrifying scenes after the Last Judgment in which the devils torment the sinners.
They are burned, hanged and dipped in boilers to be boiled. Demons subject sinners to endless tortures.
Another of the famous devil churches is also in Hunedoara County. It is the church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel from the village of Almaş-Sălişte.
In the images of this church the demons have a name and punish the bad actions of the villagers who abuse their fellow citizens like the miller and the innkeeper.
These murals by unknown author were painted in 1819.
The last of these devil churches that we present to you is also dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel and is located in Corund, in Satu Mare County. In one of the fantastic murals of this wooden church we see a curious scene in which Lucifer waits for the condemned at the entrance of hell. Above the door a dark demon waves a black flag that symbolizes death and sounds a bugle to announce the arrival of those who will spend eternity in their domains. Meanwhile, other demons push and torture the condemned on their way to hell.
Did you know these devil churches in Romania? Would you like to visit them? Do you think they had any effect on the parishioners who attended Mass in those parishes? Get it with us! If you want to know more about allegedly demonic places, we invite you to read the post: The doors to hell. Where does the tradition situate them?