Object

Description

It was built in the year 1766 in the village of Forăști, from the commune with the same name. It is situated in the village cemetery. The church was built by the landlord C. Forăscu, the period of the construction being attested by an inscription written on the upper frame of the entry door ”7274 March 4”. Initially, the church was small, the local community being also numerically small. The chronicle of the parish mentions that in the second half of the XIXth century, a closed porch was added on the south side, with a tall tower bell above it. Another series of renovation works took place in 1920 when the walls were coated with fir boards, both at the inside and the outside, and which were subsequently painted (in order to protect the church’s beams from bad weather) and the apse's windows were enlarged in order to allow a better lighting inside the church. In 1959 the roof, who started to degrade, was replaced, a new roof being built out of fish scales shingles, with high slope and a slight elbow in the apse’s area. The wide overhanging eaves have the purpose of protecting the walls of the church, not allowing for the rain water to drain off the walls. Since the church was too small for the community, building a new church became necessary. The wood church of Forăști is built out of oak beams in dovetail and covered with fish scales shingles. It has a high stone plinth. The walls made of beams are plated with very discoloured green painted boards. It has also a wood tower bell of the same colour. The monument has a triconch shape, with pentagonal apses (both the lateral ones and the recessed one of the sanctuary) and with a church porch on the south-west side. The age of the construction is proved by the framework of the entry door (on which the inscription is placed). At the inside, the church is divided in four rooms: the porch, narthex, nave and sanctuary. In order to enter the room, you must pass through the door situated on the southern wall of the porch. Between the porch and narthex, there is a separating wall which had a door before building the porch. The entry is made by a portal which bears an inscription surrounded by decorative motifs. On the both frames of the door, there are the same motifs, this time symmetrically arranged: a vase from which three branches with a trefoil design at the ends, with a stylized spindle rising above. In the upper side of the frame there is a rosette with six rays, surrounded by a circle, a sun with rays resembling a human face (with eyes, nose and mouth), a cross, a half-moon and again a rosette (identical with the first one). The sanctuary has a pentagonal apse and three windows, and in the recesses in north and south side there is the proskomedia and the diaconicon. The window in the sanctuary apse axle was widened, while the small windows of the two recesses have kept the initial dimensions. The iconostasis is placed in front of the recessed apse.