Once you have left the centre of Horezu and begin to climb Olarilor Hill to reach the heartland of Horezu’s famous potters, you cannot fail to notice a beautiful place of worship dedicated to Saint Basil the Great, the Holy Princes Michael and Gabriel, and the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helena. The little church, known as the ‘Covrești Church’, was built by the boyars Ion Stanciu Covrea and Ion Dincă Bălănescu, together with their wives, Maria and Păuna, 1 two centuries ago, using brick and river stone, in the shape of a ship with a single spire, on the foundations of an older wooden church dating from the 18th century. The names of the master masons who toiled on this church remain known only to the Good Lord.
In 1845, the hamlet of Covrești (Horezu) had 64 families 2. The Church of ‘Saint Basil’ in the “hamlet of Ogrezani (Covrești)” is mentioned in the 1909 Yearbook, listed under Category B – “Rural parishes” of the Diocese of Râmnicu-Noul-Severin. The parish of Târgu Horezu, which included the Church of St Basil, had 319 families and 1,595 ‘souls’ that year. In 1895, repair work was carried out (the roof had burnt down in 1869) and the porch was enclosed. The church owned small hereditary estates donated by D. Ogrezeanu and Avram Cafenda (“70 lei annual income”). The priest serving at that time was Dumitru Simionescu3
In 1925, the church in the village of Covrești was part of the Hurez Parish, in the commune of Târgu-Hurez, and had been built of stone in 1826. The acting priest serving there was Matei Aureliu 4. During the interwar period, the church possessed, amongst other liturgical objects, pewter vessels, a pair of pewter candlesticks, three sets of vestments and two censers 5.
The church’s interior was decorated with frescoes and tempera paintings in the Byzantine style. The skilful hand of the painter ‘Ilie ot Teiuș’ depicted, alongside religious themes, a rare scene on the exterior, facing the bell tower: ‘The Bear Dance’, which we also find at the church of the former Teiușu Hermitage in Bunești (1735), or at the church in Bârsești, Mihăești. Painted around the bear are the Gypsy bear-tamer, who, as is well known, would play on their instruments a raw, syncopated melody to accompany the ponderous movements of the bears brought from the fairs, bound in chains. This mournful melody of the Gypsy bear-tamer was, therefore, a primitive one, with ancient roots, probably found in the musical traditions of the Turanian migrants.
Also on the exterior of the church, in the section above the ‘Bear Dance’ stage, beneath the eaves, a hora has been immortalised in which four women are depicted, and beside them stands a band of three musicians (one with a violin, with a bow shaped like an arc; another with a wind instrument, featuring an unusual S-shaped curve; and the other, it seems, holding a drum in his hands). It may be based on a common scene: ‘The Wedding at Cana in Galilee’ (as depicted in the church at Coasta, in the commune of Păușești Măglași). The painter’s name, ‘Ilie zug[rav]’, and the date of the painting, ‘se[ptember] 1826’, are inscribed at the feet of one of the musicians. The doctor and ethnographer Charles Laugier, speaking of the customs of Oltenia and describing ‘Vasilca’, says: ‘the fiddlers play the song of Vasilca, accompanying it with the violin and the muscal’, and elsewhere, referring to the clacă, he specifies: ‘before the clăcași, the fiddler plays songs on the violin’6
To the left of this drawing is a heraldic representation: a medallion, surmounted by a crown, featuring the head of an aurochs holding a mace as a sceptre crossed with a sword, with a six-pointed star between its horns, reminiscent of the coat of arms of Moldavia (analogous to the Moldavian coat of arms from the reign of Ioniță Sandu Sturdza). The medallion is flanked by flags and supported by a rampant lion.
Similar to the ‘Potters’ Church’ in Bălănești, at Covrești the scene at the church entrance is completed by the figure of the old man, worn out by labour and old age, who has called upon Death: ‘Oh, Death, where are you to take me, for I can no longer manage?’ ‘Here I am, old man, I have come, since you called me!’ said Death. The old man was startled by the hideous appearance and replied wittily: “I called you to help me lift this load of wood!” This painted symbol is intended to remind people that they are mortal and that, consequently, the end of their life can come at any time and from anything—hence those tools, typical of rural life, which can bring life to an end at any moment. It may also serve as a parable, teaching that one must live one’s life as God has ordained and not invoke Death before one’s appointed time.
On the church porch, you are met by the scene of the Last Judgement: Hell, with Leviathan, the biblical monster spewing a river of fire from its mouth into which sinners are cast after death, much like the Brâncoveanu mural at Hurezi.
Ilie the painter and the other craftsmen of the Teiuș ‘school’ were the most popular painters in this area, regarded as some of the finest artists of that period. They also adorned with their paintings the churches of the Iezer and Jgheaburi monasteries, followed by the churches of ‘St Nicholas’ Coasta in Păușești Măglași, ‘St Nicholas’ Negreni and ‘St Nicholas’ Bârsești, in Mihăești, and other places of worship in Oltenia.
At the proskomedia there was a list of the dead, written in the year the church was founded (1826), but which has not been preserved (one could still make out a ‘[…]monk’ and, on the right-hand side of the window, a ‘[…]Nicholas’’ could still be made out.
The wooden icons, dated 1787 (1. Saint Constantine, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Nicholas, painted by Ruca, the priest Ion the iconographer; 2. The Mother of God and Saint John, painted by Priest Tudor; 3. The Mother of God with Jesus, between the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, created by the priest and painter Ioan; 4. The Assembly of the Holy Angels and Saint George, painted by Priest Ioan, the painter), show that they belonged to an older place of worship, built on the same site as today’s church.
‘The Little Church of Covrești’ was included in the List of Historic Monuments as early as 1991 by the Ministry of Culture, following a proposal by specialists from the Vâlcea County Office for National Cultural Heritage, part of the Vâlcea County Museum 7.
Above the entrance doors, on a stone slab, is inscribed in Cyrillic script the following text:
‘With God’s help, this holy church was built through the tireless efforts of the following: the boyars Stanciu Covria, Mariia, Dincă Bălănescu and Păuna, where the feast day of the Holy Voivodes, Michael and Gabriel, Basil the Great, the Holy Emperors Constantine and Helena, during the reign of the Most High Lord Grigore Dumitriu Voivode, with the blessing of our Bishop Neofitu; helpers: Dumitru, Niță, Ioniță, Bălașa, Ion, Ioana, Stanca, Ion, Ștefan, Ilinca, Pătru, Niculae, Stan, Costandina, Dumitru, Ion, Păuna, Gligore; June 18268”.
During the repairs carried out in the second half of the 19th century, a new inscription was installed, written in Latin script:
“This holy church was repaired with the blessing of His Holiness Bishop Iosif of Râmnicu Noul Severin by the founders, namely: 1. Rev. Toma Romcescu, minister of this church. 2. Barbu Dumitru, Covrea Ion, Constandin Ogrăzanu, Ion Povigăgeanu, Ion Kojoeanu, Tache Giura, Gheorghe Drumeș, Gheorghe Cazacu, Constantin Hangiu, Gheorghe Burtică, Mihai Abagiu, Ion Vasile, Ion Trăițoiu, Maria Stanca, Constandin Țambrea, Gheorghe Brat, Dumitru Brat, Mihai Țambrea, Ion Țambrea, Constandin Glăvan, Ion Ogrăzanu, Alexandru Nedescu, Gheorghe Hangiu 1886, 13 August”.
In the churchyard lies the cemetery for the parishioners of this church (among them rest my ancestors: the Cazacu family of Milostea and the Negoiță family of Bârzoteni).
In the archives of the former OJPCN, now held at the Vâlcea County Directorate for Culture, there is an inventory of Covrești Church, drawn up in 1972 by the parish priest at that time, Constantin Lupescu. According to this document, the parish owned a plot of land, received as a donation long ago, on which the church was built, covering an area of 132 m², and a plot of land for the cemetery measuring 1,068 m². Furthermore, the church also possessed ten Minee dating from 1852, 13 icons, a bell bearing an inscription, donated by Maria and Hristache Miron on 29 April 1911, a chandelier donated by “Gh[eorghe] Negoiță in 1930’, liturgical objects and other ‘9’ books.
The “Saint Basil” Church in Horezu is currently undergoing restoration and consolidation of its walls and frescoes.
The historic monument at Covrești, erected by the boyars and peasants of Horezu, a few years after the oppressed people rose up under the banner of Tudor of Vladimiri, stands as a living testimony to the Christian faith and a masterpiece of early 19th-century art.
- 1
Ion Popescu-Cilieni suggests 1 January 1824 as the date of the church’s foundation (see Churches, Market Towns and Villages in Vâlcea County, 1941, p. 54); a statistical document indicates the year 1826 (1909 Yearbook); and the inscription itself bears the date: ‘June 1826’. The year 1826 is also cited by His Grace Athanasie Mironescu (see History of the Diocese of Râmnic, 1906, p. 676). Prior to this construction, there was an older, small wooden church, built in 1807.
- 2
Dinică Ciobotea, ‘From Huhurezi to Hurezi’, in Mărturii, Râmnicu Vâlcea, 1 September 1990, p. 14.
- 3
The 1909 Yearbook, Church Books Printing House, Bucharest, 1909, pp. 231–232.
- 4
Vartolomeu Stănescu, Bishop of Râmnic, Yearbook of the Diocese of Râmnic and Noul-Severin for the years 1921–1925, Tipografiile Române Unite, Bucharest, 1925, p. 504.
- 5
Ion Popescu-Cilieni, Churches, Fairs and Villages in Vâlcea County, Ramuri Publishers, Craiova, 1941, p. 54.
- 6
Vasile Tomescu, Dacian-Roman Music, Vol. 1, Ed. Muzicală, Bucharest, 1978, p. 156.
- 7
It is a Category B cultural heritage site, of local and regional importance, listed in the Register of Historical Monuments in Romania since 1991 (code 39B0183) and featured in the Ministry of Culture’s most recent register (2015), under code: VL-II-m-B-09788.
- 8
Medieval and Modern Inscriptions from Romania. The Historic County of Vâlcea (14th century–1848), edited by Constantin Bălan, Published by the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 2005, p. 512.
- 9
Archive of the Vâlcea County Directorate for Culture (hereinafter DJCV), County Office for National Cultural Heritage (OJPCN), file no. 3, containing the classification and cataloguing of movable and immovable property as at 1 April 1972, B: Târgu Horezu Parish, II, file no. III, f. 233.