Reformed Church of Șieu-Odorhei

Simplicity, peace, quiet. These are the words that characterize, at first glance, the small reformed church from Șieu Odorhei in Bistrita Năsăud county.

The locality was documented for the first time in 1263, during which time the church was also built. This is a hall church, the construction being influenced, like many others of this kind in Transylvania, by the Cistercian movement that appeared at the beginning of the 13th century in this part of Europe.

At Sieu Odorhei, time seems to have stopped. In the small reformed church you feel the desire to linger, to admire its serene modesty and retire to a very special place.

The church has a central nave, choir and apse, but the latter is square, and not semicircular, as we find in Romanesque constructions.

The interior of the church is bright, being painted white, and in view, from place to place, the large, faceted stones dating from the first stage of construction, as well as the paintings with which the church was once endowed, were highlighted. It is paved with brick and furnished with old, carefully carved pews.

Moreover, the fact that the church altar is a specific, austere one, furnished with gray benches and a table intended for the religious service.

It will surprise you, but the church does not have a bell tower, only a simple wooden spire was built. Here is one of the most important pieces of sculpture belonging to the early Transylvanian Gothic, a relief that decorates the tympanum of the northern portal of the church and depicts a hunting scene. Two men armed with spears fight a kind of winged dragon, the scene symbolizing the battle of virtue with vice.

In the heart of the village, between the reformed church and the local school building, the terrace rises a little in relation to the surrounding land, not excluding its anthropic character. Especially during the building of the school, as well as during other construction works, numerous archaeological remains were unearthed, the most conclusive being from the Roman era.

Apart from artifacts, the foundations of walls fixed with mortar are mentioned, which would lead to the idea of a resort that would go beyond the status of a simple rural settlement. The archaeological material, varied and rich, consisting of provincial Roman ceramics, terra sigillata, tools and pieces of decoration, strengthens such a hypothesis.