Soconzel - The Orthodox Church of “Archangels St. Michael and Gabriel”

Built on the top of a hill, beside the cemetery, the church dominates the village. It was built in 1777 and it respects the ground-plan arrangement of the traditional Romanian architecture of the wooden churches with a pronaos, a nave and a pentagonal apse. The church was made from the wood cut nearby. The roof of the apse is lower than the nave’s. On the outside, the motif of the belt is sculpted on the walls of the pronaos and the nave, like at the church of Corund. It should be noted that on the outside, crucifixes commemorating the deceased during the two World Wars were fixed on the wall. The tower is made of wood, and it is square shaped. The bell tower is built of wood too, in the front of the church. On the inside, above the pronaos is the gallery, rebuilt in 1923. The inner painting is preserved in fragments. On the wall of the pronaos, on both sides of the entrance door, the scene of the Ten Virgins is painted, while on the northern wall The Women Martyrs are represented. The vegetal motifs, similar to those present at the church of Corund, can also be found here. On the walls of the nave, the scenes of the Passion of Christ are depicted, while on the semi-cylindrical vault the iconographical program is richer than any other church of the Codru region. The edifice is enlisted as national monument. (DB).