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Salatruc
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Salatruc is a small village near Strehaia. The cross road is about eight kilometres west of Strehaia, on the main road. Turning left at this point, and continuing for another five kilometres over the hills brings you to Salatruc.
This village has a connection with the old Opran Cross, on which is written "This Holy Cross belongs to Gheorghe Opran, who they killed at Salatruc".
There are many Salatruc names on the map: this one, near Strehaia, another in the Olt Valley, on the Arutela Roman Castrum road, and another just to the south of the Danube River, in Bulgaria.
A general view of Salatruc, a small village lost in a deep valley between high hills, at the end of a difficult access road.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th April 2008
This is the old wooden church at Salatruc. On the front of the church is carved the year 1945, but this must be the year of renovation, since the church is obviously much older than this.
It is a very interesting building, and wood is the only material used to make it, fixed in a very interesting way, as can be seen at the corners of the building. When this method is used to secure drawers in cabinet making, it is called a "dove tail joint".
It is interesting to see it done here as part of a building.
The walls are also secured on the outside by vertical wooden beams using "tree nails" or wooden dowels.
Log cabins in Canada have similar but different methods for ensuring that the walls made of logs are joined securely.
There are a lot of stone crosses around the church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 10th July 2006
Near the old church is another old wooden building which houses the church's bell, in English called a belfry, and in Romanian called Clopotnita.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 10th July 2006
Around the wooden walls of the old church there are a few very old stone crosses, strangely shaped, carved and painted.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 10th July 2006
The stone of which the crosses are made is marine limestone, even though the sea is 600 km away now. This type of limestone was found in the Roman castrum at Celei-Corabia/Sucidava, and was taken from Vratza in Bulgaria, from at least 2000 years ago. Here, Alexandru points to one of the marine fossil shells in the limestone.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 10th July 2006
It has long been a tradition for the walls of Romanian churches to be painted with scenes from the Bible, or the lives of Jesus and the Saints. Here an angel has been painted on the plaster on the inside walls of the church.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 10th July 2006
The main entrance to the ancient wooden church of Salatruc, as well as the old cemetery of the village. The building in this image may be an old school. Behind it is the old cemetery from Salatruc, and to the right of it, in the background, is the old wooden church. Salatruc is a very old village, lost over the hills, far away from the main roads, populated only by old people.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th April 2008
At the exit from Salatruc, to the north, there is a water spring protected by a concrete cover, a Stiubei.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th April 2008
Near the spring is an old concrete dam, as the ancient Stiubei were made, a simple hole in the ground, protected in this case by a kind of dam around it. In olden times, the dam was made by wooden sticks.
This concrete dam has been gradually filled in by siltation of clay and earth, but part of it has been dug out so that the water can still be accessed, though formerly the pond behind the dam was much more extensive, as can be imagined from the shape and extent of the dam.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th April 2008
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Alexis Project Filiasi/Romania
RC J/263/230/2007 CIF 21464151
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