The Wooden Church from Braesti

Halfway between Botosani and Dorohoi, in Braesti, one of the most beautiful wooden foundations in this area is found. The churches, built in the first half of the 18th century by the boyar Miron Gorovei, may be the most successful wood plastering of the dibasia and gingasia of the masters of the past. You can not talk about the Moldavian wooden churches without keeping the place in Braesti, Botosani County. With modest dimensions, the church gathers everything that is most valuable as architecture and decoration in what we call generic wood art. Small, without imposing tower, with a ceramic decorated with an infinite, shallow and tender, wooden ladder supported by the roof, just like in the yards of the former households. Although listed on the list of historical monuments of category A (of national interest) in Botosani County, the Braesti wood church does not enjoy much attention in the tourist circuits of the area. Tourists arrive here very rarely, even if the monument is well signposted and is right on the national road connecting Dorohoi to the county seat. Architectural style The Assumption Church of Braesti is built of oak barns, attached to corners in pillars and placed on a foundation stone. The roof is dranita, laid in fish scales. Outside, you can see the open porch overlooking the bell tower. And in the tower, as in the porch, there are four simple sculptures, which support arcades of small size, decorated with the braid of the upper part. The pride, with great simplicity, seems to have been crooked in wood; So beautiful are the details of the decor, so graceful are the carvings on which the arches are supported. These, in turn, are proof of a special mastery: a beautifully curved acolada, symmetrically ordered and decorated with vegetal motifs. But one of the architectural elements that define the style of this church remains the entrance portal, decorated with 16 solar wheels (rosettes). Researchers Ioana Cristache Panait and Titu Elian noted, as early as 1972, in a study dedicated to the wooden churches in Moldova, this portal, which they considered unrivaled in beauty. In the front of the porch, above the arch, there is the inscription of the church's inscription, according to which the church was built in 1745 by the boyar Miron Gorovei. The interior, modestly, takes you to the early church. The nave is separated from the narthex through a wall of carved arcades, placed on solid oak poles. Of great artistic value are the decorations carved on the partitions of the partition wall, with representations of remarkable beauty: tulip flower and heraldic motifs. Perhaps the most important aspect worth pointing to is that the Braesti wood church still serves, even if not constantly. It was the only place that served the Braesti settlement until 1800, when the church was erected in the village.