Maramureș

Eight churches in this county carry UNESCO listing and they share a distinctive silhouette: a low, dark, horizontally logged body under a very tall, very steep shingled roof, from which a slender spire rises far out of proportion to the building beneath it — oak logs notched and interlocked at the corners, wooden pegs rather than nails holding roof and spire, a tradition that let villages raise a church without the iron or stone this mountainous, historically poor region could not afford to import. The effect is of a small church wearing an enormous hat, and it is unmistakable. Șurdești and Plopiș are the tall ones, and Șurdești's spire was for a time the highest wooden church tower in the world. Ieud has two churches, the older of which is the one to see. Budești holds chain mail and a helmet on its wall, kept from earlier centuries. Desești and Poienile Izei have the best-preserved interior painting, applied directly to the logs, and Poienile Izei's is famously vivid on the subject of consequences. Rogoz, further west, has an unusual asymmetric eave and carved horse-head brackets. You will not see all eight and should not try; three in a day, spread along the Iza valley, is a good day. Several are kept locked with the key at a nearby house, and asking is normal — the person who unlocks it will often stay and explain, and a contribution to the church is the right response. Dress modestly and remember these are in use.