This is St. Nicholas Church near Brasov. Like the castles we have seen, it has a fairy tale appearance. This is a Romanian Orthodox church, unsurprisingly the dominant religion in Romania.
This statue is just outside the cathedral. I'm not sure what his connection to the church is, but this gentlemen invented the first printing press in Romania.
This is the front of the church with a large painted icon depicting St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the church.
In the alcove next to the spiffy icon above, an original icon was in its unrestored state. There is something very special about this one.
In front of the church lies the cemetery. This is part of the wall that surrounds it, with icons depicting St. Nicholas again.
Inside the wall is the cemetery. It has a weedy, homey, friendly appeal. We were surprised to see a list of names on nearly every tombstone rather than just one. It turns out that after some time passes, when the next person in the family dies, they open the grave, put the bones of the earlier deceased into a small container, and place that at the feet of the newly deceased, whose name is then added to the gravestone. I had not heard of this custom before, but since, I have learned that this is not unusual in countries that are quite old and where burial space might be limited.
Doesn't this look just like a fairy tale?
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