Church of Saint Nicholas

The Church of Saint Nicholas in Danylovo, Khust District, is one of the most striking monuments of the Maramureș Gothic tradition in Zakarpattia. Although an earlier wooden church existed in the village by 1751, the present building dates from 1779, as recorded by the inscription on its portal. In the twentieth century the church remained associated with the Greek Catholic community even after the construction of a new Orthodox church, and after a difficult period in Soviet times it was officially returned to the Greek Catholic parish in 2005. Architecturally, the church belongs to the Zakarpattian school of vernacular sacred architecture and to the group of churches with Gothic spire-like terminations and roofs set at different levels above the altar and the central body. The ensemble includes a separate timber-framed bell tower with an open gallery and a tall tent roof. The church itself is four-part, arranged within two principal log-built units and an exonarthex, and is covered with hewn shingles. Its most distinctive feature is the high roof with a Dutch gable on the west, left unclad in shingles, and a straight gable above the apse, creating the sharply vertical silhouette characteristic of the Maramureș area. The bell tower repeats this expressive verticality through its faceted roof, flared eaves, and corner cupolas. Inside, the narthex has a flat beam ceiling, while the nave and apse are covered by vaults close to a barrel form. The artistic furnishing survives only in part, but fragmentary wall paintings by Yosyp Kornmaier and the remains of a once rich five-tier iconostasis testify to the work of professional painters and carvers of the late eighteenth century.