The old Orthodox wooden church from Drăguș
Two unpublished documents from Henri H. Stahl’s private archive
(Drăguș village, 1933)

The Orthodox church of Drăguș village (Brașov County), was the last of the painted wooden churches from the Olt region (also called the Făgăraș region, central Romania). The unpublished documents presented in this article were initially preserved by Henri H. Stahl in his private archive, and were, after his death, included in the Stahl Family Archive. The first document, dated April 20, 1933, is a certified copy of a report signed by Valer Literat, a corresponding member of the Historical Monuments Commission (H.M.C.). It describes the church and its state of decay. The rapporteur extolls the beauty of the church’s interior wall paintings, recommending the church be restored as soon as possible. The second document is a request, signed by Nicolae Iorga, President of the H.M.C., and is addressed to the Minister of Instruction, Cults and Arts, Dimitrie Gusti, the leader of the Sociological School of Bucharest and initiator of the monographic campaigns undertaken in several Romanian villages in the interwar period. Based on the positive report that he attached to his request, Iorga asked for funding, to undertake the restoration of the church. The monographic campaign of 1929 drew attention to the wooden church in Drăguș, but for reasons which remain unknown, it was never restored and no longer exists. Based on currently available sources, including valuable archival material, this article reconstructs the 1933 events and tries to learn more about the old church from Drăguș village and the historical context in which it was in use. Thus, this article complements the subsequent article in this volume, authored by Irina Stahl, regarding the order of places within the church, introducing and clarifying several aspects that will later be expanded upon.

Keywords: painted churches, wooden churches, monographic campaigns, Drăguș village, the Sociological School of Bucharest, Henri H. Stahl, Dimitrie Gusti.

Băjenaru, Elena. Icoane și iconari din Țara Făgărașului. Centre și curente de picture pe sticlă [Icons and icon makers in the Făgăraș region. Centers and schools of glass painting]. Bucharest: Oscar Print, 2012.
Iorga, Nicolae. Neamul românesc în Ardeal și Țara Ungurească la 1906 [The Romanian nation in Transylvania and the Hungarian Lands in 1906]. Bucharest: Saeculum I.O., 2005 [1906].
Păcurariu, Mircea. „Încercări de reveniri de preoți și parohii unite în sânul Bisericii strămoșești până în anul 1948” [The attempts, before 1948, of Greco-Catholic priests and parishes to return to the arms of the ancestral Church]. Biserica Ortodoxă Română, LXXXVI, no.9-10 (1968): 1095-1112.
Siseștean, Gheorghe. „Biserica și cimitirul din sate transilvănene. Structura spațială și structura socială” [The church and the cemetery in Transylvanian villages. Spatial and social structures]. Société Européennes, Études Roumaines et Aroumaines / Studii Românești și Aromânești, edited by Paul H. Stahl, Paris ‒ Bucharest, V (2000): 39-44.
Stahl, Henri H. Amintiri și gânduri din vechea școală a „monografiilor sociologice” [Memories and thoughts about the old school of the “sociological monographs”]. Bucharest: Editura Meridiane, 1981.
Stahl, Paul H. „Case și biserici de țară din România. Asemănări și deosebiri” [Houses and churches from Romania. Similarities and differences]. Sud-estul și Contextul European. Biserici, credințe, obiceiuri. Buletin, X (1999-2000): 21-36.
Stahl, Paul H. „L’installation des fidèles dans l’église. Exemples sud-est européens”. Revue des études sud-est européennes, XXXI, no.1-2 (1993): 145-159.

The order of places within the church: The family strana
Unpublished field-notes from Henri H. Stahl’s private archive

This article investigates field notes written during the monographic campaigns of 1929 and 1932, undertaken by the Sociological School of Bucharest led by Dimitrie Gusti in Drăguș village (Făgăraș region, central Romania). These previously unpublished notes are preserved in the private Stahl Family Archive and refer to the order of places occupied by peasants within the church.
As in many Orthodox churches from Transylvania, in the Drăguș church women and men were separated. The nave, which is closer to the altar, was occupied by men, and the narthex was occupied by women. Unmarried women and men stayed together in the back; children were upstairs in the choir; while gipsies stood next to the door. Despite recommendations of the Church’s representatives, that old people should stay in the front, out of respect, the complex social structure of the village imposed a different rule. All members of the same lineage were aligned in a chain formation inside the church (called the stacidia, in rom. strana,). In it, each member had a specific place. The front position was occupied by the head of the parental household (the father, and after his death by the son, usually the youngest, or the son-in-law, in the case of a matrilocal marriage), succeeded by the other male family members. Women followed the same rule in the narthex, where the chains continued. The distinction between two social categories: the descendants of former imperial border guards (who received privileges) and the descendants of the serfs was less obvious, but still noticeable, as in the past. The same alignment was followed in the cemetery, where each member of the community was buried in its family strana.
Two of the field notes were made by Octavian Mureșanu who only took part in the 1929 campaign. An additional eleven notes were written in 1932, when the monographic teams returned to Drăguș. These field notes were made by the famous Romanian sociologist Henri H. Stahl, who continued the investigation conducting a series of interviews, assisted by his co-worker Xenia Costa-Foru. Contrary to Muresanu’s notes, Stahl’s interviews were transcribed in such manner as to preserve the peasants’ idiomatic speech and expressions. After writing down the informants’ oral testimonies, Stahl verified the information given to him. He tried in vain to find the ”written rule from the ancestors”, however he was able to consult the assessment record of the Church council meetings and transcribed three of them, dated 1902 and 1906.
This article traces the history of the field-notes (interviews and documents), comments on the information they provide, and finally transcribes them, in order to make them available to the scientific community.

Keywords: order of places in the church, wooden church, social hierarchy, monographic campaigns, Drăguș village, the Sociological School of Bucharest, Henri H. Stahl, Dimitrie Gusti.

Florescu, Florea. “Jițurile unei biserici din Țara Moților, mijloc de a surprinde ierarhia din sat” [The jițuri, stacidias, from a church situated in the Motzenland, as a way of illustrating the village hierarchy]. Sociologie Românească, III, no.1-3(1938): 45-47
Păcurariu, Mircea. “Încercări de reveniri de preoți și parohii unite în sânul Bisericii strămoșești până în anul 1948” [The attempts, before 1948, of Greco-Catholic priests and parishes to return to the arms of the ancestral Church]. Biserica Ortodoxă Română, LXXXVI, no.9-10 (1968): 1095-1112.
Pop, Mihai. “Les lignages de Maramureș”. Études et Documents Balkaniques et Méditerranéennes (Recueil III), edited by Paul H. Stahl, Paris, no.10 (1986): 86-88.
Siseștean, Gheorghe. “Biserica și cimitirul din sate transilvănene. Structura spațială și structura socială” [The church and the cemetery in Transylvanian villages. Spatial and social structure]. Société Européennes, Études Roumaines et Aroumaines / Studii Românești și Aromânești, editet by Paul H. Stahl. Paris – Bucharest, V (2000): 39-44.
Stahl, Henri H. “Un sat din Transilvania: Drăgușul” [A village from Transylvania: Drăguș], Boabe de grâu, IV, no.3 (1933): 147-154.
Stahl, Henri H. Tehnica monografiei sociologice [The technique of the sociological monograph], Studii şi contribuţii, no. 2, Bucharest: Editura Institutului Social Român, 1934; re-print, Bucharet: SNSPA – Facultatea de Comunicare şi Relaţii Publice “David Ogilvy”, 2001.
Stahl, Henri H. Amintiri și gânduri din vechea școală a „monografiilor sociologice” [Memories and thoughts about the old school of the “sociological monographs”]. Bucharest: Editura Meridiane, 1981.
Stahl, Paul H. “L’installation des fidèles dans l’église. Exemples sud-est européens”. Revue des études sud-est européennes, XXXI, no.1-2 (1993):145-159.
Stahl, Paul H. “Case și biserici de țară din România. Asemănări și deosebiri” [Houses and churches from Romania. Similarities and differences]. Sud-estul și Contextul European. Biserici, credințe, obiceiuri. Buletin, X (1999-2000): 21-36.
Toșa, Ioan. “Contribuție la cunoașterea bisericilor de lemn din apropierea Clujului” [Contribution to the study of wooden churches in the Cluj area]. Anuarul Muzeului etnografic al Transilvaniei pe anii 1965-1967, Cluj, (1969): 489-508.