The Wayside Cross from Rășinari

The Wayside Cross from Rășinari, known by locals as "The Cross at the Edge of the Village", was erected in 1798 “at the expense of the servant of God Pătru Albulu” and his wife, “to be remembered eternally, in the days of our most exalted ruler, Francis the Second,” as stated in the Cyrillic inscriptions found inside.

The founders were the families of Pătru Albu and Maniu Dragoie, the latter donating the land on which the cross was built.

🧱 Constructed from brick, the shrine was originally decorated with a white Baroque border. The interior fresco, painted by Popa Ioan Grigore, features a rare Coronation of the Virgin Mary, along with six medallions depicting scenes from the Holy Week Cycle.

By 2006, the wayside cross was in an advanced state of decay and had been repurposed as a storage shed for tools and construction materials. The owner planned to demolish it, but the structure was instead relocated to the museum and restored in 2007 by painters Anca Tarcea and Marcel Albu.

🎨 During the restoration, the mural paintings were revived, and the traditional blue was reinstated on the exterior. Inside, at the center of the structure, stands a monolithic cross in the trefoil style, measuring 2.17 meters in height and 0.60 meters thick at the base.