The Ghost Village of Gherdeal
One of the many abandoned homes and farms in the Romanian ghost town of Gherdeal
Updated March 20, 2020 | By Matthew Christopher
It’s hard to get a good idea when the first settlers arrived in Gherdeal, Romania, originally known as St. Gertruda, but they consisted mostly of farmers and craftsmen. A fortified Roman Catholic church was built there in 1612 so the community must have been sizeable enough by that point. By 1850 it was in danger of collapse; it was demolished and a new Lutheran church was built between 1850-1858 on its ruins, and still stands there today. While this church is listed as abandoned, it appears quite cleaned and well maintained as of May 2019.
Gherdeal's Lutheran church appears to be in use again among the few inhabitants of the town
By 1926, Gherdeal’s inhabitants consisted of Romanians, Saxons, and Roma. It’s hard to find much information about life in the community or the size of the population, but the reason it was abandoned likely lies in Romanian President/dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s program in the 1980s to systematically destroy small towns and villages across Romania, forcing the inhabitants to move to apartments near state-run farms and factories in cities to ‘improve efficiency’. This was a period of immense suffering and much of the country’s history was destroyed.
Gherdeal was left nearly deserted. The population was listed in some places as low as seven, and it was referred to as “the village where no one has been born for 27 years” or "the Phantom Village of Transylvania." Many of the homes fell to ruin, and when I first visited in November of 2018, it seemed entirely empty. Three dogs who clearly belonged to one of the few remaining residents quarreled over which got to gnaw on a goat skull, and one of them decided to lead us around, but other than that the town seemed frozen in time.
The small but ornate Sf. Nicolae Orthodox Church was covered with fascinating paintings
The most impressive find was an abandoned Orthodox church, the Sf. Nicolae Wooden Church, that had been built in 1795 that was hidden away on the top of a hill. The church seemed too small to be that exciting from the outside but upon entering I was amazed: that paintings from 1890 adorned the walls and ceiling. They were badly damaged by time and the poor condition of the wood, but they were breathtaking nonetheless. It was hard not to be awestruck by the sight, as it seemed to have been left untouched for centuries.
While finding funding to restore the church has been a struggle, the ceramic tile over on the roof was (unbeknownst to me) fairly new, replaced in an effort by the Monuments Ambulance’s efforts to save the building. Monuments Ambulance is an amazing program started in 2016 whose main supporter is, oddly enough, the Prince of Wales, that “acts to safeguard the monument with the help of a van equipped with all the necessary tools.” While the tower remains in danger of collapse, the interior is otherwise protected from the elements because of their efforts.
A sweet little cat I befriended in Gherdeal
By my third visit to Gherdeal in August 2019, much had changed. Buildings were being repaired, cars were in driveways by the buildings, and much of the feeling of being in a haunting deserted village had dissipated. I talked to a young couple that had moved there, and they told me excitedly about how a new trend among 20 to 40 year olds is reconnecting with their rural past by buying back the properties that had once been in their families, as they are quite cheap, and returning to learn to work the land like their grandparents had done, leaving the sprawl and bustle of the cities behind. They seemed very happy to be making a new home there and excited that more people were returning.
In that same visit we met a kind elderly lady with a scythe clearing away tall grass on the graves behind the church. She had lived there her whole life, and as we walked her home home, she told us many other things we unfortunately were unable to understand. I was happy though, that she has been able to see not only Gherdeal’s death, but also its renewal.
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