St Nicholas' Church in the quiet village of Densuș is the oldest Orthodox stone church in Romania — a fascinating place where Roman columns, marble blocks and terracotta pipes were recycled into a living house of worship that has stood for over a thousand years. If you have any interest in history, architecture or simply remarkable places, this is one stop you won't want to miss in Hunedoara County.

The church sits in a gentle, green valley near the town of Hațeg, surrounded by a village cemetery and rolling countryside. From the outside it looks almost deceptively modest — compact and sturdy, with a four-level stone tower — but step inside and you're face to face with 15th-century frescoes, thick walls a metre deep, and an atmosphere that feels genuinely ancient. The setting is lovely in every season: lush and green in summer, misty and atmospheric in autumn, quietly dramatic in winter snow.

• From Hațeg (approx. 14 km) or Hunedoara (approx. 30 km) — by car via local roads to Densuș village; parking available in the village. There are no marked hiking trails to the church itself.

• The church is an active Orthodox place of worship — please visit respectfully and quietly.
• Inside you can see 15th-century murals, including a unique depiction of Jesus wearing Romanian traditional clothing.
• The building material is largely recycled Roman stonework: column drums, limestone and marble blocks, roof tiles and terracotta pipes.
• Two stone lion statues placed on the roof are purely decorative, with no structural purpose.

Here's a detail that sums up this building's layered history: from 1566 until the late 19th century it also served as a Calvinist church, and the frescoes were whitewashed over to cover them — yet they survived, and a Hungarian inscription from 1782 still marks the belltower today.