Frumușeni Mosaics

Further excavations also identified a complex of monumental buildings (a 23m x 8m two-level palace/port, two churches, a tower with a well, palisades, ditches and other construction components—portal, frieze, colons, mouldings, capitals, window enclosures, arches—local and imported ceramics, sculpted pieces, coins, book binders, adornments, fragments of apparel pieces, bronze vessels, knives, crossbow bolts, spurs, glass panes, plates, dishes and pots, candles.

The speculations concerning the Eastern Orthodox origin of the mosaics cannot be fully proved, since the style and the possible dating of the finds can also have very strong Italian connections.

Even the possible Byzantine origin of the mosaics does not support convincingly the Orthodox identification of the place, because in one hand of the very strong relationship between the Kingdom of Hungary (see Béla III's Byzantine connections), and on the other hand the ground plan and the architectural appearance of the building-complex rather represents a classical western liturgical space.

The surface is constituted by several polychrome mosaics, grouped into three 4.5m by 1.3m panels, beautifully crafted, depicting real or fantastic animal, floral, solar and geometric representations.

The bestiary, containing a wolf-headed centaur, a half dog-half boar, a winged he-goat, a bear, a rabbit, a predator bird catching a fish, seems to illustrate the allegorical battle between good and evil.