Barsana monastery on the right bank of the Iza river was built around the middle of the 16th adjacent to a wooden church from the 14th century. The old monastic settlement dedicated to St. Nicholas was one of the most important ones in Maramures considering that in 1738 it was the residence of the last Christian Orthodox bishop before the bishopric was abolished following the official expansion in Transylvania and Maramures of the Romanians religious Union with the Church of Rome. Six hundred years since the monastery's first documentation and two hundred years after it ceased to exist Barsana resumes its monastic life. In 1993 bishop Justinian Chira of Maramures ans Satu-Mare blessed this place that was loaded with the prayers of the ancestors for a new monastery.
The monastic compound is made of wood according to local tradition, built by Barsana masters supervised by architect Dorel Cordos. It consists of a Maramures gate, a belfry, a church, the summer shrine, the house with cells and chapel, the house of the masters, the house of the artists and a museum. The community counts eleven nuns and three sisters.