Densuş Church

Densuş (German: Demsdorf, Hungarian: Demsus) is a commune in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It seems that the name comes from the Latin Silva Densa (dense forest).

St. Nicholas Church is one of the oldest Romanian churches still standing. It was built in the 7th century with additions made in the 13th century on the site of a 2nd century Roman temple, with some materials from the Dacian Sarmizegetusa fortress. It has a stone tower above the naos. Inside the church there are 15th century mural paintings that show Jesus wearing Romanian traditional clothes.

It is considered that on the setting of the present day church, there was once a Dacian temple dedicated to Zamolxis, upon which the conquering Romans built a temple dedicated to the god Mars. After the Roman administrative withdrawal, the temple became a Christian church, and sermons were held there. Its present form dates from the beginning of the 12th century. Considering its tradition, it dates from the IV century AD, and is considered the oldest church in Romania and South East Europe, and historically its present form dates from the 12th century.

One of the hypotheses about Densuş is that it was once a pagan temple, and to sustain this argument, it is shown that: the altar of the church is closer to the South than to the East, which would suggest that it was once a pagan temple, because all Christian houses of worship have the altar pointing towards the East. Other clues are the form of the roof, which, seen from a lateral perspective, has the form of a bird, to be exact a dove, and above the altar there are two stone lions, united by their tails. Another hypothesis, based on inscriptions found inside the church, holds that it was originally built as a mausoleum to the Roman general Longinus Maximus.

Saint Nicholas Church, Şcheii Braşovului

Saint Nicholas Church (Romanian: Biserica Sfântul Nicolae) is a Romanian Orthodox church in Braşov, Braşov County, Transylvania, dominating the historic district of Şchei.

In 1291, there was a wooden cross covered with shingle. The wooden church was mentioned in a Papal bull issued in 1399 by Pope Boniface IX. In the 15th century (since 1495), there was a church built of brick with a rectangular nave and apse with four sides, with the particularity of an edge in shaft, built with the support of ruling prince of Wallachia, Vlad the Monk. In 1518, the priest Petru asked the ruling prince of Wallachia, Ioan Neagoe Basarab, to build a stone church in Şchei. This church had a plan similar to the previous, with polygonal apse, with shaft edges and three buttresses, plan praised in the local chronicles. In 1521 were finished the holy altar and the bell tower, and in 1583 the ruling prince of Wallachia, Petru Cercel, raises the entrance hall of the church and features elegant stone work with faces of saints and decorations, works finished by ruling prince Aron of Moldavia.

In 1602, the family of Michael the Brave donate to the wooden church the domain Micşuneşti in Wallachia. In 1651 was finished the oratory in the tower, unique in Romania, and in 1733 was started the building of the impressive northern oratory. It was painted between 1735-1738 by four famous masters from Craiova. The southern oratory was finished in 1750, with the support of some rich merchants. The Clock tower was raised with the support of Elisabeta Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia.



Saint Nicholas Church
Initially built in the Gothic style, it was later redone in the Baroque style. It has frescoes painted by the renowned muralist Mişu Popp. Between 1939-1946 the church was restored, a new footbridge was made, were added carved oak doors at the entrance by the craftsman Moses Şchiopul from Rupea, a new wooden iconostasis enriched with gold was made thanks to hieromonk Ieronim Belintoiu from convent Hodoş-Bodrog and the interior of the church was painted by the painter Costin Petrescu's in neo-byzantine style.



The first Romanian school
Near the church, there is the first Romanian school and a statue of Dean Coresi. It is not known exactly how the school was founded, but it was recognized by the Pope in 1395. It is also home to the first Romanian Bible, and what can be loosely described as the first school magazine. The next door museum houses a variety of first Romanian books and the first printing press.

Panoramas from www.360trip.ro. Thanks, Michael Pop!

Lainici Monastery

Lainici Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox monastery located 32 km from Târgu Jiu, Gorj County, Oltenia.

In 14th century St. Pious Nicodemus of Tismana was sent in Northern Oltenia to support Romanian Orthodoxy and he sat in a cave near the today Lainici Monastery. Later, a hermitage was founded here. The importance of the settlement was noted by Empress Maria Theresa, who, by general Bukow, destroyed between 1750-1765 hundreds of Orthodox settlements in Transylvania. The hermitage, although not belonging to the Austria-Hungarian empire but located a few kilometers from the border, fell victim to the great anti-Orthodox persecutions of imperial court in Vienna.

Later, the hermit Athanasie gathered around the ruins a community of 30 monks. The boyars (noblemen) Sărdănescu, Brăiloiu, Fărcăşanu, Poenaru, Măldărescu, Bengescu, and Mageru constructed the monastery during the reign of Ioan Caragea between 1812 and 1817. Tudor Vladimirescu, who wanted to raise the country against the Turks, was hidden in the monastery for a while. In 1817 the Turks had devastated the settlement, and not finding Tudor, they beheaded the monk Maxim, dispelling the congregation. During the World War I, the Germans devastate again the monastery, restored in 1926 by pious Visarion Toia and six monks.

The exterior of the church has been divided into two separate registers by a frieze built of brick having the shape of a semicircle. The paintings, which were done in fresco, have been well preserved in the porch. The tower has the shape of a square and serves as a belfry too. Its frescoes were painted in 1860 by craftsmen of the Painting School of Târgu-Jiu.

The church was renovated in 1984. There have been constructed also modern outbuildings and facilities in the eastern and southern parts of the monastic complex, whereas the old ones have just been restored. An art collection that incorporated icons, liturgical objects and old printed books is also accommodated within the monastery.

In 1990 commenced the construction of a new church. Construction activities have also been initiated on two monastic outbuildings: one of them has been designed for the members of the monastic community, and the other one has been designed for the administrative offices and for the library of the monastery.

Place of pilgrimage of Romanians throughout the country, Lainici Monastery is called "Bride of the gorge" (it is located in Jiu Gorges), due of its strong white facade.

Agapia Monastery

Agapia Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Agapia) is a Eastern Orthodox monastery located 9 km west of Târgu Neamţ, Neamţ County, Bukovina, Romania.

The name of the monastery comes from a monk named Agapie who founded a wooden church long time ago. It was named "Old Agapia Monastery" or "Agapia of the Hills Monastery". Elena Doamna, the wife of ruling prince Petru Rareş, decided to build a stone church in 1527 at this location. The church underwent renovation during the reign of Petru Şchiopul at the end of the 16th century. Unfortunately, within a short time it collapsed because of the sloping ground. As a consequence, it had to be re-founded by Gheorghe Duca Voivode, but it was afterwards destroyed by the Eteria militants in 1821. In 1832, Mother Sevastia Munteanu founded a new wooden church on the premises, but it burned down in 1934. The church which exists now at Old Agapia was constructed of stone and wood and was erected before the 1939.

Agapia Monastery ("New Agapia" or "Downhill Agapia") was built between 1642-1647 by hatman Gavriil Coci, the brother of Voivode (ruling prince) Vasile Lupu. The Church dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel was designed by the court architect of Vasile Lupu, a certain Ionasc (or Enache) Ctisi, possibly originating from Constantinople. The Metropolitan of Moldavia, Varlaam Moţoc, officiated at the consecration ceremony, which Vasile Lupu himself attended. On this occasion, hetman Gavriil donated to the monastery a Gospel book written on parchment and decorated with miniatures of the Evangelists, as well as a silver gilt filigree cross with eight arms.

The inscription on the wall of the church says: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I, slave of God hetman Gavriil and my wife Liliana, made and endowed this Agapia Monastery again, during the days of the right believer and lover of Christ Prince Vasile Lupu. And the construction started in the year 7150 (1642), October, the 15th day, and was completed in 7152 (1644), September, the 3rd, and was consecrated in 7155 (1647), September, the 12th". After the consecration, many of the monks of Old Agapia moved downhill, and little by little, a real monastery was built around the church.

The monastery was attacked and damaged by Turks and Tartars in 1671-1672, robbed by Tartars in 1674-1675 and by Polish in 1680, damaged again by the soldiers of king Jan III Sobieski of Poland between 1689-1693.

The monastery became a convent for nuns in 1803, by order of ruling prince Alexandru Moruzi. He founded also here a school for nuns. On 16 September 1821, the monastery was seriously damaged by a fire, but it was restored soon. It was restored and enlarged between 1848 and 1858 (when the church underwent several notable modifications), between 1858-1862, in 1882, 1903 (after the fire of 23 July) and 1968. It was painted by the great Romanian painter Nicolae Grigorescu, between 1858-1861.

The museum housed within the monastery shelters a valuable art collection as well as a precious collection of liturgical objects. It also shelters the deposit of old book of the County of Neamţ and the “Alexandru Vlahuţă Memorial House”. The library of the monastery incorporates fifty thousand volumes.

Attracted by the beauty of the landscape and the surrounding sights, as well as by the peacefulness of the spiritual life of the holy establishment, many writes and cultural personalities visited this monastery particularly in the summertime. It was here that they could rest and work in peace, far from the maddening crowd. Today, it is one of the largest monasteries of nuns in Romania, with 300-400 nuns and being second in population after Văratec Monastery. The Old Agapia Skete is affiliated to the monastery.

Sources: Romanian Monasteries, 100 Romanian Monasteries.

Bogdana Monastery

Bogdana Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the town of Rădăuți, Bukovina, Romania. Its church is the oldest still standing religious building in Moldavia. The monastery was built by Bogdan I of Moldavia (1359-1365) somewhere around 1360.

It was to become his and some the Muşatini ruling princes (Voievods) necropolis. Here are buried all the rulers of Moldavia from Bogdan I to Alexandru cel Bun. There are ten graves inside the monastery's church. In the naos were buried Bogdan I; Laţcu Voievod; an unmarked grave supposedly Maria's (Bogdan I's wife), or Ana's (Laţcu's wife); Ştefan I; Roman I; Bogdan, brother of Alexander the Good; Bogdan, son of Alexander the Good. In the pronaos are the graves of Doamna Stana, wife of Bogdan III the One-Eyed and the mother of Ştefăniţă Vodă; Anastasia, daughter of Laţcu; Bishop Ioanichie (?-1504).

The grave were attended to, and marked properly by Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great). The rocks on top of the graves were created by Jan (ca. 1480) at the order of Ştefan cel Mare, in a style that is different by principle from the oriental decorative sculpture. They are decorated with Byzantine-oriental ornaments like palmetto – a stylized palm leaf, and local motives like leafs of beech, ash tree leafs, elm tree leafs.

The beginnings of Bogdana Monastery and St. Nicolae Church are lost in the darkness of time, in the time of Moldavian feudal state’s birth. During the years, this exquisite architectural monument bared an historic, religious and cultural role. Despite the harsh times, the church resisted for centuries to the Tartar and Turkish invasions, plunders, wars, and Habsburgic domination, being along the time a proof of national Romanian spirit.

During Alexandru cel Bun, the church became a bishopric place, the bishops having their residence in the monastery. Some historian claim that Bogdana Monastery was a metropolitan residence until July 26, 1401, when the Moldavian Metropolitan Church was officially recognized by the Constantinople Patriarchy and the metropolitan seat was moved in Suceava.

Except the porch added by ruling prince Alexandru Lăpuşneanu in 1599, the monastery, carved in raw rock, maintained its initial shape of basilica adjusted to the orthodox cult. The first internal painting of the church is from the times of Alexandru cel Bun (14th century). In 1558, Alexandru Lăpuşneanu started the restoration of the original painting. Other restorations were performed in the 18th and 19th centuries: between 1745-1750, in the time of Bishop Iacob Putneanul and in 1880 when Epaminonda Bucevschi, a Bukovinean painter, painted in tempera the current fresco.

The plan of the church has Romance and Gothic influences, without towers, typical for the early Moldavian architecture. The external walls are consolidated by buttresses and decorated with one plank of niches in the higher part. It constituted an important model for the development of the Moldavian architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Here there were placed also the basis of the religious education in Moldavia, by the establishment of a new school. The schoolmasters were monks, and among the monks apprentices there were people who learned the science of writing to become boyars of the princely Chancellery or teachers needed by the bishop’s Chancellery. Because of the cultural activity that took place from its first years, of the monks’ school and of the printing house that spread its books along Maramureş and Transylvania regions, Bogdana monastery proved to be a real cultural center, maintaining the nation, tongue and faith of the Romanians.

Sources: Wikipedia, Cultural Romtour, Destinaţii turistice.

Putna Monastery

Putna Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Putna) is a Romanian Orthodox monastery, one of the most important cultural, religious and artistic centers established in medieval Moldavia; as with many others, it was built and dedicated by ruling prince Stephen the Great. It is situated about 30 km northwest from the town of Rădăuţi, near the Putna River. The story goes that it was built in a general area picked out by Stephen's advisor, Daniel the Hermit. The exact position of the church was left up to God when Stephen went to the top of a hill and fired an arrow— wherever it fell the church would be built. A section of tree trunk containing the arrow hole is still kept in the monastery museum and a cross marks the spot from which the arrow was shot. Apparently, a forest was cleared for the building of the monastery.

Right after Stephen the Great won the battle in which he conquered the Chilia citadel, he began work on the monastery as a means to give thanks to God, on July 10, 1466 - the church was to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The terrain on which the monastery is built is believed to have been previously occupied by a fortress. A chronicle of the time mentions that Stephen bought the Vicovu de Sus village in exchange for 200 zlots, and awarded the land and revenue to the treasury of the monastery. The edifice was built between 1466 and 1469 and consecrated in 1470; to it was added a few more buildings: a princely home standing on the southern side, outer walls and defense towers; all of them completed in 1481. A few years only after the completion of the buildings and fortifications, a dreadful fire destroyed most of the church, the outer walls and the princely home. The following years, the prince and founder rebuilt the church that soon recovered its former lofty appearance. In 1536, another conflagration seriously damaged all the buildings; there followed a new restoration completed in 1559, on the initiative and at the expense of ruling prince Alexandru Lăpuşneanu (1552-1561; 1564-1568).

Despite subsequent restoration work, partial or complete, time, earthquakes and landslides caused a lot of damage to all the monuments Putna Monastery consists of leaving their indelible marks on them, so that the church more especially required renovation and repairs. It was destroyed again in 1653 by the Cossack army of Timuş Hmelniţchi, the son-in-law of Prince Vasile Lupu. In 1653, the church, which had been built in the 15th century, was pulled down to its foundations and replaced in 1653-1662 by ruling prince Vasile Lupu and his successors, by a new building which, with slight alterations, has lasted to this day. In this period, the princely residence and the precinct walls were also enlarged and repaired. However, this important restoration did not last more than three quarters of a century, for in 1739; Putna Monastery was destroyed by a powerful earthquake, which made it necessary to start ample restoration work between 1757 and 1761, upon the initiative and with the endeavors of Metropolitan Iacov Putneanul.

Another important stage in the building of the monastery in the past was marked by the restoration work effectuated from 1854 to 1856, when the precincts were enlarged and new walls were erected, 23 m to the north of the previous ones. New cells were built parallel to the wall; the old princely residence was demolished, a new building - including a kitchen, a refectory and cells - was erected, together with a new abbey on the western side and a chapel on the north side. Restoration work on the monastery was started again towards the close of the 19th century, under the supervision of the Austrian architect K.A. Romstorfer.

Ample scientific restoration work was under way in 1969, when the church, the treasury tower, the entrance tower and the belfry - built in 1882 to replace a 15th-century tower - were restored in succession. Between 1974 and 1977, the former abbey standing on the western side of the courtyard was replaced by a wooden building, a museum housing art collections, while the cells built in 1854-1856 on the northern side were replaced and renewed.

The size and complex plan, the rich decorations (carved stone, terracotta and paintings)as well as the appearance for the first time in the ecclesiastical architecture of Moldavia of the exonarthex and of arches arranged slantingly in the vaulting of the pronaos are the basic characteristics of the earlier church of Putna Monastery, making of it a brilliant prototype in which the most important achievements of the previous epoch perfectly combine with the valuable renewing contribution of Stephen the Great's master builders who erected the monument.

The church was unusually large for its time, but the explanation was that it was built to be the burial place of Stephen the Great, his family and his successors. The thick walls are made of massive blocks of stone, and twelve buttresses support the walls. Originally there were only six, and the other six were added during the 17th and 18th centuries. Although the present church follows the ground plan of a typical 15th and 16th century Moldavian church, it has many architectural and decorative features that are typical of 17th century churches. The exterior walls are not the smooth façades of earlier times, but two rows of blind arcades go around the building, smaller ones above the twisted stone cable, and tall ones below it. The tall windows of the exonarthex, three on the west façade and one each on the north and south façades, follow the shape and size of the tall blind arcades. Their upper parts are decorated with intricately carved stone tracery. All the other windows are much smaller, with pointed arches and square carved stone frames. It had been usual to have only one window in each of the three apses, but here there are three windows in each apse, another late influence. It seems that the church was initially painted both on the inside and on the outside, but unfortunately, none of the frescoes could be preserved.

A short time after it was built, Putna Monastery became an important center of Romanian medieval art and culture. As early as 1467, scribes, calligraphers and miniature painters who had learned their craft under Gavril Uric came from Neamţ to work at Putna Monastery. Besides skillful calligraphers and miniature painters, many embroiderers, icon makers, weavers, silversmiths, sculptors in wood and book-binders toiled on in the quiet atmosphere of the monks' cells at Putna. Special mention should be made of the sumptuous and elegant Four Gospels created here, adorned with miniatures in which perfect drawing combines with a motley color scheme in which gold prevails, as well as the fine embroideries (epitaphs, iconostasis curtains, coverings of tetra-pods and of graves, stoles, etc.), many of them on show in the museum of the monastery.

Sources: Wikipedia, Braşov Travel Guide, Romanian Monasteries.

Arbore Monastery

Arbore Monastery is located in the northeastern part of Romania, in the Bukovina region, about 30 km from the town of Suceava. Arbore Monastery is among the famous painted monasteries in Romania and it was listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

The monastery was built between the 2nd of April and the 29th of August 1503, by Luca Arbore, in the village of Soloca, that he owned. He was one of the important boyars of Ştefan cel Mare, being since 1486 the gatekeeper of Suceava. He defended bravely the Suceava Fortress in 1497 against Polish attacks. Five month later, he erected the monastery, next to his private residence, meant as a family chapel and cemetery. Luca never saw the paintings of his monastery completed because he was beheaded along with two of his sons, having been falsely accused of treachery. The church was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.

The church has a rectangular plan at the outside without a tower. The extremely elegant silhouette of the building is emphasized by the wall extension to the west by about 2,5 meters, and their union above, through an arch; originally thought as a space for the steeple, a new architectural element in Moldavia of the time.

It has remarkable fresco paintings against a predominant green background. The green is in five shadows and 47 hues combined with red, blue, yellow, pink and ochre. Unfortunately the secret of combining colors held by the painters of Arbore is now lost. However, scientists were able to identify thirty substances, including animal size, vinegar, egg, gall and honey. Restorers can now only stabilize what has been left of the frescoes. The interior paintings were seriously damaged in the 17th-18th centuries when the church remained without its roof.

The paintings were made by a team led by Dragoş Coman from Iaşi. The artist proves to be a genius: a widely-traveled man, he innovates, has a new vision different from the one of his predecessors, he succeeds in making a bold synthesis of oriental and western elements, well integrated in tradition though. Most of the paintings represent scenes taken from the Genesis and the Saints' Lives. They are delicate and vivid, whereas houses are drawn in perspective. The best preserved frescoes are found on the relatively sheltered south and west walls.

Among the most valuable scenes one may see are The Hymn of the Prayers to the Virgin, The Siege of Constantinople, The Last Judgment, The Prodigal Son and many others. The Siege of Constantinople is a syncretic representation of the attacks of Persians, Avars and Slaves upon Constantinople in 617. The Journey of the Magi, the Holy Virgin and other scenes show the painter's disposition to rocky landscape against a predominantly green background, like in the Last Judgment where he finds his own solutions to render the characters' movement fluid. In the Prayer of All Saints on the apse, Christopher, the defender against death, with Baby Jesus on his shoulder is also among the martyr saints, it is a unique and unusual image for Moldavia, influenced by the mural painting in Catholic countries.

The two heavy slabs of stone preserved near the church since the time it was painted, have fifteen small holes which used to serve as containers for the mixing of colors. Traces of pigment corresponding to the frescoes have been found in the hollows on their surface.

In the narthex, which also functions as a burial chamber, one may find the tombs of the church founders, Luca Arbore and his Polish wife, Iuliana, decorated with unusual Gothic stonework that bears a strong Polish influence. The icon screen dates from about the same time as the church itself. It is heavily encrusted with smoke, but paintings underneath are intact, preserved by the very grime which obscures them. Inside the monastery, an ethnographic museum with a rich display of the region's most valuable assets is worth visiting. The monastery was restored between 1909-1914 and 1936-1937.

Sources: Braşov Travel Guide, MarvaoGuide, CreştinOrtodox.

Moldoviţa Monastery

Moldoviţa Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox monastery situated in the commune of Vatra Moldoviţei, Suceava County, Bukovina, Romania. The Monastery of Moldoviţa was built in 1532 by ruling prince Petru IV Rareş, who was Ştefan III cel Mare's illegitimate son. It is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Alexandru cel Bun built the first monastery in Moldoviţa on the banks of the Moldoviţa River at the beginning of the 15th century. The site chosen was far from other villages, in the middle of the forest. He donated lands and Tartar slaves to the establishment, and the first community around the compound was created. The monastery is mentioned for the first time in a document of 1402, and successive other documents tell of new donations. There is no record of how, or when, the monastery was destroyed, but possibly an earthquake ruined it at the beginning of the 16th century. Only low stone ruins remain of the first church. It was built of rough blocks of stone on a triconch plan, with three apses. Originally, it had only a chancel, a naos and a narrow pronaos. When the monastic community increased in size, a second, much larger, pronaos was built to the west end of the edifice.

The Moldoviţa Monastery, the one we can see today, was rebuilt on safer ground. The monastery consists of a fortified quadrangular enclosure with towers, thick walls (6 m high, 1.2 m wide) and brawny gates, with a magnificent painted church at its center. The second (after Humor) and the last church with open porch, hidden place above the burial-vault, recesses in the apses and niches under the cornice - elements specific to the monuments of Stephen the Great's period.

The church is built on the usual triconch plan of three apses used for all monastic establishments. The church is rather long, as it has, besides the obligatory chancel, naos and pronaos, a burial chamber and an exonarthex. A graceful octagonal lantern tower with four windows stands above the naos, and a hidden treasury room was built above the burial chamber. The open exonarthex with large openings is its most distinctive feature. The long façades are smooth, except for a row of small niches that surrounds the whole church. The three apses are decorated with tall niches that reach almost to the eaves. The four big pronaos windows have pointed Gothic arches and stone tracery in the upper part. The other five windows are much smaller, with slightly pointed arches and a square frame of crossed rods.

The church was painted in 1537 both inside and outside. It is said that Moldoviţa's frescoes were painted by Toma of Suceava in 1537, but the significant stylistic differences between various scenes indicate that there must have been several painters at work in Moldoviţa. The exterior painting of the Church of the Annunciation is the best preserved among all the painted churches of Bukovina. Especially on the south and east façades, there are paintings that have not been faded by the passage of time, and that are able to suggest how bright the decorated façades were during the reign of Prince Rareş.

Just under the eaves are 105 niches, each painted with an angel. On the western pillar, just to the left of the entrance and the tall opening of the south façade, there are three Military Saints on prancing horses and with either a lance or a sword in hand. Farthest up is St. George, then St. Demetrius and St. Mercurius. On the south façade is the Akathistos Hymn as usual. The 24 stanzas of the Hymn cover four registers. First come the twelve historical stanzas that recount the birth of Christ: The Annunciation, The Conception, The Virgin Mary Meets St. Elizabeth, The Doubting of Joseph, The Birth of Christ, The Way of the Three Magi to Bethlehem, The Adoration of the Magi, The Return of the Three Magi, The Flight to Egypt, and The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

The inner painting is faithful to the tradition, but The Crucifixion (placed in the naos) is considered the most valuable work on this theme from the churches of Bukovina. In the apse of the altar, the scene from The Last Supper presents Jesus Christ in the center. The richness of the figurative and decorative elements is impressive, what the painting of Holy Mary is concerned, placed in the arch of the pronaos. The same can be said about the Gracious Mother of God, painting placed in the tympanum of the portal. The color specific to Moldoviţa Monastery is yellow.

The small museum in the north west corner, which houses several fine tapestries woven from pure gold and silver thread. It also preserves 15th-century manuscripts in which important references are made to the way the monastic school was organized, to the cultural activity in general. The Tetra-Evangelistary (1613) and a Psalter (1614) were written in a decorative hand here. Petru Rareş' princely throne (16th century) is the most valuable work of this kind in Moldavia. Of utmost value are also the embroideries donated by Stephen the Great (15th century). There is also a silver-chased Evangelistry presented by Catherine the Great, empress of Russia, which has not only a highly artistic and religious value, but also an intrinsic one, as each and every page of this book was made from the skin of an unborn lamb.

Sources: Wikipedia, Braşov Travel Guide, Romanian Monasteries.

Plumbuita Monastery

Plumbuita Monastery is an Orthodox monastery for monks, dedicated to the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, located in Colentina district of Bucharest, on a small hill on the right bank of the Colentina River.

The church of the monastery

First consecration took place in 1560, when ruler Peter the Younger (1559-1568), son of Mircea the Shepherd and Lady Chiajna, started construction of the monastery, which will be completed by ruler Mihnea Turcitul. In 1585, he worships the church to Xiropotamou Monastery from Mount Athos. The church suffered great destruction in 1595, and 1614 was severely affected by fire.

Its current form was reached after the second consecration since 1647, when the church was rebuilt from the ground by ruler Matei Basarab, after the model of Dealu Monastery (built by ruler Radu the Great), to commemorate his victory in 1632 against the Turks. Then was added the Princely House and the monastery was reinforced with high walls. The bell tower was built between 1802-1806, by abbot Dionysius of Ioannina, after the older bell tower of the monastery was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1802.

The bell tower

The name Plumbuita (approx. The Leaded) was given by locals, because for a long time the church has been covered with lead sheets. A legend says that the name comes from the fact that Matei Basarab, in need of cannon balls during a battle, ordered to melt the lead on the roof of the monastery.

Votive painting of Matei Basarab and his wife Elena

The church rebuilt by Matei Basarab has triconch plan, with the tower on the nave, with typical Wallachian architectural character, but has also Gothic window frames - highlighting the influence of Moldavian architecture. It has very thick walls, almost one meter. The votive painting depicts the church-builder, ruling prince Matei Basarab.

The hermitages

Princely House has massive masonry arches on the ground floor and numerous arches, supported on cylindrical columns, on the first floor, being one of rare specimens of civil architecture before the 19th century that is preserved in Bucharest. The bell tower is embedded in the wall of the enclosure in half its southern side. The lower level is pierced by the tunnel entry, and the room above is the bells' chamber.

The monastery is a monument of reference for the cultural history of Bucharest, from the late 16th century. In 1573, the first printing press in Bucharest (and the third in Wallachia) was established here, by ruling prince Alexandru II Mircea and his wife, Catherine Salvarezzo. The patterns, executed under the direction of monk Lavrentie and his apprentice Iovan, present specific features, unique in the history of Romanian printing, which can not be confused with other characters printed in Romanian Countries. In 1582, appear here the first books printed in Bucharest: two Tetra-evangelism and a Psalter (from which is kept only a fragment, in the National Library in Sofia).

The main gate

Since the nineteenth century, the monastery went through a prolonged period of decline. The earthquake of 1802 severely damaged the monastery and the bell tower, repaired later by Abbot Dionysius of Ioannina. After the secularization of monasteries assets during the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, all possessions of the monastery were taken by the state. The monastery was abandoned, being converted into a parish church.

Murals

Plumbuita declined for a long time, the church was damaged severely by the earthquake of 1940. In 1940, Marshal Ion Antonescu began a restoration action, wanting to transform Plumbuita in a National Pantheon for the heroes of war for reunification of the nation, and his final resting place to be in this church. In the years 1954-1955, the monastery church was restored by Patriarch Justinian, and it was consecrated on June 24, 1958.

The Princely House

In the Princely House is arranged a museum that includes: religious art objects, 130 busts of the Romanian ruling princes (carved in stone by Abbot Simeon Tatu) and original murals. The library of the monastery is a museum of old books, some 500 years old. Inside the church are the relics of St. Nicholas and of Holy Martyrs Gheorghe, Panteleimon and Ion cel Nou of Suceava.

Holy Relics

In the monastery workshops operate the sections of Painting, Restoration and Heritage of the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest. Until recently, the monastery had sculpture workshops for carpenters and a section for casting bells (the largest bell cast in Plumbuita Monastery has 1,200 kg and is in operation at Radu Vodă Monastery in Bucharest). Now, the monastery is subject to extensive renovations.

Photos from Wikipedia and Creştin-Ortodox.