The history of Agapia Monastery and its surroundings is very old and tightly connected to Agapia Veche Hermitage located on a hill, near the monastery. Agapia Veche Hermitage is approximately 2 km from Agapia Monastery in a plane behind the green trees of the forest. You can reach this place by car, on a dirt road or on foot by following a marked trail that goes through the forest. The road to Agapia Veche starts in the parking from Agapia Monastery. Where you see the touristic sign that shows Sihla Hermitage to the left, you go on the right and follow the road that crosses the village.

The plane, where Agapia Veche Hermitage is located, is on the trail that goes through the mountain from Agapia Monastery to Secu Monastery and Sihastria Monastery. Year after year this trail is full of pilgrims that come to visit the monasteries from Moldavia and that want to see the places where so many monks have prayed and lived. The names of these monks remain connected to these places: “Muntele lui Chiriac” (Chiriac Mountain), “Paraul Pustnicului” (Pustnicului Creek), “Livada Parintilor” (The Orchard of the Fathers), “Poiana lui Eufrosin” (Eufrosin Plane), “Poiana lui Serghie” (Serghie Plane), “Valea lui Agapia” (Agapia’s Valley) and “Poiana lui Pahomie” (Pahomie Plane).

Google Map of Touristic Tour from Agapia Monastery to Agapia Veche Hermitage

Agapia Veche Hermitage has its origins in the XIV century when a monk called Agapie, together with his apprentices, built a wooden hermitage. From the monk Agapie, the monastery from the valley took its name, which means “Christian love”. In time the entire village and the nearby creek were known by the name Agapia.

A special place from Agapia Veche Hermitage is “Livada Parintilor” (The Orchard of the Fathers), located at about 500 m from the church of the hermitage. This is the place where the first wooden church was built. This church was destroyed in an Easter day by an avalanche. The relics of St Rafail, St Partenie and Ioan from Rasca originate at Agapia Veche Hermitage.

Starting with the year 1830, Agapia Veche Hermitage becomes a hermitage of nuns by an initiative of Mitropolit Veniamin Costache (Mitropolit means the head of the church on a certain geographic region from Romania). In 1938 Patriarh Nicodim Munteanu (Patriarh means the head of the Christian Church from Romania) makes a covenant that is valid even today: no stranger can enter the monastery of Agapia Veche after the sunset and before dawn.

If you want to accommodate here you can do it only for one night at a guest house located outside the hermitage. The guest house has a capacity of about 40 beds. The short hike from Agapia Monastery to Agapia Veche Hermitage it’s not just a simple walk. We saw pilgrims going up the trail singing Christian songs and we felt the peace of this special place and if you want to feel it too, then you’ll have to come and visit Agapia Veche Hermitage.

Images of Agapia Vehce Hermitage