Secu Monastery is an old religious settlement from Neamt County that has almost 500 years. In its early years, the monastery was located on the property of Neamt Fortress, on the valley of Secu Creek. Here, in this place, in 1530 the ruler Petru Musat built the church of Zosima Hermitage. The church that was destroyed in the fire from 1821 was located on the place where today we can visit the cemetery’s church from Secu Monastery.

The present day church was built in 1832 and it’s known as the Church of St Joan the Baptizer’s Birth (“Nasterea Sfantului Ioan Botezatorul” Church). From an architectural point the building has all the characteristics of the Moldavian architecture from XIX century.

The iconostasis of the church was brought from the main church of Secu Monastery. The paintings and sculptures were made in 1740 by Nifon Udrea Trotusanul in the Renascence style with Byzantine influences and covered almost entirely in gold.

From the stone inscription that was created in 1832 and that is located at the entrance of the church we find that the church was built from stone on the expense of different founders and benefactors.

The interior of the church is not painted. On the east side of the building you’ll find the ossuary in which the visitor can enter from the exterior of the church. Here are kept the bones of the monks that lived and prayed at Secu Monastery over time.

In front of the cemetery’s church from Secu Monastery there is the pedestal of the table from the Holy Altar that is 400 years old. This pedestal is the original one from Zosima Hermitage church and it’s also the only thing that remained from the old church of the hermitage. Today, this church is mainly used for funerals and it can be visited by pilgrims that come to Secu Monastery.