Neamţ Monastery
 
 
 
In the commune Vânători-Neamţ, 15 km north-west from Târgu-Neamţ, the visitors may find the oldest and most important monastic establishment in Moldova. Over the centuries, its founding fathers were the voivodes Petru I Muşat (1375-1391), Alexandru cel Bun (1400-1432), and Ştefan cel Mare (1457-1504), the last having commissioned here the most beautiful of the churches built during his reign, when visitors can admire the miracle-making Virgin Mary icon, painted in 665 in Israel [???].
Within the large and strongly fortified precinct of the monastery, there are two churches (The Ascension …

 
Agapia Convent
 
 
 
The convent seems to have taken its name from the hermit Agape, who erected the first monastic site around 1380, in Agapia Veche. The current religious establishment, 2 km downstream from the former, was commissioned by the Minister of War [“hatman”] Gavril, Prince Vasile Lupu’s brother, in 1644. Throughout the centuries, the monastery underwent repeated looting, destruction, or even fires, but it was restored and consolidated time and time again.
The inside painting adds a special value to this monument as it was painted by the very young Nicolae Grigorescu …

 
Văratec Convent
 
 
 
We owe the current church of the largest convent in Romania – built on the site of the former building commissioned by Sister Olimpiada, the Mother Superior, and by father confessor Iosif in 1785 – to the idea and efforts of Sister Nazaria, the Mother Superior between 1808 and 1812. The two bell-shaped domes add to the uniqueness of this neo-Byzantine religious site. Inside, between the nave and the narthex, there are two massive pillars, with Ionic capitals. The painting on the inside walls date to the nineteenth century.
The …

 
Horaiţa Monastery
 
 
 
Located in the commune Crăcăoani, the monastery was built in 1824, by archimandrite Irinarh Roset, with the support of the Metropolitan Bishop Veniamin Costachi, on the site of a fifteenth-century wooden church. Today’s church, a Byzantine-style monumental building, with eight domes and very thick stonewalls, was commissioned by the following Father Superior, archimandrite Ermoghen Buhuş, between 1848 and 1867. The monastery has an icon of Virgin Mary, believed to make miracles. The iconostasis, crafted in Vienna in gilded wood, is a unique piece of work with the pulpit above …

 
Almaş Monastery
 
Located in the commune Gârcina, the monastery continues the tradition of the hermitage commissioned in 1659 by an Almaş family – shepherds who fled the Hungarian oppressive regime in Haţeg. Destroyed by a Tatar invasion, the hermitage was rebuilt in 1715 by Lady Ecaterina, the wife of Iordache Cantacuzino, the sword bearer, but the Greek Eterists ravaged it again in 1821, Rebuilt in stone by Chancellor Lupu Balş and monk Rufail, it became a nun hermitage wherefrom nuns were removed in 1959. When it reopened – in 1987 – …

 
Old wooden churches from Neamț County
 
When we are on Route Bicaz – Red Lake, we can reach the wooden church at Goat Runlet which is dedicated to “Saint Dumitru” if from the Bicazu Ardelean Commune turn right for Telec, on asphalt road. At no kilometer, considered from Bicazu Ardelean City Hall, on the first knoll on the left, even on the side road, we see the walls painted in yellow, as he leaves his hat from shingles, giving the greeting and inviting the traveler to cross the threshold.
In this beautiful …