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 …

 
 
Lake Cuejdel 
 
 
 
Located in the central area of the county, it is the largest naturally dammed lake in the country – i.e. area – 12.2 hectares, length – 1 km, average width – 102 m, and average depth – 7.44 m. It was formed at the foot of Culmea Muncelu, following sizeable successive landslides that affected the left bank of Cuejdel Valley, between 1978 and 1991. The causes behind these landslides were mainly natural such as the high gradient of the slopes and their lithology, heavy rainfall and the 1990 earthquake.
In …

 
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 – …

 
Created in 1960, this museum is located in the headmaster’s house of the former primary school that was opened in the current Art Gallery. The building, with its picturesque architecture, erected in 1931, always proves to be too small for the volume of art works it houses. As a rule, the museum displays in the four rooms of the house aspects of a traditional dwelling on the Bistriţa Valley, folk dress, the main occupations and crafts in the sub-Carpathian region of Moldova, and farming activities.
In the mountain area of the …

 
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 …