I’ll post some new photos from: Maramures Ieud wooden church, Barsana monastery, Happy Cemetery of Sapanta, Sighetu Marmatiei, Arad city centre, Targoviste citadel, Curtea de Arges monastery, Polovragi monastery, Poenari citadel, Transfagarasan road, Peles castle, Nera gorge, Fagaras mountains, Bucegi mountains, Piatra Craiului mountains, Ciucas mountains, Piatra Mare mountain, Danube gorge near the famous “Iron gates” and Mraconia cliff sculpture.
Moldovita monastery
October 26, 2009 at 9:06 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: bucovina, fortified churches, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian medieval church, moldovita, romania
Year Built: 1532
Built by: Prince Petru Rareş
Location: Vatra Moldoviţei, Suceava County
Summary: The most distinctive feature of the Church of the Annunciation is the open exonarthex with its three tall arches on the west façade. The exterior paintings are the best preserved of all the churches of Bucovina.
Alexander the Kind 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. As is the case with many other monasteries built during the first century of Moldavia’s existence, such as Probota and Humor, Moldovita was also re-founded by Petru Rareş. The new church was built in 1532 in a different location, several hundred metres uphill from the river.
Petru Rareş founded the present Church of the Annunciation, as is confirmed by the commemorative inscription on the south façade of the church, to the left of the entrance. 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, built on the model of the Church of Humor.
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. The significant stylistic differences between various scenes indicate that there must have been several painters at work in Moldoviţa.
In 1607 Bishop Efrem of Rădăuţi built the solid precinct wall with three towers. The gate tower and the southeast corner tower are square, but the northeast corner tower is round. A vaulted gateway leads through the gate tower into the compound. The arch of the gateway is decorated with carved stone rosettes. In the northwest corner of the compound is a two-storey building, the former clisiarniţa, or treasury house. Now the building is the monastery museum. The collection includes embroideries, icons, liturgical books, archaeological finds and the church seat of Petru Rareş.The exterior painting of the Church of the Annunciation is the best preserved among all the painted churches of Bucovina. 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 Bucovina. 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 tympanon of the portal. The color specific to Modovita Monastery is yellow.
The museum of the monastery holds manuscripts dating the 15th century, manuscripts which make references to the way the monastery school used to be organized and to any other general cultural activities.
The most valuable manuscripts are the ones that date from the 15th century, which are true treasures of culture and feudal art. Today, they are kept in the library of the Dragomirna Monastery. The Four Gospels (1613) and a psalm book (1614) were written calligraphically in here. Moldovita Monastery is one of the few monuments that contain original assemblies of carved furniture. The princely chair of Petru Rares’s time (the 16th century) is the most valuable work of this kind in Moldavia. The embroidery works offered by the voivode Stefan the Great (the 15th century) are as well precious.
Although the monastery is visited by hundreds of people daily, the nuns that live there can hardly be seen, as they lead a very reserved life. They either work in the household, in the painting and embroidery workshops or they use their talent to create icons in miniature from porcelain dust. The nuns have a silent face, specific to the hermits living in the mountains. They always keep their heads pointed to the ground, as a sign of obedience towards the divinity. They straighten their heads only when they pray looking at the icons and saying “Hallelujah”.
Moldovita Monastery is 27 km north of Câmpulung Moldovenesc. In Câmpulung Moldovenesc you can find accommodations and travel information. Câmpulung Moldovenesc is 72 km from Suceava on E58. Suceava can be reached on the main European roads E85, E58, but also on the railway Bucharest-Chernivtsi-Lvov or by air. The city has an airport with flights to Bucharest and even abroad.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
map:
Sucevita monastery
October 26, 2009 at 8:58 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: bucovina, fortified churches, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian medieval church, romania, sucevita
Year Built: 1583
Construită de: Built by: Ieremia, Simion and Gheorghe Movilă
Location: Suceviţa, Suceava County
Summary: This classic Moldavian church with its five rooms, shows the first new architectural tendencies: smaller niches, and three bases for the tower. The frescoes are very remarkable, colourful and well preserved.
Three Movilă brothers built the Church of the Resurrection of Suceviţa around 1583. The church is the only painted church that was not founded by a ruling prince, although the Movilăs were descendants of Petru Rareş on their mother’s side. Quite soon after the monastery was built Ieremia Movilă became the ruler of Moldavia, and his brother Simion reigned in Walachia. The third brother, Gheorghe, who was during that period the Bishop of Rădăuţi, rose to become the Metropolitan of Moldavia.
The church was painted around 1595, nearly half a century after its “sister” churches. It is considered the last flowering of the custom of painting the church façades that mark the reigns of Stephen the Great and Petru Rareş. Building and painting a church that closely resembled the edifices their ancestors raised decades before, was a way for the Movilăs to claim to be part of the royal line of Stephen the Great.
At the same time, though, the monastic compound of Suceviţa and its buildings herald the architectural innovations of the following century.
The massive precinct walls were built after 1595, during the reign of Ieremia Movilă. Each wall is nearly 100 metres long, three metres wide and more than six metres tall, and create the atmosphere of a mediaeval fortress. The walls are strengthened with buttresses, bulwarks and imposing towers. Narrow loopholes in the upper part of the walls indicate that a defensive catwalk encircled the compound.
Each of the five towers has a different plan. The square gate tower with its pointed octagonal turret is in the middle of the north wall. A vaulted gateway, with heavy buttresses on either side, leads through to the compound. Above the arch of the gateway is a semicircular niche with a painting of The Resurrection and the carved coat of arms of Moldavia. Above the gateway, there are two storeys with rooms.
On the first floor is a small chapel dedicated to the Annunciation. The northwest tower is the bell tower of the monastery. It is the most massive one of them all, with three three-tiered buttresses on the outside. The buttresses were added later, as were the gate tower buttresses. On the ground floor is a small laboratory for the restoration of icons, where trained nuns work. On the top floor is the belfry with four big arched openings. The two bells that Ieremia Movilă donated in 1605 are still used daily. The other three towers are octagonal but each different from the other: the northeast tower has three storeys, the southeast five and the southwest two.
A wooden glazed gallery was built on the north wall during the 19th century.The slender wooden turret has the date 1867 carved on it.The existing monastic buildings abut the east wall. The central part is original, and houses, besides the nuns’ cells, a museum with embroideries, manuscripts, religious objects and icons. The Church of the Resurrection, although still built on the model of the classic Moldavian church, shows the first new architectural tendencies.
The church has the five rooms of a large Moldavian monastery church: the chancel, naos, burial chamber, pronaos and exonarthex. On the apses are tall niches, but they no longer reach nearly to the eaves as before. The row of small niches that used to go around the church façades has been omitted.
The tower is for the first time placed on three bases, a practice that was followed some years later in Dragomirna. On either side of the exonarthex are two small open porches of Walachian influence.
The porches were added quite soon after the church was built, by Ieremia Movilă himself.
The votive painting in the naos shows a small porch on the south façade of the model of the church that the Prince holds in his hand. The two porches are not identical. Two pillars and two pilasters, all square, support the south porch. On three sides are ogee-arched openings, and the entrance is from the south. The entrance to the north porch is from the east.
Here there are altogether six openings, two on each side. In the outer corners are round twisted pillars. The pillars between them are hexagonal, and striped horizontally with red brick decoration.
The frescoes are very remarkable, colourful and well preserved. The number of scenes and personages is higher than in any other church in Moldavia. Unlike most other cases, the names of the painters are known: the brothers Ion and Sofronie, who carried out the work from 1595 to 1596.
Sucevita is situated 19km southwest of Radauti on DN 17A. In Radauti you can find accommodations and travel information. The town is 37 km northwest of Suceava that can be reached on the main European roads E85, E58, but also on the railway Bucharest-Chernivtsi-Lvov or by air. The city has an airport with flights to Bucharest and even abroad.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
Air view:
Here is a map that might help you:
Putna monastery
October 26, 2009 at 8:47 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: bucovina, fortified churches, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian medieval church, putna, romania, stefan cel mare, stephen the great
Year Built: 1466-1469
Built by: Stephen the Great
Location: Putna, Suceava County
Summary: The present church was practically rebuilt between 1653 and 1662 by Vasile Lupu and his successors.
The imposing Putna Monastery is situated about 30 km northwest from the town of Radauti, near the Putna River. High, forested hills and wild landscape surround the monastery and the village with the same name.
Stephen the Great built the monastery as his burial place between 1466 and 1469, and the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin was consecrated one year later.
The first superior was Archimandrite Ioasaf from Neamt Monastery, the first important monastic centre in Moldavia. The superior was accompanied by calligraphers, who were the first teachers of the new monastery school that followed the example of the school of Neamţ. It started as a school of rhetoric, logic and grammar for future chroniclers and clerical staff, but soon Putna became one of the most significant cultural centres in the country.
Only three years after the monastery was completed, a fire destroyed it, but it was immediately rebuilt. It was destroyed again in 1653 by the Cossack army of Timuş Hmelniţchi, the son-in-law of Prince Vasile Lupu. The present church was practically rebuilt between 1653 and 1662 by Vasile Lupu and his successors. The ground plan follows the plan of the original edifice, as could be ascertained when the foundations of the first church were excavated from 1968 to 1970.
Stephen the Great ruled for half a century, 1457-1504. He earned his surname “Great” for his several successful military campaigns against the infidel Turks. He is also famous for building and influencing the building of dozens of churches and monasteries all over Moldavia. Allegedly he founded a religious edifice after each important military victory. In the Putna monastery, is found the tomb of king Stephen the Great and several of his family members. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage. The icon waves and the tomb covers are evidence of the creative spirit of the Moldavian artists of Stephen the Great’s time.
The church was unusually large for its time, but the explanation was that it was built to be the burial place of the Prince, 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 stone cable motif was first used in the church of the Dragomirna Monastery in 1609.
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.
Also the lantern tower differs from the traditional ones: it is two-tiered. On the lower octagonal part, there is a small window on each side with a twisted Baroque pilaster in between them. On the upper, narrower part, there are the usual four windows.The entrance to the church goes through two lateral doors. Two groined vaults span the exonarthex, which is an unpainted room full of light from the five big windows. It is possible that the exonarthex was added to the construction later in the 17th century. Fragments of mural painting have been discovered on the east wall, but in areas that are no longer visible: under the present floor level and in the attic, behind the vaults.
Putna is in the valley of the Putna River, 22km northwest of Radauti on DN 2H. In Radauti you can find accommodations and travel information. The town is 37 km northwest of Suceava, following E85 for 22km and then turning left on DN 2H for 15 km, on the plain between the Suceava and Sucevita Rivers. Suceava can be reached on the main European roads E85, E58, but also on the railway Bucharest-Chernivtsi-Lvov or by air. The city has an airport with flights to Bucharest and even abroad.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
Air view: 
map: 
Humor monastery
October 26, 2009 at 8:32 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: bucovina, fortified churches, gura humorului, humor, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian medieval church, romania
Year Built: 1530
Built by: Great Chancellor Toader Bubuiog
Location: Humor, Suceava County
Summary:The Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin is without the tower typical to the churches of the region, as it was built by a nobleman, and not by a ruling prince. Its open exonarthex is the first of its kind in Bucovina.
The monastery of Humor is up the Humor River, near the town of Gura Humorului, among wooded hills. Around it, in the river valley, the village has grown that bears the name of the monastery, Manastirea Humorului.
The ruins of the first church of Humor Monastery, or Homor, as it was known at that time, are about 500 m down the road. A document issued by Alexander the Kind in 1415 confirmed that Judge Ivan (Oana) had built a monastery in Homor. Judge Ivan was a wealthy boyar who also had houses and a stone church in Tulova. The ruins show a small monastic church with three apses, and possibly a dome above the naos, as indicated by the massive supporting pilasters in the corners of the room. A square pronaos was added to the structure some time later. The church was built of massive blocks of stone, decorated outside with enamelled ceramic discs and painted inside, as fragments of paint recovered by archaeologists show.
During the 15th century, Humor was among the most important monasteries in the country. In 1483 Stephen the Great ordered calligrapher Nicodim, monk of the Putna Monastery, to copy The Four Gospels, a manuscript decorated with miniatures. The model was the manuscript of Gavril Uric, made in 1429, but The Four Gospels of Humor includes a unique portrait of the Prince kneeling in front of the Holy Virgin and the Child. Some years later, the manuscript was bound in hammered silver.
It is not known why a monastery of such importance was ruined. But many other monasteries faced the same fate around the same time. It is possible that some kind of disaster caused their partial collapse during the 3rd decade of the 16th century.
The open exonarthex of the Humor church is the first of its kind in Bucovina, and later imitated only in the architecture of the church of Moldoviţa. Already in the last decade of the 15th century, the church of Balinesti had been built with a small open porch on the south side of the building. In 1522, only eight years before Humor, the church of Parhauti had been built with a two-storeyed open exonarthex, which due to its lower roof and only two openings at ground level, seems a closed space. Humor, where the four big openings limit a larger part of the exonarthex than the pillars between them, is truly an open space, a transitional area between the exterior and the interior.
The east wall and the vault of the exonarthex are reserved for a single ample composition, The Last Judgment, following the example of the St. Nicholas Church of Probota. The noble figure of Christ is Adam and Eve. Below them is the Hand of God holding the scales to weigh the souls, and the Archangel Michael defending poor souls from the devils. The whole left side of the wall shows on three registers groups of Righteous, Saints, Holy Women, Martyrs and Prophets . St. Peter is leading them towards Paradise , a garden on a white background, where the Virgin Mary and the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, wait for the saved souls.
Petru Rareş started to rebuild the older ruined churches. In 1530, the same year he started building his burial place in Probota, also the construction of a new church, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, was begun in Humor. The initiative seems to have been of Rareş, as stated on the commemorative inscription on the south façade of the church, but the new founder was a nobleman, the Great Chancellor Toader, named in later documents Bubuiog or Boboiog. He was married to Anastasia, the daughter of the highest nobleman in Stephen the Great’s court, Chancellor Ioan Tăutu, founder of Balinesti Church.
Anastasia is portrayed as a small child on the votive painting of Bălineşti. All that is known about Toader Bubuiog is that he was very faithful to Stephen the Great, and then to his successors Bogdan II, Stefanita and Petru Rareş,and that he was sent on missions to neighbouring sovereigns. The monastery was plundered several times during the next centuries, as recorded in The Four Gospelsof Humor, which itself was stolen several times and always bought back.
The most well-known raid was led by the son-inlaw of Prince Vasile Lupu in 1653, during a power struggle between the prince and his rival to the throne.
Vasile Lupu had already fortified the monastery in 1641, by building a precinct wall and a tall watch tower, the only part still remaining of the defences. Seemingly, they were not of much help.
In 1775, the new Austrian administration of Bucovina abolished the monastery. The church was transformed into a parish church, and the monastic buildings were abandoned and ruined. In the 1980s, a new church was built for the parish of the village, and the former monastery church was opened for visits. The monastic community was refounded in 1992, and in 1993, together with six other churches with exterior frescoes, the church of Humor was included in the World Heritage List.Although the church of the Assumption of the Virgin is not smaller than the other painted churches, the absence of the tower and the comparatively low roofline give the impression of reduced dimensions. On the façades can be found all the themes that are also found on the façades of the other churches painted during the reigns of Petru Rareş.
Obviously, the very well preserved frescoes on the south façade have assured the fame of Humor. Only the lowest register has been eroded.A row of niches runs all around the church, in which are depicted Angels. Between the niches ae Seraphs.
Humor is 6 km north of Gura Humorului on DJ 177. In Gura Humorului you can find accommodations and travel information. Gura Humorului can be reached by railway after a 47 km ride from Suceava and 32 km from Câmpulung Moldovenesc, while by road the distance on E 58 is 36 km to both Suceava and Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Suceava can be reached on the main European roads E85, E58, but also on the railway Bucharest-Chernivtsi-Lvov or by air. The city has an airport with flights to Bucharest and even abroad.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
Map: 
Voronet monastery
October 26, 2009 at 8:19 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: bucovina, fortified churches, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian medieval church, romania, voronet, voronet blue
Year Built: 1488
Built by: Stephen the Great
Location: Voroneţ, Suceava County
Summary: The Church of St. George of the Voroneţ Monastery is possibly the most famous church of Romania. It is known throughout the world for its exterior frescoes of bright and intense colours, and for the hundreds of well-preserved figures placed against the renowned azurite background. The church of Voroneţ that Stephen the Great built included the chancel, the naos with its tower, and the pronaos.
The monastery is located on a riverbank, at the end of the long and narrow village of the same name, near the town of Gura Humorului. The age of the monastic site is not known. A legend tells us that Stephen the Great, in a moment of crisis during a war against the Turks, came to Daniel the Hermit at his skete in Voroneţ and asked for advice. After he won the battle against the Turks, keeping his promise to the monk, the prince built a new church, dedicated to St. George, the bringer of victory in battle. This is the present church that was built on the site of an older wooden church, the scanty remains of which have not been dated. The renowned researcher George Balş wrote in the 1920’s that the churches of this period, and in part also those built in the following century, were “Byzantine churches built with Gothic hands”.The structure and the interior spatial solutions were linked to the Byzantine and south Slavic tradition.
The exterior, with its buttresses and door and window frames were related to Western European High Gothic. The influences spread from Transylvania and Poland with craftsmen who were invited especially to build churches.
The Church of St. George is dated with the commemorative inscription placed above the original entrance, now in the exonarthex: “I, Prince Stephen, by God’s mercy leading the Country of Moldavia, son of Prince Bogdan, started to build this foundation at the Monastery of Voroneţ, dedicated to the Saint and Worshipped and Great Martyr and Victorious George, in the year 6996 (1488) the month of May, 26, the Monday after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and completed it in the same year, in the month of September, 14”. The text shows that the church was built in less than four months. This tells us something about the high professional level of construction at the time, especially taking into account that the Church of St. Elijah in Suceava was built exactly at the same time.
The church of Voroneţ that Stephen the Great built included the chancel, the naos with its tower, and the pronaos, which means that its plan was identical to the churches of Patrauti, St. Elijah and Milişăuţi. In 1547, the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia Grigore Roşca added the exonarthex to the west end of the church. The small windows, their rectangular frames of crossed rods and the receding pointed or shouldered arches of the interior doorframes are Gothic. The south and north doors of the exonarthex of 1547 have rectangular frames, which indicate a transition period from Gothic to Renaissance. But, above them, on each wall is a tall window with a flamboyant Gothic arch. The whole west façade is without any openings, which indicates that the intention of Metropolitan Roşca was since the beginning to reserve it for frescoes.
The exonarthex, as recounted above, was added by the Metropolitan Grigore Roşca in 1547. This addition changed the look of the small church, which up to now had been nearly identical with the still existing churches of Pătrăuţi and St. Elijah of Suceava. The exonarthex is a rectangular space with a transversal barrel vault. The west wall is without an opening, but on both lateral walls there is an entrance and a tall Gothic window.
During the half century that separates the paintings of the exonarthex from those of the naos, Moldavian art had evolved from sober and rigorous to more complex, decorative and lively. Floral decorations fill all available empty space, divide scenes and registers, and accentuate architectural elements such as niches and arches. The clothes of the figures turn from simple into sumptuous, and the bleak landscapes are now filled with vegetation. Details win ground where earlier spiritual intensity was most important.
Voronet is 4 km south of Gura Humorului where you can find accommodations and travel information. The town can be reached by railway after a 47 km ride from Suceava and 32 km from Campulung Moldovenesc, while by road the distance on E 58 is 36 km to both Suceava and Campulung Moldovenesc.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
Map:
Neamt monastery
October 26, 2009 at 8:09 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: fortress, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian fortress, moldavian medieval church, neamt, neamt monastery, neamt natural park, romania, wisent natural park
Year Built: 15th century
Built By: Stephen the Great
Location: Târgu Neamţ
Summary: The main entrance to the compound is through a vaulted passage under the bell tower. The lower part of the tower is probably the original construction built during the reign of Prince Alexander the Kind (1400-1432), but the upper part was added later. The vaulted passage is decorated with frescoes that seem to have been inspired by the popular novel Varlaam and Ioasaf. The frescoes are dated from the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Neamţ Monastery is first mentioned in a 14th century document, in which Petru I (1375-1391) donates villages and lands to the monastery. Nothing remains of the original buildings. It is not known what happened to the church that Petru I had built, but it is possible that an earthquake damaged it in 1471. The monastic buildings were built and rebuilt several times during the centuries. The present constructions, which form a defensive wall around the church, were built during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The imposing Church of the Ascension of the Saviour dominates the yard.
Stephen the Great decided to demolish the damaged church of Petru I, and to build a new one during the last decade of the 15th century. The stone inscription, written in Slavonic, is on the south façade, above the entrance. It states: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, receive this edifice built with Your help for the glory of Your holy and blessed ascension from earth to heaven, and You, our master, lay Your mercy upon us from now to eternity. Prince Stephen wanted and started and built this edifice as a place of commemoration of himself and his wife Maria and his son Bogdan and his other sons, and completed it in the year 7005 (1497), the 41st year of his reign, the 14th day of November”.
More info here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/
Map:
How to get there: You can travel by train up to Targu Neamt and then you can pick a bus for Neamt Monastery and Vanatori Neamt Zoo.
Neamt fortress
October 26, 2009 at 7:58 pm (medieval moldavia)
Tags: fortress, medieval, medieval moldavia, moldavia, moldavian fortress, neamt, romania
Among the most representative historical monuments from Romania we find the fortress of Neamtz, an objectiv situated in the city of Tg. Neamtz in the subcarpathian zone of Moldavia.
Issued from the local society’s necessities, the fortress of Neamtz was build in the period of consolidation of the romanian medieval state on the east side of Carpathians. Along the centuries, the history of the fortress has been tidely combined with the history of the whole Moldavia, for the fortress marked some important moments of this history, keeping on its walls the traces of the days of glory or those of sorrow of the past times.
Built from the order of Peter the 1st Musat (1375-1391) the same as the fortress from Suceava or that from Scheia and other churches or monasteries, the fortress of Neamtz was initialy composed by the central fort which was closing a court garded by four towers.
Situated to the crossing of the way which connects Suceava, through Baia, to Piatra and other cities of Moldavia, with the way coming over the Tulghes pas from Transylvania, the fortress on the Culmea Plesului is documentary attested for the first time on 2 february 1395. At that moment at the east of Carpathians, aiming to get Moldavia under the authority of Hungary, the mean King Sigismund de Luxemburg gave a chancellary act “ante castrum Nempch” shortly after the battle from Hindãu (Ghindãoani) which ended with the victory of Steven the 1st Musat.
The commandant of the fortress – pârcãlabul – had larger military and administrative attributions. Under his power there were the village, which formed the neighbouring area of the fortress (ocoale), named by the documents “right of the king”. Certainely, the habitants of these villages had some obligations concerning the maintenance of the garnizone and the supply of guard contingents (the so-called “hunters”) beside their obligations to pledge “the work at the fortress”.
After the battle from Hindãu, which enabled for a little while the hungarian tendencies to bring Moldavia under their suveranity, there are not known any notable military events concerning the fortress for many decenies.
Only after Steven’s the Great (1457-1504) coming, the fortress of Neamtz will be integrated to the effort made by the whole country to preserve the liberty. The great organisor and military commandant understood very well the role which was to be given to the fortifications system in order to reinforce the capacity of defence of the country and of the King’s power reason enough for him to dispose the reinforcement of the old fortress and the building of new one’s. Due to this constructiv programm, the fortress of Neamtz has been rebuildt (renovated) its look changing almost completely. The works done, according all probabilities between the spring of 1475 and the summer of 1476, contributed to the rising of the old walls and the construction of the exterior court with defence bastions and the suspended bridge on eleven stone piles.
Reinforced in this way, the fortress of Neamtz wrote in 1476 one of the most heroic pages from the history of Moldavia. Lead by Arbore, the garnizone of the fortress resisted to the siege of the turkish army which couldn’t krown this way the victory from Valea Albã (Rãzboieni, 26 iulie). Concerning this event, the sultans writer Angiolello wrote:
but turning our camp in another side, we went to a powerfull castle situated in the mountains, in which there were prisoners caught one year before, in the winter, when Soliman Pacha was crushed. By atempting to conquer the fortress mentioned above, seven canons were set, and during eight days it was made the attempt to conquer this fortress, but two of these canons were broken and those who were in the fortress didn’t want to talk and they were all protecting themselves with artilery and they didn’t care at all about us.
Defeated, in fact, by the impossibility of conquering none of Moldavia’s fortress and to impose as a King his protected, harressed by the moldavian army, regrouped after the returning of the paysantry – gone to secure its families and goods – arround the King, with his army diminished by deseases, threatened by the aproach of the troups coming to help the moldavians, from Transylvania, the sultan was obliged to end the siege and to retreat himself and his army.
The ruling of Steven’s the Great descendants did nothing else but continuing, despite the troubles on the extern plan, the line opened by their great predecesor. This way, until the end of Peter’s Rares first ruling period, Moldavia has been kept away from the great military campaigns and consequently, the resistence of the walls of the Neamtz fortress was no longer tested.
As the turkish domination becomes rougher and their progress in the battle technics begins to increase, the role of the fortress diminishes. After the partial destruction of some interior constructions during the rule of Alexandru Lãpuºneanu (1564) and the renovations ordered by Ieremia Movilã in 1600, the fortress of Neamtz will open its doors in front of the armies of that who realised the first political union of the romanians: Michael the Brave.
Transformed in monastery by Vasile Lupu and than partialy destroyed by Dumitrasco Cantacuzino in 1675, the fortress of Neamtz will have the force to write one more heroic page in 1691, when, defenced by a small group of soldiers (plãiesi), will resist for a few days to the siege of the polish army lead by Ian Sobietski. After the destroy ordered by Michael Racovitza in 1717, the fortress of Neamtz will totally loose its political and military importance.
In the two following centuries the fortress of Neamtz knew a continue degradation due to the people and to the intemperies, which made the fortress at the midle of the XIXth century look pale, contrasting with the impresive image of the citadele it was once.
Consolidated and restored partially, nowadays, the fortress represents one of the most visited objectives of the region.
More info here: http://www.neamt-turism.ro/monumente_en.htm
Map:
How to get there: The fortress is situated in Targu Neamt. It can be easily reached by train or by bus.
Astra museum
October 26, 2009 at 7:47 pm (sibiu)
Tags: astra museum, museum, old romanian house, romanian village museum, sibiu
The ASTRA Museum of Folkloric Traditional Civilization is situated in the Dumbrava Forest, at a distance of 4 kilometers from the city.
The museum functions since 1963 under the name of the Museum of Folkloric Technique and stretches over 96 hectares and an exhibition circuit of 10 kilometers in length.
The museum hosts original monuments representative for the values of the Romanian village.
Dwellings from various parts of the country, interior decorations preserved in the original form, peasant industrial installations, traditional means of transportation etc are displayed here.
All the domains such as agriculture, rising animals, apiculture, fishing and hunting are illustrated by means of characteristic households such as sheepfolds, wine cellars, small factories, etc.
The museum is structured in five large sectors including the related thematic groups.
Besides these sectors, there also exists a modern wood sculpture exhibition stretching over 3 hectares, comprising the works of renowned Romanian and foreign artists, inspired from the universe of the traditional village.
Due to its new thematic concept, this museum in Sibiu became a true “museum of the traditional folkloric civilization in Romania”. The name “ASTRA” is due to the continuation, in all fields (heritage, exhibition, educational), of the valuable traditions of the first historical-ethnographic museum of Romanians in Transylvania, founded in Sibiu in 1905 and closed in 1950, because of “ideological” reasons.
Its heritage (transferred in 1950 to the Brukenthal Museum) was included within the “ASTRA” National Museum Complex in 1990, at the present being composed of 35 240 objects and forming the basis for the future “ASTRA” Museum of Transylvanian Civilization, with a modern, innovative and interdisciplinary concept.
Its gates are generously opened all year long, day and night (for the nocturnal visits the museum is equipped with a lighting system with spotlights and special effects), ensuring specialized guiding, distributing brochures, guides, CDs, films, etc.
more info here: http://www.turism.sibiu.ro/index_en.php
Alba Iulia – Alba Carolina fortress
October 26, 2009 at 7:23 pm (alba iulia)
Tags: alba iulia, austrian fortress, romania, transylvania, vauban, vauban fortress
Alba Iulia had a very important contribution to the history of human settlings and fortified citadels.
The city is situated at an old gold and salt commercial crossroads, into the perimeter formed by the rivers Ampoi and Sebes and the crests of the Apuseni Mountains that mount mildly and lithely towards the terrace of the river Mures and the Transylvanian Hills. The gentle climate and the richness of the soil rendered this area habitable even since ancient times. Archeologists register rich vestiges of the material culture – dating since Neolithic, Bronze Era, Hallstatt, Latene and Middle Ages – undeniable proof of our continuity on these territories.
The tribe of the Dacians from “the far-off Appulus” is mentioned in “Consolatio ad Liviam – Poetae latini minores”, and the geographer Ptolemaios revealed in his “Geographical Guide” (written in the first half of the second century) the coordinates of the city: 49°15′ longitude – 46° 41′ latitude.
The XIII Gemina Legion is to be billeted here in one of the major stoned Roman camps during the years Dacia was a Roman province. Along with the Dacians, the new comers (the Romans), “ex toto orbe romano”, are the ancestors of the Romanian people, appropriating the Dacian ancient toponym Apoulon (a fortress situated at Piatra Craivii, 20 km North of Alba Iulia, which became the Roman Apulum).
Two roman cities, first municipia and later collonia, have developed near the Roman camps, into the fortress, but also nearby the Mures river, in Partos.
The settlings became two of the most wealthy and important places of Dacia – (“Chrysopolis” 251-253 d. Chr.) – outstanding in diversity and the novelty of the local civilization.
Temples and polychrome mosaics, thermae and statues, amphitheaters, porticos, the governor’s palace “Daciarum Trium” – that would be in brief the synthesis of this important military-political, economic-commercial and cultural-artistic center, the miniature copy of the mother Rome.
Imperialism had irreversibly and unmistakably marked the existence and the consciousness of the Romanced popular Latin speaker inhabitants.
This was the beginning of a new world – orbs romana. The settling continuity, the pre-early and late feudal towns and graveyards, the hoards, the rotunda baptistery uncovered from the Roman-Catholic Cathedral’s floor, the presence of Hyeroteos who came here straight from Constantinopol, indicate the existence of a Christian world with Byzantine background and of an important political center – the Principality of Bãlgrad.
Middle Age was earlier here, Alba being certified as a county in 1171, then as “civitas”, along with Brasov, Sibiu and Rodna. The first documentary reference Alba Iulia had been made in 1276, and was then taken over and consequently translated as Bãlgrad or Gyulafehérvár.
An Episcopal citadel and an important political, military and ecclesiastic center of the province, Alba Iulia reached an important climax between 1542-1690, being the capital of the independent Principality of Transylvania and “the residence of the Transylvanian princes”, as the traveler Evlia Celebi eloquently wrote. Famous rulers and voivodes, musicians and painters, ambassadors and scholars, engineers and doctors met in “the city of fine arts”, endowing this “Transylvanian Heidelberg” with a new glowing.
An important commercial center, a real foundation stone of the province and of the entire South-Eastern European world, the city has gained a special cultural importance due to the notable accomplishments in the bishops Ladislau Gereb and Francis Varday’s time but mostly during the prince Gabriel Bethlen’s time.
The well-known Collegium Academicum, the first higher educational institution in Transylvania, which had been running since 1622, boasted for about four decades some of the most brilliant representatives of the European Humanism and Renaissance: Apaczai Csere Janos, Martin Opitz, Alstedius, Biserfeldius, Johannes Piscator, genuine titans with passion for knowledge and multilaterality. Nowadays the local universities continue the tradition of the old academic schools.
Between 1577-1702, more than 22 works, “real masterpieces of language, belief and Romanian feeling”, such as Tetraevangheliarul slavon (1579), Evanghelia de invatatura (1641), Noul Testament de la Balgrad (1648), Psaltirea (1651), Bucoavna (1699) or Chiriacodromionul (1699) came out of the printing presses of Balgrad. The ample series of incunabula and rare books (such as Codex Aureus) from the Batthyaneum Library (where it is the oldest astronomic observatory in Romania) enrich through their singleness the culture of Alba Iulia. The well-known Collegium Academicum, the first higher educational institution in Transylvania, which had been running since 1622, boasted for about four decades some of the most brilliant representatives of the European Humanism and Renaissance: Apaczai Csere Janos, Martin Opitz, Alstedius, Biserfeldius, Johannes Piscator, genuine titans with passion for knowledge and multilaterality. Nowadays the local universities continue the tradition of the old academic schools.
Between 1577-1702, more than 22 works, “real masterpieces of language, belief and Romanian feeling”, such as Tetraevangheliarul slavon (1579), Evanghelia de invatatura (1641), Noul Testament de la Balgrad (1648), Psaltirea (1651), Bucoavna (1699) or Chiriacodromionul (1699) came out of the printing presses of Balgrad.
The ample series of incunabula and rare books (such as Codex Aureus) from the Batthyaneum Library (where it is the oldest astronomic observatory in Romania) enrich through their singleness the culture of Alba Iulia.
On the first of November 1599, once with the voivode Michael the Brave’s victorious arrival, Alba Iulia has become the capital of the first political union of all Romanians. His military, administrative, cultural and national accomplishments represent a seal-symbol of the Transylvanian map and of Romanian people’s consciousness. The mitropoly that he had founded here, “our most resistant and useful establishment from this side of the Carpathians”, symbolizes the integration of Transylvania into the great Romania.
Having been overtaken by the Austrian suzerainty after 1700, the city of Alba Iulia had experienced fundamental changes between 1714-1738 and therefore became a real military bulwark, a monument of baroque architecture built in Vauban style.
Alba Iulia has the greatest and best-preserved fortress of this kind in Romania, which has become an effigy of the city. The serfs revolt led by Horea, Closca and Crisan, tragically put down in February 28th 1785 on the Pitchfork Hill, makes the city a seal symbol of the fight for justice and freedom.
Eloquently defined by Nicolae Iorga as “the cultural municipality”, Alba Iulia also honored its reputation through the synods organized by the Romanian priests, through public assemblies of Astra (1866, 1875, 1886) and those of the Romanian Theatre Fund Society (1878, 1909), through papers and publications, the well known names of St. Ludwig Roth, Mihai Eminescu, Nicolae Iorga, Octavian Goga, Lucian Blaga, Liviu Rebreanu, Iuliu Maniu, Constantin Daicoviciu ennobling the city.
On the 1st of December 1918 another glorious page of history was written in the citadel of martyrdom and glory, as a corollary of its millenary history. Here, in Alba Iulia, on the Field of Horea, 100,000 Romanians and 1,228 delegates have democratically, plebiscitarily and irrevocably decided the Unification of Transylvania with the mother country, accomplishing the dream of many generations.
A new historical stage came to an end, a stage also outlined on the 15th of October 1922 by “our defining in terms of history”, through the crowning of the Great Romania’s monarchs, the King Ferdinand the 1st, the Unificator and his queen Mary, in the People’s Reunification Cathedral.
As an acknowledgement of its contribution to the history of our nation, in 1944 the Romanian Parliament has stated Alba Iulia as the “Great Unification Citadel”.
The fortress:
The Alba Carolina fortress was built between 1714 and 1738 and it is considered to be the most representative of Vauban type in Europe.
The fortress was designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti, who worked under the supervision of the general Stefan de Steinville and was later completed under General Weiss. Between the 18th and 19th centuries the fortress served as the military headquarters of Transylvania and also as a general armament repository. The perimeter of the outside walls is about 12 km. The fortification has seven bastions (Eugene of Savoia, St. Stefan, The Trinity, St. Michael, St. Carol, St. Capistrano and St. Elisabeth) that make it into a star-shaped, Vauban-style fortress. The largest bastion is the Trinity. On the whole, the fortress stands out as the most important baroque architectural ensemble in Romania and Europe.
The Route of the Three Fortifications
A unique tourist destination in Europe and the world, the Route of the Three Fortifications offers the visitors a life-time chance to travel 2,000 years back in time, walking about the vestiges of three fortifications belonging to three different historical epochs, successively built on the same location, each new citadel including the previous one: The Roman Castre (106 AD), The Medieval Citadel (sec. XVI-XVII) and the Alba Carolina Citadel, a Vauban-type fortification (sec. XVIII). The route includes visits to: The Minting Factory Gate, South Gate of the Roman Castre, The Military Camp, The Access Tunnel to the Artillery Platform, The Artillery Platform, The Guard Room – The Arms Room, The Bethlem Bastion and the Alba Carolina Citadel.
More info here on Alba Iulia City Hall website: http://www.apulum.ro/en/cetatea.htm
Air view:
