The painted monasteries of Bucovina, Private Tour from Bucharest

Bucovina is a name which comes from the German word “Buchenland” and may be translated as “the Land of Beech Trees”. The name was first mentioned in a document issued in 1392 and became the official name of the region in 1774 when this territory was annexed by the Habsburg Empire until 1918 when it became Romanian land again.From the geographical point of view, Bucovina is situated in Northeastern Romania, overlapping a large part of Suceava County and extending across the border with Ukraine up to Chernivtsi. The relief is dominated by the Northern Group of the Eastern Carpathians and the Suceava Plateau. The landscape is crossed by many rivers, such as Moldova (with its tributary Moldovita), Suceava and Siret. Although today most of the beech forests no longer exist due to the extension of human settlements, the landscape you can admire during the tourist routes is remarkable: paths meandering through secular forests, crystalline springs running from the mountains forming small creeks and sheep flocks grazing on mountain tops.The region is inhabited by different ethnic populations, such as Germans, Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians, who live together with the Romanians in harmony. Bucovina has a special characteristic, due particularly to the customs and traditions which come from all the cultures you can find here.

Moldovița Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox monastery situated in the commune of Vatra Moldoviței, Suceava County. The Monastery of Moldovița was built in 1532 by Petru Rareș, who was Stefan the Great’s illegitimate son. It was founded as a protective barrier against the Muslim Ottoman conquerors from the East. Stephen the Great, the King of Moldavia from 1457 until his death in 1504, fought 36 battles against the Ottoman Empire, winning 34 of them. He was very religious and built churches after many victories. Stephen’s illegitimate son, Petru Rareș, who ruled Moldavia from 1527 to 1538 and again from 1541 to 1546, promoted a new vision for Bukovina churches. He commissioned artists to cover the interiors and exteriors with elaborate frescoes (portraits of saints and prophets, scenes from the life of Jesus).Moldovița’s frescoes were painted by Toma of Suceava in 1537. They are filled with yellow accents and are well preserved. The predominantly yellow-and-blue paintings on its exterior represent recurring themes in Christian Orthodox art: a procession of saints leads up to the Virgin enthroned with the Child in her lap, above the narrow east window; the “Tree of Jesse” springs from a recumbent Jesse at the foot of the wall to marshal the ancestry of Christ around the Holy Family; The “Siege of Constantinople” commemorates the intervention of the Virgin in saving the city of Constantinople from Persian attack in A.D. 626.Tall arches open the porch to the outside and daylight. Within it, “The Last Judgment” covers the entire surface of the west wall with its river of fire and its depiction of the sea giving up its dead to judgment. Moldovița and Humor are the last churches built with an open porch, a hidden place above the burial-vault, and with Gothic-style windows and doors.

Sucevița Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox convent situated in the Northeastern part of Romania. It is situated near the Suceviţa River, in the village Sucevița, 18 km away from the city of Rădăuţi, Suceava County. It is located in the southern part of the historical region of Bukovina (northwestern Moldavia). It was built in 1585 by Ieremia Movilă, Gheorghe Movilă and Simion Movilă.The architecture of the church contains both Byzantine and Gothic elements, and some elements typical to other painted churches of northern Moldavia.Both interior and exterior walls are covered by mural paintings, which are of great artistic value and depict biblical episodes from the Old and New Testament. The paintings date from around 1601, which makes Sucevița one of the last monasteries to be decorated in the famous Moldavian style of exterior paintings. Sucevita boasts a magnificent depiction of the Ladder to Paradise. Red-winged angels in orderly rows attend the righteous on a slanting ladder to the heavens, each rung inscribed with one of the monastic virtues. Sinners fall through the rungs and are driven by grinning devils to the chaos of hell. On the south side, foliage entwines the rows of figures in theTree of Jesse. Following it is the Hymn to the Virgin. The interior court of the monastic ensemble is almost square (100 by 104 meters) and is surrounded by high (6 m), wide (3 m) walls. There are several other defensive structures within the ensemble, including four towers (one in each corner). Sucevița was a princely residence as well as a fortified monastery. The thick walls today shelter a museum that presents an outstanding collection of historical and art objects. The tomb covers of Ieremia and Simion Movilă – rich portraits embroidered in silver thread – together with ecclesiastical silverware, books and illuminated manuscripts, offer eloquent testimony to Sucevița’s importance first as a manuscript workshop, then as a printing center.In 2010, the monastery has been inscribed by UNESCO on its list of World Heritage Sites.

First and one of the most important creations of the vaivode Stephan the Great, Putna Monastery with the titular day ,,Adormirea Maicii Domnului (The Assumption of Mary)” (celebrated on August 15), was built between the years 1466 and 1481.In time, Putna Monastery passed through numerous tryouts: foreign attacks and occupations, fires and earthquakes, but they did not succeeded in interrupting the evolution of the religious life.One of the most important gold of the church is the miracle-making icon of God’s Mother, brought in the year 1472 from Constantinople by Lady Maria de Mangop – Stephan the Great’s wife.Putna monastery remains for more than 5 centuries an important spiritual, historical and cultural component of the world in the history. Due to its founder’s name, Putna Monastery is well known not only in the country, but also in the whole Europe, Stephan the Great being known under the name of Christianity athlete.

Voroneţ was also known for its school of calligraphy, where priests, monks and friars learned to read, write and translate religious texts. The school produced two notable copies of Romanian translations of the Bible: The Codex of Voroneţ, discovered in 1871, and The Psalter of Voroneţ, found in 1882. These books are now held at the Romanian Academy.The exterior frescoes where added in 1547 and today this Painted Monastery is probably the most famous one because of the particular blue called Voroneţ blue. It is known throughout the world for its exterior frescoesof bright and intense colours, and for the hundreds of well-preserved figures placed against the renowned azurite background.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 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 the Metropolitan Roşca was from the beginning to reserve it for frescoes.On the north façade is still visible the original decoration of the church, the rows of ceramic enamelled discs in yellow, brown and green, decorated in relief. These include heraldic motifs, such as the rampant lion and the aurochs‘ head of the Moldavian coat of arms, and creatures inspired by Western European mediaeval literature, such as two-tailed mermaids. The tower is decorated with sixteen tall niches, in four of which are windows. A row of small niches encircles the tower above them. The fragmented roof probably follows the shape of the original roof, which doubtless was made with shingles. In1785 the monastic life was interrupted when Bucovina became a part of the Habsburgic Empire.In 1991 the monastic life started and the Monastery became an UNESCO MONUMENT.The frescoed walls of Voroneţ are extremely detailed, depicting the Last Judgement and other religious scenes.

Hidden between the hills nearby the town of Gura Humorului, Cacica is one of the most visited places in Suceava county. The salt-mine has been dug manually under the technical guidance of an Austrian, Paul Hofmann. The giant salt mountain in Cacica can provide enough salt for the entire Europe for the next 400 years!The name of “Cacica” has its origins in the polish “kaczika”, meaning “duck”, because there used to be many lakes with wild ducks in the region.The main tourist attractions are:The old salt mine, where one can see the roman-catholic chapel “Saint Barbara”, the salt-lake and the ball-room; The roman-catholic sanctuary of Cacica; The old wooden-church of Humor Monastery, situated in the village of Partestii de Sus;

Agapia Monastery is one the most important Orthodox nuns convent in Romania, initially built between 1641-1643 and later expanded. The monastery is famous around the world due to its interior frescoes painted in 1858 by the great Romanian painter Nicolae Grigorescu (one of the founders of modern Romanian painting).The monastery's beauty, peace of mind and serenity can be sensed by the people visiting it. All the flowers, paintings, carpets, and books made by the nuns support those feelings of being into a real oasis of tranquility.

The first church at Varatec was a small church built in wood. As the number of nuns grew, the wooden church was replaced by the existing mansory church between 1808-1812, but painting and decoration continued until 1841. The second church, chronologically speaking, to be built as from 1808 was “the Assumption of the Virgin”. It was known and named by the community “the larger Church”. Its architecture preserves certain features taken up from the old church architecture and that of the 18th century in Moldavia. Like the big church Agapia has its neo-Classical elements, but these are synthesised with a traditional Moldavian style which includes a line of neo-Byzantine blind arcading under the eaves. Its windows have discreet Brancovenesque borders incorporating Islamic-style arches and are decorated with floral motifs. The painting was done in 1882 by painters T. Ioan and D. Iliescu and was cleaned in 1968-1969 by Arutium Avachian.

The Red Lake was also known as the Killer Lake, and there's a legend behind that name. It is said that when the slope collapsed over the nearby village, the landfall killed most of the inhabitants of the village, as well the animals. In the water was so much blood from all the victims, that the lake got the name of The Red Lake or The Killer Lake.To make matters more creepy, of the forest that was covered by the lake only tree stumps remained, and over time they got turned into stone due to the sediments. Now, the spruce trunks that barely come out of the water look just like tombstones.