We spent a few days driving around this beautiful part of Romania, near the Carpathian mountains visiting the Painted Monasteries and enjoying the countryside. Lots of agriculture and forests. Nearly every older woman was wearing a head scarf and there were horse drawn wooden wagons (with car tires) driven by farmers with their goods and their families on board.
Some back roads felt like going back in time, with ancient wooden houses, and farming done with just horses and hand labor. Even the major roads are just two lane blacktop roads that go through the center of villages. Large trucks and fast Audi’s are sharing the road with tractors and horse-drawn carts.
The Painted Monasteries
Stephen the Great is a much revered king from the 15th century. Over his 45 year reign he went 34-2-0 in battles with surrounding enemies. Apparently he was also a benevolent and religiously minded ruler. He and his descendants built many churches and monasteries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists painted pretty much every surface of these monasteries inside and out, (well except the roof and floors).
The monasteries are fortified, generally with the church in the middle, surrounded by a rectangular wall, and with quarters for the monks and nuns near to or connected to the inner defensive walls. We visited several of these UNESCO World Heritage Site churches.
The colors remain vibrant inside and out, even on the exterior surfaces, at least on the parts of the church with less exposure to weather. The large overhanging roofing certainly helped. Most didn’t allow interior photos but the paintings were impressive inside as well.
Voroneț Monastery
Putna
This church does allow photography, and part of the monastery is a museum dedicated to Stephen the Great and other important people of the time. Steven is also entombed in the church. Nearby is a “church” carved into a large bolder with a small cave underneath. Daniil the Monk carved these and lived in the cave for awhile. He was a spiritual advisor to Stephen.
Sucevita
A well preserved/restored wall surrounds this church. The adjacent museum holds many religious artifacts.
Moldoviței
After the third painted monastery, they started to seem pretty similar, so that was enough for us. Still quite impressive, but time to move on to other kinds of sights.
Each painting tells a story, which reminded illiterate commoners about religious stories and principles. Below is a photo of one that needed little help to interpret. A man’s life is being judged. His life is literally in the balance. Note how the demons are piling up bad deeds in the right pan, hanging on the pan and reaching to take the man. Meanwhile one angel has his hand on the scale to tip in favor of the man, and the other angel is using a long stick to poke at the demon. Groups of saints are seated and watching the scene play out and it appears two people are praying for him just above his head. I suppose the dove is a representation of God’s love or the Holy Ghost. Just above the cross (and not in this photo) is Jesus. This seems like a reasonable 15th century depiction of grace.
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