The Painted Monasteries

Beyond Transylvania, some of the most visited sites of Romania are the painted monasteries in the northern part of the Moldavia region.  The painted monasteries date from the mid-fifteen century and have frescoes that have weathered the Romanian seasons amazing well. Last weekend, I took a monastery tour with my dear friends Julie and Mil, who is back for a visit.  We had put off seeing the monasteries because they are not easily accessible with public transportation, but we were able to hire a guide who drove us to four of the main painted monasteries.  We started off with a gorgeous, but chilly fall day at Humor Monastery.

Humor Monastery

frescoes at Humor

Our next stop was Voronet, which is dubbed the "Oriental Sistine Chapel" in many guide books.  The monastery was founded in 1488, while the frescoes were added between 1547 and 1550.  The most well-know is "Last Judgement" which has many fascinating details of its era, like the Tatars and Turks destined for perdition.

Voronet Monastery

the register of saints and philosophers

the lives of St. Nicholas and St. John

Sebastian, our guide, describing the finer points of "Last Judgement"

Mil, Marta and Julie at Judgement

Our trip then took us into the mountains where we were able to take in more Romanian scenery while the temperature continued to drop.

We made another stop at Moldovita, but I didn't get a photo of that one.  Our final monastery was then Sucevita, by that time we seemed to move from fall to winter. Sucevita was the last of the monastery complexes built in the region.  It's main fresco is the "Ladder of Virtue," depicting angels ascending to heaven and others falling and being pulled from the ladder.

Sucevita

The Ladder of Virtue

snow!

 It was a fascinating and enjoyable day.