Moldovita Monastery
Year of construction: 1532
Built by: Petru Rares
Summary: The most important characteristic of “Buna Vestire” church is the exonarthex, with the 3 arches on the west façade. From all the churches from Bucovina, the exterior paintings kept in their best forms.
Alexandru cel Bun built his first monastery in Moldovita on the shores of the river, having the same name, in the beginning of the 15th century. The chosen place was far from the villages, in the forest.
Only the ruins from the basic stones remain from the first church. This was bricked with big stone blocks, as many other monasteries, built in the first century of the existence of Moldova, for example Probota and Humor, Moldovita was funded by Petru Rares. The new church was built in 1532 in a different place, few hundred meters away from the river.
The church was painted in 1537, on the inside as well as on the outside. In 1607 The Efrem Episcope decided to seize a stronger building of it and the building of the 3 towers. The one from the entrance and the one from the South-Eastern corner have the form of a square, and the one from North_estic corner is round. The arcade of the gate is decorated with stone sculpted rosettes . In the North-Western of the church there is a two-levels building, that used to be a exchequer. Right now the building is the museum of the monastery. The collection includes embroideries, liturgical books, archeological discoveries and Petru Rares’s chair.
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