Cetatuia Monastery

Description:

Cetatuia Monastery of Iasi is a friary, founded in the eighteenth century by Prince Gheorghe Duca. The Fortress was designed from the beginning as a refuge and armed resistance in case of siege, its walls being provided with narrow buttresses for guns. The walls of the south and east sides were best protected, those on the north and west being on a steep ridge of the hill, being hard to climb by the potential attackers. The existence of a "guard path" of wood may be observed along the walls in order to allow the defense of walls.

How you get there?

Being on the hill that dominates the Nicolina river vallery, in the Nicolina district one can see a beautiful panorama of the city, on Cetatuia Street,   No. 1, Iasi

Special and interesting data

All the paintings of the church are of a great artistic value. The church was painted in frescoes by craftsmen Macedo, brothers Michael, George and Dima of Ioanina (Greece), together with Romanian artists who had worked for the  painting of  "Three Hierarchs Church" (Nicholas "the old painter" and Stephen).

The original painting was not preserved but partially, the remaining paintings were changed in the eighteenth century and in the third decade of the nineteenth century. The paintings in the porch were best preserved, of special interest being: "Tree of Jesse", "Judgment", "Ladder of John Climax" and the sacred painted medallion. Cetatuia Monastery, with all the its annexes, is one of the finest architectural masterpieces of eighteenth century Moldova.

When can you visit Cetatuia Monastery?

Open: daily between 08.00-12.00

Thursday between 08.00-23.00