The Voronet Monastery

Description:

Voronet Monastery is one of the most valuable foundations of Stephen the Great. The church was built in 1488 in only four months and half which, for that time, is a record.

How can you get there? 

Voroneţ Monastery is located in the village with same name, 36 km from Suceava and only 4 km from downtown Gura Humorului.

Why is it special? 

Small scaled, with three-lobed level, with the spire on the Moldovan nave on it vault, the church is one of the few monuments of religious architecture in northern Moldavia, which largely preserve their initial form. In 1547, the metropolitan Grigore Rosca, initiated the addition of a closed porch, taking a solution never seen before in the architecture which is clearly subordinated to the painted decoration: the west wall of the porch is a solid wall without an opening, and the painting of the exterior walls from foundation up to the eaves,  building works that gave the construction an exquisite glow.

The interior painting of the church goes back to Stephen the Great's glorious period. In the scenes from the altar and the nave, the artist aimed to present especially the theological sense of the images constructing a solemn assembly, but with the obvious character of monumentality. These paintings of interior draw the attention: "Last Supper", "Sharing the Apostles", "Washing feet" (the altar), "Passions cycle" and the votive picture of Stefan cel Mare (nave).

The exterior painting of Voronet dating from the reign of Petru Rares is made at a high artistic level, being considered as the most successful set of Moldavian feudal art. Biblical figures of the exterior frescoes are close to life, animate, of course. The frescoes are distinguished by their vivid colours, close to that of the surrounding nature and green and blue dominated by widely held composition of different scenes.

A special feature of these frescoes is a rich creative imagination of their creators who introduced in composition folk elements (for example: the archangels who blow the horn, the specific instruments of the mountain shepard).