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Bucovina - Painted monasteries
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Bukovina, whose name means the land covered by beech forests,
is an historical Romanian region situated in the northern part of Moldavia.
It is world wide renowned for the great number of monasteries to be found here,
among which Arbore, Sucevita, Moldovita, Humor,
Voronet, Probota, Patrauti and the Metropolitan Cathedral in Suceava
were included in the UNESCO world heritage list, as a recognition of the iconographic,
cultural and historic significance of their mural paintings.
Beside these ones you will encounter in Bukovina many other beautiful monasteries,
the most important being Putna, Dragomirna and Bogdana.
There is no other place in Romania where the cultural heritage and the nature coexist
better than here and there is no place in the world where you can find church frescoes
on both interior and exterior sides of the walls, preserved so well as in the monasteries
that lie at the foot of the Bukovinan mountain crests. It is almost incredible that a so
thin layer of paint could resist to all the interferences for more than 400 years until today,
to charm us with its still vivid colours.
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Sucevita Monastery - Entrance
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Voronet Monastery
Moldovita Monastery
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The Bukovina monasteries are located on a relatively small area, around Suceava,
the historical capital of Moldavia, in a very picturesque region, with thick forests and imposing crests,
that offer an outstanding view over the inhabited valleys.
They were built in the 15th- 16th centuries during the reign of Stephen the Great and of his son,
Petru Rares. Stephen the Great was a prolific promoter of culture.
During his 47 years reign he erected about the same number (44) of churches and monasteries.
At that time the monasteries were not decorated with exterior polychromous frescoes,
but with colourful enamelled ceramics placed around the steeples and below the cornices.
The exterior mural painting flourished in Moldavia only by the end of the 15th century,
mainly during the reign of Petru Rares.
In several cases Petru Rares continued and improved the work of his father.
For example the church of Voronet Monastery, erected by Stephen the
Great and dedicated to the Saint George, was adorned with its famous
exterior mural paintings under the reign of his son.
The exterior walls of the church are painted on a very well preserved and vivid blue background,
colour that has been added to the art lexicon alongside colours as the "Veronese Green" under the name of Voronet Blue.
The most famous fresco is the magnificent representation of the
Last Judgement on the western wall, which determined the specialists to call Voronet Monastery
the Sistine Chapel of the East.
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The church of Moldovita Monastery was also reconstructed and painted in the time of Petru Rares.
The monastery, built by Alexander the Kind at the beginning of the 15th century,
was because of a landslide already a ruin in the mid 16th century,
when Petru Rares built the current church, dedicated to the Annunciation.
Its valuable exterior frescoes, created by the church painter Toma from Suceava,
feature scenes from the Costantinopole battles and are almost
completely preserved except the northern side.
For this outstanding work of art Bukovina's painted monasteries (Voronet, Sucevita, Humor, Moldovita, Arbore)
were awarded 1975 the prestigious Pomme d'or prize by the
International Association of Tourism Writers and Journalists
and the trophy (a golden apple) can be seen in Moldovita museum.
Nevertheless the best preserved among the painted monasteries in Bukovina remains
Sucevita monastery, maybe due to the fact that it is the latest one,
dating back to the end of the 16th century.
The exterior frescoes are in a good condition even on the northern side,
more exposed to the elements. The most impressive scene on the northern
wall is the Ladder of virtues, a antagonistic representation of
good and evil (here are represented the 30 virtues which mokns
must fulfill to reach to heaven).
A unique theme in the orthodox art, the creation of the
Moldavian painting school is The Prayer of All Saints,
to be admired on the walls of the three apses. The southern side is decorated with The Stem of Jesse,
The Annunciation Hymn, The Burning Bush and The Veil of the Virgin Mary.
All these magnificent scenes have determined the French art researcher Paul Henry to refer to
Sucevita Monastery, the latest one among the painted monasteries in Bukovina,
as the testament of the Moldavian Art.
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Moldovita - Painted Wall
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