Today was Monastery day. South Bucovina’s 8 painted monasteries were erected in the 15th and 16th centuries at a time when Moldavia was threatened by the Ottermans. The churches have frescoes internally and externally with formal Orthodox iconography. The monasteries were persecuted in Communist times but since 1990 the work has begun in earnest to preserve these important monuments. They have become UNESCO Heritage sites.
We were to visit four of the monasteries, being Voronet, Humor, Sucevita and Moldovita. Unfortunately we were not able to photograph the insides of the churches which were spectacular, but were able to take pictures of the outsides.
There was hardly a space on the external or internal walls of the churches that were not covered with frescoes (or meant to be covered, as some had deteriorated with time). The churches all had four or five sections within and we were told that there were strict rules of what should be shown on the walls of each section, and in what order.
In between visiting the second and third monasteries we had lunch in Gura-Humorului and they had a very novel use for an old, I would assume, Dacia car that was in the middle of the road near a roundabout.
Before we reached the last monastery at Moldovita, we stopped at a very unusual tribute to the builders of the road we were travelling on. It was, we were told, the sort of thing done during the communist times in Romania.
The last monastery at Moldovita was being renovated so outside was not as photogenic as the previous three but was again stunning inside.
If you are ever this way they are definitely worth visiting and you can see why UNESCO values them.
As we left our last monastery the thunder and lighting started and the rain fell in biblical proportions but that was probably fitting after our day’s visits.
Tomorrow we have a road trip to Sighisoara with a stop at the Saxon town of Bistrita.