Fancy Nancy on the Road: Painted Monasteries of Bucovina

Romania has several regions in the north that intrigued me..... but I thought were too remote to get to, or at least too difficult to travel to. One is Bucovina, the northern part of Moldova, Romania's eastern region. In the 14th-16th centuries, the Romanian kings sponsored and built Christian Orthodox monestaries in this hilly region - and what

makes them unique and incredible is that they are painted on the outside and inside. More on that later. My new friend Mihai from the pension in Sighasoara encouraged me to rent a car so that I could more easily get to this area.... trains would have gotten me near but not there. And he also asked if his 15 year old son Mihai Jr. could go. I was floored by his trust - but that is indeed what happened - Jr and I got in the car and headed about 300 KM to the northeast. What I didn't expect was how beautiful the countryside would be. Romania has the Carpathian mountain range running like a backwards "C" in the middle of the countryside - so travelling around the country requires a bit of mountain driving. The picture above is a gorge we drove through - it reminded me of Yosemite, though I am not sure if it was granite.

Various landscapes we passed on the way - I liked the haystacks in this picture with people working the fields near them.. with the hills in the distance.

Churches everywhere. Many had shiny metal roofs.... I asked our guide if that was a regional style ....... and he said, no, its lead, its cheap and we aren't allowed to use asbestos anymore.Okay!

Had to pass through several larger cities on the way... really had to mind the road since there are few traffic lights even in bigger cities, and the lights are to the right , not above as in the US. Here is a shot of an older apartment building so you could guess at what cities looked like under Communist rule.

Arrived at our destination, Suceava, and met up with our guide, Ciprian, shown here on the left with his fiance Irina , her brother and Jr. Originally, I had asked Ciprian to guide us for one day around the monestaries - but he offered to continue with us to Maramures, where the traditional Romanian villages were located. This turned out to be a godsend since we learned so much more, had more local experiences, and I didn't have to drive!

Stayed at a guest house the first night near Suceava - many people seem to rent rooms in their original houses (which are very large - no one here believes me when I tell them their house is twice as big as mine!) and live in smaller cottages in the back of the property. I slept in what looked like a dining room - and I really liked the ceiling treatment.... STALAGTITES BABY!!!

So - here's the deal on the monestaries. They were commissioned to be painted on the inside AND outside in order to educate the illiterate population on the biblical stories. They have the same general format and themes... with some variation. They also have long overhanging roofs to protect the outside painting. Bear in mind that these paintings were gone 500-600 years ago - and have not been retouched - they have only been cleaned. Magnificent.... these pictures don't capture the colors or details well.

First monestary was Suchevitsa. This shot shows Jacob's Ladder on the right. The left is the outside of the nave which at every monestary shows the saints, apostles, etc the same order to allow consistency across the monestaries.

There was a section on philosophers and here is Plato, I think, contemplating death - you can tell by the coffin and corpse above his head.

These images appeared everywhere - Seraphans, I think. Our guide, Ciprian, is grinding his teeth with all the mistakes I will make describing the monestaries !!!! The Eye image I believe is one of the original Christian symbols.

A recurring theme is about resisting temptation.

Another dude contemplating death.We couldn't take pictures inside the buildings but the painting there was even more brilliant. The first room would have a calendar system on the wall - a series of paintings for each day of the year.

I think this is a building at the second monestary, Moldevitsa. These monestaries are in the middle of a compound with a medieval stone wall surrounding them, and housing for the NUNs that live there. Yes, there are nuns, not monks. Dunno why. The statue to the left is of the king (Stephen the Great, I think) who built the monestary.

Much of the themes are about adversity of the faith. Here is a section illustrating the seige of Constantinople against the Turks.

Beautiful images.

Inside the altar area, you would find the same themes.... Passion of Christ story.... and a picture of the sponsoring king or noble presenting a mini-monestary (imagine the Stonehenge model from Spinal Tap) to Jesus... with someone, usually, Mary, acting as witness to the gift.

Guys on horses... I kinda stopped taking notes since it was overwhelming.

A broader view of the wall, I think at the third monestary, Humor. They each have a dominant color scheme - Humor is green and red.

This shows how the paintings are protected by the overhaning roof. Some sides were consistently damaged by weather, usually the north sides.

I liked this guy.

These panels represent a saint, maybe John,who refused to declare himself Moslem to the Turkish king.... so he was beheaded in the picture on the left.

Many of the characters wore these checked robes... kinda fun. Remember, this is not Catholic, its Orthodox.

Perhaps my favorite one was Veronets, known for its brilliant blue paint. But I liked it because of the back of the church, representing the great flood , I think. Here is a macro shot.