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.

Closeups from the macro shot above. These are probably some kind of infidel.

Liked the octopus!

This guy didn't make it.

Last Judgement again.. an elephant and lion are shown.

Full shot of Veronets. Our last monestary.

Next up! A precarious ride across the mountains to the most isolated region of Romania - Maramures!

Stepping Back in Time - Northern Romania

Maramures..... the last intact area of Europe with peasant villages that follow traditions of a hundred years ago. Its a series of villages surrounded by mountains.... and the roads are horribly pot-holed and difficult to traverse.... thus isolating these towns to some degree from the Communists and from rampant commercialism (though you can feel it coming.) These gents are from the village where we stayed for two nights, Botiza.

Maramures is known for its fine carpentry - including elaborate gates. This gate is on top of the highest mountain pass in the area - between the monestary area (Bucovina) and Maramures. They are building a church at the pass, as you can tell.

Here is a house in our village. Beautifully carved wooden gate, and a woven fence. Very pretty.

Here is our hostess... she rented out the rooms we slept in in a large house and slept in the cottage to the right. This is her backyard -chickens and all. Note the large church in the background. Bathrooms in this rural town had hot water heaters that were heated by wood - wow.

We had so many lucky moments. On our first day, we came upon grade school kids in front of a hall who were all decked out in local costumes. They were just about to practice their grammer school graduation ceremony.

So cute! The boys put flowers in the bands on their hats.
Heading in to practice and we followed. There were two gents from Australia taking pictures of the kids and our guide invited them in to see the kids practice. Later, these two guys said their best pictures were from when they ran into us, like during this practice.

These two were really talented. She played the 5 string guitar holding it vertically. Some of the kids sandg songs and these two accompanied them.



At one point, the kids paired off and started dancing. The girls did this funny wiggly butt move, and then the boys would do a bit where they stamped their boots alot. It was adorable. Notice how the girls are taller than the boys at this age!

First stop in Maramures was the Merry Cemetary in Sapatsa. In the 1960s, a wood carver started carvng elaborate and humorous gravestones from wood that showed how these people lived and loved, and also how they died. These markers make fun of death - thus the Merry Cemetary nickname.

This guy died in a car accident.

Worshipping George.

Note her regional shoes are reflected in the carving.








We met a family at the cemetary - turns out the grandfather, Victor, had escaped from Romania without a passport in 1989, thru Hungary to a camp in Austria. He was visiting with his wife and grandaughter. Turns out they live 10 miles from where I lived outside Chicago - Lincolnwood!! While we talked outside the gate, the lady taking tickets watched us.

Two local guides giving George a lesson in fashion.

Actually, Mihai and Ciprian,our guide , wearing local traditional hats.







There were real storks in huge nests all over the place -not a myth!

Romanians work so hard. Everywhere we went we would see men and women going to or returning from working in the outlying fields. They did almost all farmwork by hand. With long light of summer, they could be working at 5am till 8pm.

I am going to hell. We visited a monestary and I took a picture of the nuns, albeit from a distance, without their permission. They are from the Orthodox faith and are gardening here.





Here is a fairly new monestary in Maramures - the very tall wooden spires are unique to the area and are designated as Unesco World Heritage sites, as are the painted monestaries we saw in Bucovina.

A support building in the monestary - about 13 nuns live in this huge complex. Amazing wooden carving.

Holy water fountain in the middle of the complex.

Took this picture inside one of the oldest wooden churches in Maramures. When biblical stories were painted on the interior walls to teach the illiterate peasants, sometimes literary license was taken - the bad guys in this story were painted with Hungarian outfits... Romanians don't like the Hungarians since they occupied much of western Romania for centuries.

One of the carved gates outside a church - lots of detailed scrolls, sun images, ropes, etc.

We went to 3 wooden churches in the area - after 2 of them, our guide said to me ,"You like people more than churches." Boy, did he get that one right! I found the surrounding cemetaries more interesting - here is a picture from one of the headstones.

We had a beer at the local "bar" - really more of a shack. The bartender, whose named meant Tree Leaves, was a goofball, like pretending to walk away with my change, etc - very flirtatious. Until I sat next to him for this picture - all of a sudden he got REALLY serious. We joked he was my Maramures husband.

Ciprian surprised us with a horsedrawn wagon ride through the village before dinner. Here are some shots as we drove . This village had 1000 houses (that is how they describe the size,not by people, but by houses) and most houses had benches on the street where people hung out and chatted - very social.

This is shot from my balcony on the second morning we were in the village - it was market day and people were milling about.

Women on one side.

Here is our wagon driver and Ciprian hamming it up on our wagon ride. Romanians don't easily smile for pictures so I love this shot!

Hitchhiking is very common in Romania - both car and wagon.So on our wagon ride, we picked up a bunch of people, including this little lady.

Speaking of hitchhikers, we picked up several on the roads - they usually give a token amount of cash to you. This guy was great - when he found out I was from the US, he said "Bad President!" I've had several folks in Romania make comments about Bush - what do Romanians know that Red staters don't?
In the center of the town/village, the houses are concrete and large. Just outside town, this would be more typical - wooden house and gate, with a garden for vegetables.

Oh boy, major traffic jam on our ride. We have a confluence of car and wagons!

At the top of the hill , we walked around a monastery a bit. These monasteries are built for speed - they are put together like a puzzle in case they need to be moved in the event of invasion. This corner of the building gives you a sense of that.

A family working on the haystack, which I finally asked, what the hell are all these haystacks for? Simple answer - hay for animals. Not sure if these are for cows to sell or to keep for milk. I have no idea how this girl got up so high but she was very cute and posed for us. A view of the valley and rolling hills below.

Group shot of our wagon. We picked up hitchhikers... the two Australians (next to me in the second row) and some locals - full boat.

Earlier that day, we ran into a local market and walked around a bit. Here are three ladies comparing the bargains they made.

A word on headscarves - most women wear them here. Married women wear dark headscarves that are close around their face- not showing hair. Unmarried women wear lighter colored scarves that show hair.

Ciprian checking out the scythe selection.