It is recognized as the largest convent in Romania. We know that at Monastery Văratec are living over 400 nuns. The monastery was not based, as you might think, by princes, or by great counselors of the country, but through painstaking of the true believers, of the Mother Olympiada initiative. Although it was founded in 1785, only after more than 50 years (in 1839), it is known as an independent monastery. Stone walls that close the precinct where is the Church of the Assumption (1812) are constructed since 1808, ending up at 1850, …

                          Nicholae Tonitza, whom about Tudor Arghezi wrote “Tonitza is a word complex concentrated active; big in all components … . His suave brush say, think and sing … ” was born in Barlad on 13th of April, 1886. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Iasi, followed in Berlin the Bavarian Royal Academy of Fine Arts, then in Paris. Few know that Tonitza, best selling Romanian painter for 10 years (almost one million), was a painter of churches. In our …

Located between the mountains that carrying ancient forests and emphasizes the beauty of a place cherished with christian love, Agapia Monastery, one of the most famous in Moldova, is first mentioned in 1437. But because the land was subject to landslides, by the 1600s, the monks built another monastery, below, of granite stone, consecrated in 1647. The church is dedicated to the old church built by Petru Rares, Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Since 1803, the monastery receives community of nuns. Over time, the monastery, which “seems to sneak and hide in …

Near the monastery Horaiţa, a few hundred meters, on the uphill road is Horaicioara Hermitage or Horaicioara Veche, that exists there since 1466, as recorded document mention in the porch of the church. Beause the hermitage had no church, at the behest of Prince Stephen the Great in 1480, is built, the first church (wooden) dedicated to the Annunciation. After more than 400 years, at the Hermitage, a stone church was built (1868), in which is found the miraculous icon of Our Lady, one of the wonders being the emergence of a …

How many gold and silver jewels of inestimable value were stolen by the Ottoman besiegers and other predators from our churches and monasteries throughout hundreds of years, we cannot know, since they were melted and turned into “rascal” silver and gold. Nuns and monks of those places have worked with accuracy others and more beautiful, hardworking and skillful with their hands, and today we can admire them in the monastery museums.
Treasure from the Agapia Monastery highlights artistic activities cultivated here over the centuries, such as: embroidery, plasty metal, the art …

   In Văratec Monastery Museum, founded in 1960, are preserved a large number of authentic charters, such as acts of donation and strengthening, religious books, manuscripts and old books used in the monastery, as well as books of religious literature. Many precious jewels, embroidery, silver objects illustrating life held inside the monastery, are highlighted in the collection of objects of historical and artistic significance that we can admire in the halls of the museum. Thus, in the halls of the museum are stored objects of worship in gilded silver, or gold, wonderful old …