Painted monasteries of Bucovina

So this weekend, two colleagues and I went on monasteries hopping in the area of Bucovina. Most of these painted monasteries were built in the fifteen century, and were often built to celebrate a victory by Stephan the Great (no, really). The particularity about these monasteries is that they are painted both inside and out. All of those are registered on the UNESCO list of world heritage. I have tons of pictures and really the few here don’t do justice to the beauty of these monasteries, and the quiet of the surroundings. We were lucky to have V. drive us through the villages and guide us through these places. On the same road trip, we also explored a salt mine and really spectacular gorges; I will post pictures later on.

To go to these monasteries about 200 kms from Cluj, you have to drive through the Carpathians mountains, and pass from Transylvania to Moldova area. Moldova region is absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful. More recently, this area has been promoting eco-tourism, and it’s easy to see how one can be attracted to the region. People here live a simple life, horse carriages are still a prevalent mean of carrying loads, or collecting milk from farms in the morning.
We started on a early drive through the mountain area while the fog slowly lifted, creating great pictures opportunities:

The first monastery we visited was Moldovita. Built in 1532, this one is one of the most remarkable of the monasteries in the area. It is usually not allowed to take pictures inside the monastery, but the paintings are very well preserved in all the ones we visited.

The next monastery on our road was Sucevita. Very well preserved paintings as well. On the North wall, there is a fresque called "the ladder of virtues" which shows a ladder leading to paradise. On the right of the ladder are angels, and underneath the ladder are the devils waiting for the poor souls to fall down and be taken to hell.

The famous ladder of virtues.

After that, we moved on to Putna, built from 1466 to 1470. This monastery  was founded by Stephan the Great, on advice from a local Ermit, Daniel. See below where Daniel used to live...

Below is the entrance to the monastery.

This was the only monastery where we could take pictures inside.

Next monastery for the day was Arbore , possibly the less well preserved of all the ones we saw that day.

The following day we started with probably the most spectacular of all monasteries, Voronet build in 1488, still ordered by Stephan on advice of Daniel the ermit. This monastery is famous for two things: the "Blue Voronet" considered to be unique and impossible to recreate, similarly to Veronese green ; the other is the painting of the last judgement on the West wall. This monastery is often referred as the "sixtine chapel of the Orient".

Finally we visited Humor, built in 1530.

These monasteries were absolutely spectacular. I'll put soon  some other pictures I took during the trip. Maxime told me my blog looks like a tourist brochure, but as Chloe would say: "tough, deal with it!".

Ciao!