The Putna Monastery, located 72 kilometers from the Seat Citadel of Suceva, is the first and most important foundation of the Pious Voivode Stefan the Great and Saint, and has been guarding, for over five centuries, the legendary land of Bucovina. Putna Monastery is an Orthodox monastic place, one of the most important Romanian cultural, religious and artistic centers. It was nicknamed the "Jerusalem of the Romanian Nation" (Mihai Eminescu).
Architecture
The Garden of Eden called Putna impressed by the fiery star
The entrance to the monastery premises is made under the vaulted arch of a tower composed of a ground floor and a first floor, on whose eastern facade is the coat of arms of Moldova dated 1471. The tower was built in 1757 during the reign of the ruler Constantin Racoviță, and the coat of arms testifies to this from the west facade, where the coats of arms of Moldova and Wallachia appear together. Because the poet Mihai Eminescu, together with Ioan Slavici and other participants in the Great Celebration in Putna in August 1871, spent the night in the room upstairs, this construction is called the "Eminescu Tower". Also on the east side is the "Bell Tower" built in 1882.
The chapel of the monastery, located in the western part of the premises, dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, was built by Metropolitan Iacov Putneanul in 1759, on the site of the old bell tower damaged in the great earthquake of 1739. It was restored between 1976-1983, when new spaces have been added to it. The chapel was painted in the "al fresco" technique in the period 1980-1984 by the artists-brothers Mihail and Gavril Moroșan, the abbot being Archimandrite Iachint Unciuleac.
On the southern side of the premises is the Royal House built between 1982-1988 on the foundations of the old one destroyed by the Habsburgs. The reconstruction works were started and largely supervised by the patriarch Teoctist Arăpașu during his archpastorship as metropolitan of Moldova.
The only remaining building from the time of Saint Voivode Stefan is the Tower of the Treasury, the construction of which was completed in 1481. In times of turmoil, the odors of this holy place were housed in it.
The original church underwent major changes in the period 1653-1662. The original architectural lines specific to the Moldavian style have been preserved, being made up of five rooms: porch, porch, crypt, nave and altar. Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance architectural elements are found thus brought together. Access to the church is through the two side doors of the porch, framed with stone portals. The massive door through which you pass from the porch to the vestibule has an inscription on the upper part that recalls the reconstruction works that took place during the reigns of Gheorghe Ștefan and Eustratie Dabija. From the burial chamber (gropnița) the passage to the nave is made between two massive columns that replaced in the 17th century the dividing wall specific to the Stefanian architectural line. On the outside, the church is girt with a belt twisted in a twist, symbolizing the Holy Trinity, a reason that can also be found in the interior decoration.
The tomb of Stephen the Great
Covered with a white marble canopy, with an inscription inlaid on the slab that shows that the valiant ruler is the founder and builder of the Holy Place, together with his wife Maria, the daughter of Radu Voievod.
Medieval museum of the Putna Monastery
The monastery museum includes an important collection of medieval art objects, especially from the time of Stephen the Great and his immediate successors, being the richest and most valuable in the country.
Source: www.crestinortodox.ro