MOLDAVIA Monasteries Tour

Religion, culture and tradition

  • Start /end in Suceava or Gura Humorului
  • Neamt Fortress - 14th century or Rasca monastery - 16th century
  • Neamt monastery (1497)
  • Agapia Monastery (1643) - oil painting by Nicolae Grigorescu
  • Varatec Monastery (1785)- the nuns village, the largest convent in Europe, 400 nuns.

PRICE range: 50 - 75 Euro/ persons. Quote depends on your group size and specific requirements.

This tour/activity will have a maximum of 7 travelers.

*** Included services: Licenced tour guide, transport by car or minibus.
*** Price does not include: entrance fees and lunch. We'll stop for lunch and you'll decide the menu.
*** Meeting point - your hotel pick-up!
*** Tour duration / distance: approx 8 hours/ 180km round-trip.

For optional tour start or end in Iasi - please contact us for price and details.

* Upon request ! we can customize the tour and we can add other spots like: Sihla Hermitage (1725) with St Theodora's Cave, Bison's reservation, Sihastria Monastery (1655), Secu monastery (1602), Ethnograhic Museum of N.Popa.

Tour description

Start from SUCEAVA about 09:00am, this tour covering 180km scenic trip to Northern Moldavia region and gets back around 05:00 pm. We'll be driving to the Târgu Neamt town where we'll visit Neamt Fortress, which has never been conquered by enemy and wrote in 1476, one of the most heroic pages from the history of Moldavia, when the fortress resisted to the siege of the Turkish army lead by Mohamed II – the conqueror of Constantinople.

Optional instead of Neamt fortress we can visit Rasca monastery, is a monk monastery built in the 16th century by the Moldavian ruler Petru Rares. It painted in Byzantine style, Greek Painting by Stavropoleos Kotronas, the monastery is dedicated to “Saint Nicholas” and is a historic monument.

After that we’ll drive to the nearby Neamt Monastery. The church was built by Stefan cel Mare and finished in the year when the Moldavian army won the battle against King John Albert of Poland (1497). Sumptuous, with delicate color effects, the monastery shows the maturity of Neamt Monastery the Moldavian architectonic style, which matured during Stefan cel Mare's period.

The façade of the church is covered with the decoration characteristic of Stefan cel Mare's time: Gothic windows and friezes with enameled disks, colored in green, yellow and brown.

Driving back, optional the next stop can be at the Bison Reservation, where can see some animals like: dears, harts, pheasants, bear and bison were Moldavia’s symbol.

Then passing through Agapia village, we'll reach the Agapia Monastery, convent with 300 nuns.

The walls and gate-tower aim to conceal rather than to protect: inside is a whitewashed enclosure around a cheerful garden. The interior of church was repainted in 1858 by Nicolae Grigorescu, the country's foremost painter. Also here we'll visit the work atelier of nuns for embroidery, carpets, tricotage and painting Icons!

Next stop to the nearby Varatec Monastery (18th century), is the largest convent in Europe, a special village with 400 nuns. Here is a nice museum of icons and embroideries and a bakery shop where you can enjoy with Moldavian traditional pies made by nuns and the syrup from spruce tree!

Optional upon request - Driving on forest road over the mountain we’ll reach the Sihla Hermitage. Here is a nice and small wooden church made by only one tree.

Then we’ll have a short walking to St. Theodora’s cave. Popa Museum In the afternoon we reach Tarpesti village. It is one of the cultural highlights of our trip, as we visit the vast collection of popular artifacts belonging to Mr. Popa, see the archaeological finds that he personally uncovered in more than 20 sites he explored personally, explore the collection of wooden and stone sculptures he permanently enriches.

Do you want to spend more days to discovery Bucovina and its surroundings? We offer following the day tours: