Agapia Monastery

In the rivulet valley known by the same name, in eastern Stanisoarei Mountains, a large monastic ensemble loses its traces in time. On the hill nearby, in the middle of the woods, there was in the 14 th century, a wooden church ( later on made of masonry) of a hermitage cared after by princes Petru Rares, Petru Schiopul and Anastasia, the Lady of Prince Duca ( the 16 th-17 th centuries), the new Agapia, which seems to sneak along and hide in the narrow, deep and shaded valley washed by the clear rivulet of Agapia, is founded by hetman Gavriil, brother of Vasile Lupu, built between 1642 and 1647. The church, with a three-calotted vault, has the nave overlapped by the spire and an open porch attached to the old closed porch; it was damaged in 1821, it had facades altered in 1823 and was restored after the year 2000.

The interior painting, made by Nicolae Grigorescu when he was 20 (1858-1862) is an exceptional creation, a clear light of the pain, after a long wandering in the woods, where only his genius was able to place the rough, yet quite grand bible figures in the soft register of the modern art… a good understanding of a complex of antithesis.

In the mediaeval art museum one finds, along with fragments of the old altar screen, also icons, embroideries, cypress crosses, book bindings, rugs.

Agapia Monastery in www.360trip.ro