Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sleeping & Eating
Letitia Orsvischi Pension $$
( 0745-869 529; letita_orsvischi@yahoo.fr; Str Gării 20; s/d incl half-board 130/210,
breakfast 15 lei;
GUESTHOUSE
)
This large Vama guesthouse has simple but clean rooms with
shared bathrooms.
Pensiunea Crizantema $$
( 0230-336 116;
www.vilacrizantema.ro
; s/d half-board 140/180 lei; )
Near the
monastery, this rustic eight-room place has cute, smallish rooms (though bathrooms are
simple), some with monastery views.
PENSION
Getting There & Away
Public transport options are limited, with the old train route to Moldoviţa from Suceava
via Vama no longer running at the time of research. Taking an organised tour or driving is
a safer bet.
SUCEVIŢA MONASTERY
The winding mountain road from Moldoviţa to
Suceviţa Monastery
( 0230-417 110;
www.manastireasucevita.ro
;
Suceviţa; adult/student 5/2 lei; 8am-7pm summer, to 4pm
winter)
, the largest and arguably finest Bucovina monastery, offers breathtaking views,
reaching 1100m before descending. The heavily-frescoed church (built 1582-1601), in-
side the fortified monastic enclosure, has a bare western wall. Legend says that the fatal
plunge of the artist there from the scaffolding dissuaded other painters. The red-and-
green-based exterior frescoes date from around 1590.
Entering the complex, note the exterior
Ladder of Virtues
fresco, with its 32 steps to
heaven. It exhorts priests, monks and nuns to righteous behaviour, and to avoid the unfor-
tunate fate of the clerics depicted tumbling from the ladder due to sins like greed or van-
ity. More good cheer appears on the porch's south-side archway, where frescoes depict the
Apocalypse and the dark visions of St John in Revelations.
The continuity of the Old Testament and New is emphasised on the southern exterior
wall, where a tree grows from the reclining figure of Jesse, flanked by ancient Greek
philosophers. The Virgin, depicted as a Byzantine princess, stands nearby, with angels
holding a red veil over her head.
The church's tomb room contains the coffins of Moldavian nobles and monastery
founders Simion and Ieremia Movilă. Suceviţa was the last painted monastery built, and
