Neamt is the name of human settlements, of waters, of a Romanian land, one of the profoundly Moldavian lands with deep and precious historic roots.
In Romanian, "Neamt" means German. According to period documents, the Germans had to do with the land Neamt only around 1674, when ".the Germans were sticking around the cities, at Neamt and Suceava and were looking whatever they could for food", as chronicler Ion Neculce noted, referring to mercenary troops hired by neighboring Poles. We can also mention the Romanians old habit referring to clothes other than the national attire as "German clothes"; finally it may be also reminiscent of the presence of foreign master builders brought to help raising the princely constructions. The fact is the word appeared rather late, the town of Piatra Neamt - which is today the seat of the Neamt county- being initially known as The Stone City, Craciun's Stone or simply The Stone, turning into "Neamt" (German) with the assignment of the administrative function.
The land, singular in Romania, stands out by several salient features: the eventful past of strongly personalized human settlements, a large number of valuable monuments to be found on a relatively small territory, famous folk art creations, the exceptional natural scenery that accounts for its having been a favorite Romanian travel route and which is now a reference part of the national heritage.
Dually assessing the strategic merits of the zone, several rulers built there fortifications that fully served their purposes; but, along with great landlords, pious laymen founded also generous religious establishments, lavishly endowed, vigorous cultural centers along the centuries, honored by personalities of the Romanian spiritual life.
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 14th 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-17th 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.
Bisericani Monastery
Close to the Simion hill (968 meters altitude) left of the Bistrita river, in the middle of the woods, a man by the name of Iosif, having returned from a travel in the East, tried to start a hermitage of "besericani" (in English: approximately Church-goers, who were engaged in divine service around the clock) and he managed too, but only with the help of Prince Stefanita, grandson of Prince Stephen the Great, around 1512. Meanwhile, numerous donations were made (by Petru Rares, the Movila family, Stefan Tomsa, Radu Mihnea, Miron Barnovschi) and the place developed by 1627 into a rich monastery, with fortifier precincts and campanile.
The church was restored in 1789; of a special artistic value is the altar screen, carved in oak wood.
Bistrita Monastery
Close to the place where the Viisoara creek merges with the Bistrita river, Prince Petru Musat I had a wooden hermitage built, before the year 1400, which would be taken care of also by his descendants; the foundations of the monastery were laid under Alexander the Kind, as we learn from the Remembrance List of the monk Chiril, dating from 1407, at the time when Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologue presented Alexander the Kind and his lady Ana with the icon of St Anna, held to this day to be the benefactor of the monastery.
Stephen the Great added a bell tower with chapter (including two bells that still exist) and a new Princely House (1498), Petru Rares reconstructed the precincts, the entrance tower and built a Princely School (after 1541) and Alexandru Lapusneanu ordered the restoration of the church, placing a votive inscription and the arms of Moldavia in the porch.
Valuable mural painting, preserved in the chapter (the 16th century).
In the Princely House - the old Art Museum has on display valuable sacerdotal objects, icons, relics from the tombs of the main founder and his Lady.
Ceahlau Monastery
In the Schitu creek valley, by the end of the Izvorul Muntelui (Bicaz) storage lake, the new commune Ceahlau (established after the formation of the "sea" by the mount foot) retains the heritage of the Schitu Village, an old settlement, the site of a hermitage founded by one named Silvestru (16th century); it was there that hetman Gheorghe, brother of Vasile Lupu, raised a masonry church in 1639. forty years later the establishment got strong precincts from his highness Prince Alexander and his wife Anita, that enclosed what would become the "Palace of Princes" the most celebrated of Moldavia's nobiliary courts after the decay of Stephen the Great foundations. Still in existence are the church and a fine votive inscription carved in stone (these places are depicted in the Ghost of the Carpathians, with some references that seem to have been made by an eyewitness, by Alexander Dumas); wooden church, 19th century.
Durau Monastery
By the foot of Ceahlau Mountain, the convent of Durau was in existence as early as 1600, an hour's walk from the Duruitoarea falls which lent it its name.
On the site of the wooden structure, the present church was dedicated in 1835, with the support of prioress Safta Brancoveanu and of some merchants from Piatra Neamt; in the same year, the porch was carved in lime wood and gilded.
Between 1935 and 1937, Nicolae Tonitza with his pupils from Iasi worked here. The painter employed real-life local people for models and placed them in sceneries including the Ceahlau Mountain and the mountain vegetation; the fresco technique is a more rarely employed one: the encaustic, of ancient origin, meaning the paint mixed with melted beeswax.
The campanile, 1835, shelters the chapter painted by Varahil Moraru, 1938.
The Stephen the Great monastery ( the Transfiguration), 1993, stands on Mountain Ceahlau, at an altitude of 1800 meter-possibly the Orthodox establishment raised at highest altitude in Europe.
The Saint Daniil Sihastru Cultural-Pastoral Center, 1990, carries on pastoral-missionary, cultural sports and social- charity activities.
Horaita Monastery
By the foot of the Garcina Magura Mountain (1162 meter altitude) in the eastern Stanisoarei Mountains, at the source of the valley that goes by the same name, Horaita has been known as a monastic establishment since 1725.
The church, rebuilt by archimandrite Ermoghen Buhus in 1867, is an eclectic structure, evincing some influences of the Asia Minor architecture, impressing by the eight spires distributed upon the whole building; restoration operations, after 1990.
Father up the mountains, the Horaicioara hermitage was founded by the same E. Buhus, around 1860.
Neamt Monastery
In the Nemtisor river valley, in the Moldavian sub-Carpathians, a zone of orchards and forests, commanded by the Plesu summit (915 m alt.), a monk by the name of Nicodim was starting a hermitage around the 13th century, or so tradition has it. Probably more accurate is to say that the monastery is the result of the compounded efforts. As successive founders, of ruling princes Petru I Musat, Alexander the Kind and Stephen the Great (the 14-15th centuries), from whom we inherited .the most important monastery in Moldavia". The big church, 1497, far more impressive than any of those built by Stephen before, both by the sizes of its plan and by its height, stands for the climatic monument of the consecrated style in the architecture of that time and was taken as a model for many churches in 16th century Moldavia.
The greatest and the last painting ensemble, 1497, left from Stephen the Great era is to be found in the nave and in the altar.
The precincts, the towers, the chapters (in an ossuary there is also the scull of the celebrated Calypso, Pushkin's seducer, the cells, the Holy-water font, the masonry and wooden churches around (the 18 th-19th centuries), complete the dimensions of one of the most valuable ensembles of the old Romanian architecture.
An important cultural and artistic center as early as the foundation: library, one of the oldest in this country (around 1407, Calligraphers and miniaturists school (Gavril Uric is recorded, with an exceptional manuscript, 1429, at the Bodleian Library, Oxford), printing shop, wood engraving shop, book bindings, a painting school, in a community f around one thousands monks (the 18 th century when the establishment, endowed with 72 estates, forests, villages had some dues to pay to the Neamt City as well).
The Old art Museum (1916 is the repository of manuscripts, printed matter, gold and silver sacerdotal objects, embroideries, period multicolor terracotta facing pieces, goldsmithery, painting by Nicolae Grigorescu, earlier than those of Agapia.
Pangarati Monastery
Near the Pangarati creek, by the foot of Paru mountain, a monastic community (with wooden church) was started at the time of Stephen the Great; the present monastery was founded by Alexandru Lapusneanu, in 1564; the spire-less church has a vaulted nave with hemispheric calottes, raised above the functional foundation (chapter, dating from 1642), so that there are two overlapping worship structures (there are similar structures in Dobrogea _ Celic-Dere and at Suceava). The altar screen of the church upstairs was carved, painted and gilded in 1789.
The Old Art Collection too (ecclesiastical objects and sacerdotal attire, printed works) is to be found inside the walled precincts with gate tower.
Piatra Neamt Princely Court
A dacian dwelling place in the middle Bistrita river valley, county seat at present and Stephen the Great Princely Court 500 years ago. It is one of the finest urban settlements in the country, reputed also as a climatic resort (310 meter altitude).
A chapter of the former Court, the church, built almost concomitant with Neamt and Tazlau, in 1497-1498, is one of the finest Moldavian monuments: rectangular pan, with side apses finely concealed by cornices; the facades are impressive, with their original lavish decoration of multicolor ceramics; the enframent evinces Gothic influences.
The nearby campanile, 1499, it too, evincing Gothic architectural elements, is in square plan at the ground and first floors and octagonal upwards (with buttresses).
Razboieni Church
The day of July 26, 1476 was an ominous one for Stephen the Great; at Razboieni, on the Valea Alba river, a tributary of the Moldova River, after a battle between unequal armies, Stephen's army suffered one of the few defeats at the hands of the Ottomans (at the hands of the same Mohammed II whom he had humiliated at Podu Inalt - Vaslui the year before). Twenty years later, the Prince would build a mausoleum - church above the mass grave of the heroes killed in battle.
The spire-less church has the usual rectangular plan, with a semicircular apse inside and vaulting in three calottes; instead of painting, there is brick veneer ornamentation; the outside decoration consists of ceramic disks overlapping the niches.
Most valuable is the votive inscription, a genuine period historic document.
Secu Monastery
In the valley of the rivulet known by the same name, at 22 km far from Targu Neamt, the monastery, descending from Zosim's hermitage dated around 1560, was built by Interior Minister Nestor Ureche, father of the chronicler Grigore Ureche, in 1602. the church is strikingly resembling some features of the architectural style of monasteries in Walachia - facades in two registers, colonnaded porch between 1812-1818 it was enlarged: a tower was built to surmount the old porch, and a new porch was attached on the west side; it became a bastion of the Hataeria movement in 1821. The painting was remade in 1850. The fortified precincts include two chapters and towers; on the south-east one there is the chapter votive inscription of Vasile Lupu from Cetatea Neamt. The Old Art Museum has on display sacerdotal objects, manuscripts, printed works (including the 1643 Homiliary by Varlaam who was the first to manage the emancipation of the Romanian language from the Slav originals, creating, upon a popular basis, the scholarly style of the old language.
Sihastria Monastery
25 km from Targu Neamt, upstream the Secu Valley, the monastery, a monastic settlement dating back to around 1650, was endowed with a new church by the bishop Ghedeon of Roman, in 1734; rebuilt after the Hataeria-Turkish fights (1825), it was extended also with a chapter, in 1946. Special attention deserves the painting by icon painter Irineu Protcencu, a remarkable portrait painter.
In a place lost high up in the mountains, where only the daring vulture ventures once in a while, the Sihla Hermitage, built on a earlier site, is ascribed to his lordship Ioanita Pascanul Cantacuzino, the year 1763; wooden church, 1813; the cave of St Theodora, 18th century.
Tarcau Monastery
In the Tarcau depression, by the source of the river with the same name at the foot of the Ardeluta mountains (1059 meter altitude), the wooden church is a harmonious structure raised in 1833, of fine proportions and exquisite location in the natural scenery; campanile, 1868.
Tazlau Monastery
Near the Tazlau river sources in the Moldavian sub-Carpathians, Stephen the Great founded in 1496-1497 a monastery, with Princely house, which were at that time enclosed by walls with battlements and defense towers.
The church vaulting observes the three-calotted plan, the belfry surmounts the nave and the bema is oversized; the porch on the western side was built later. Initially, the facades were decorated, according with the contemporary fashion, with enameled ceramic and brick veneer.
An attraction is the wooden door, made in 1596, which, for its carved decoration, is considered to be a masterpiece of the decorative art.
Varatec Monastery
At a height of around 400 m up a rivulet in the eastern Stanisoarei Mountains, once you leave the copper woods, you will see the silver forest, which is shining from afar and you hear its enticing call, the silver forest neighboring the monastic establishment.
Upon the foundations of an earlier establishment made by Ieremia Movila after 1580, prioress Olimpiada started there a monastery between 1781-1785, around a small wooden structure.
The big church, built between 1808-1812, blends the tradition of Moldavian construction with the features of the contemporary neo-classicism; the painting was made in 1882. The monastic compound includes the churches dating from 1844 and 1847 as well as the chapter, 1850, in the campanile.
The Old Art Museum has on display the epitaph embroidered by Smaranda Neculce in 1798, the surplice from 1807, icons from Rasca and Valeni-Piatra Neamt, the 15th - 17th centuries.
The statue of Safta Brancoveanu stands near the tomb where Veronica Micle rests in peace.
