Voroneţ Monastery

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The last judgment, painted outside the monastery

Voroneţ is a monastery in Romania, located near the town of Gura Humorului. It is one of the famous painted monasteries from southern Bukovina, now in Suceava County.

Often known as the "Sistine Chapel of the East", the frescos at Voroneţ feature an intense shade of blue known in Romania as "Voroneţ blue".

The Church of St. George of the Voroneţ Monastery is possibly the most famous church in Romania. It is known throughout the world for its exterior frescoes of bright and intense colours, and for the hundreds of well-preserved figures placed against the renowned azurite background. The age of the monastic site is not known. A legend tells us that Stephen the Great, in a moment of crisis during a war against the Turks, came to Daniel the Hermit at his skete in Voroneţ and asked for advice. After he won the battle against the Turks, keeping his promise to the monk, the Prince built a new church, dedicated to St. George, the bringer of victory in battle. The commemorative inscription placed above the original entrance of the Church of St. George, now in the exonarthex, shows that the church was built in 1488 in less than four months. It was built on a triconch plan (with three apses), with a chancel, a naos with its tower, and a pronaos. In 1547, the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia Grigorie Roşca added the exonarthex to the west end of the church.

The small windows, their rectangular frames of crossed rods and the receding pointed or shouldered arches of the interior doorframes are Gothic. The south and north doors of the exonarthex of 1547 have rectangular frames, which indicate a transition period from Gothic to Renaissance. But, above them, on each wall is a tall window with a flamboyant Gothic arch. The whole west façade is without any openings, which indicates that the intention of the Metropolitan Roşca was from the beginning to reserve it for frescoes.

On the north façade is still visible the original decoration of the church, the rows of ceramic enamelled discs in yellow, brown and green, decorated in relief. These include heraldic motifs, such as the rampant lion and the aurochs' head of the Moldavian coat of arms, and creatures inspired by Western European mediaeval literature, such as two-tailed mermaids. The tower is decorated with sixteen tall niches, in four of which are windows. A row of small niches encircles the tower above them. The fragmented roof probably follows the shape of the original roof, which doubtless was made with shingles.

The tomb of the monastery's first abbot, St. Daniil the Hermit, is found at the monastery.

The church is one of the Painted churches of northern Moldavia listed in UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.