Neamţ Monastery

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The Neamţ Monastery, 19th century painting by Gheorghe Şiller

The Neamţ Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Neamţ) is a Romanian Orthodox one religious settlement, one of the oldest and most important of its kind in Romania. It was built in 14th century, and it is an example of medieval Moldavian architecture. Jewel of 15th century architecture, the church was built by Stefan cel Mare and finished in the year when the Moldavian army won the battle against King John Albert (1497).

The monastery is located in north-eastern part of Romania, in Neamţ County, 10 km west of Târgu Neamţ. It is accessible by car (DN 15B road) and train (Târgu Neamţ railway station); the nearest airport is Suceava, located about 60 km north.

Sumptuous, with delicate colour effects, the monastery shows the maturity of 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 enamelled disks, coloured in green, yellow and brown.

In the chamber of the tombs, which appear for the first time at this church, is the tomb of Stefan al II-lea, son of Alexandru cel Bun and uncle of Ştefan cel Mare.

The art treasures kept at Neamţ Monastery are proof of the intense artistic and cultural activity which took place here through the centuries. Here Gavril Uric showed his talent, the most important representative of the Moldavian miniature from the 15th century. His first known manuscript, dated 1429, is kept in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (UK). The calligraphers and miniaturists of Stefan cel Mare who worked at this important center made many of the books given to Putna Monastery. In the cells of the monastery, the chronicler Macarie wrote the chronicle of Petru Rareş's rule, and Eftimie the chronicle of Alexandru Lăpuşneanu's rule.

The learned tradition of the Neamţ Monastery disappeared in the 17th and 18th centuries, to be reborn at the beginning of next century, when Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi established a printing house here. In the monastery museum is the old printing press, which was used to print books since 1807. In the monastery is a famous library more than 600 years old. Among the almost 11,000 volumes are many rare books, some being the first ones printed in this country. The altar screen of the former church from Neamţ Fortress, is the most important treasure of all those in the monastery, along with the icon painted by Nicolae Grigorescu "The Flight from Egypt".