Weekend Getaways
Painted Bucovina
I love Romania! And Bucovina most of all.
The archipelago of painted monasteries in Bucovina has been at the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993. The churches aren’t big and even in the old times during the services they could accommodate only the clergy and the well-off whereas the rest stayed outside, under the gutters. The gutters make the monasteries to look like enormous mushrooms. The inside paintings - created according to specific norms - are beautiful and rich, although slightly shabby. But what makes those churches so special is the outside. The paintings on the external walls were created in sixteenth century and - although it may sound unbelievable - most of them have remained in a very good state, mainly on the Western and Southern walls. Here the coloring kept its original saturation.
For the illiterate peasants and soldiers the biblical scenes were the only readable prayer book. They had even an additional function - they were an ideological message from the patriotic founders. The Last Judgment scenes, famous ladder of monastical virtues or life of saints are set in the Bucovine’s landscapes. The saints from the biblical pantheon wear sometimes regional costumes and under the figure of devil it is not difficult to recognize Turkish features.
What’s interesting each monastery has its own dominating colour: Voronet - blue, Humor - Indian rouge, Moldovita - verdigris redness, Sucevita - green and Arbore - malachite green. The Voronet blueness, which is so unique that haven’t been seen elsewhere, has been placed in the world palette of coulors.
The distance between monasteries with the most precious frescos approximates between few and several tens of kilometers. If you know any of the Romanesque languages (Italian, French, Spanish) you can easily assimilate Romanian and have a nice chat with the nuns and monks.
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