Bucovina 

       My name is Andreea Ireland and I am at srudent at Univeristy og Greenwich. 

And I would like to take on a trip to Bucovina.  

 

            Bucovina is among the most attractive and frequented touristic area on Romania’s map. The unique features of these monasteries and churches is that they are painted - with dramatic and colorful religious scenes - on their outside walls.  

 

           The reason why they are known as "The Painted Monasteries" and also to be distinguished from the other old Orthodox Churches and Monasteries which are traditionally always painted on the inside. These extraordinary works of Byzantine and Moldavian art have survived for more than 400 winters, as well as the dangers posed by wars and modern environmental pollution.

 

           Most of the monasteries were built under the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great (1457-1504) and his son Petru Rares (1527-1538; 1541-1546), in whose time the exterior painting style for these monasteries started.

 

           The impressive number of churches to be found in Bucovina, Romania, with their fine exterior and interior frescoes, have been preserved and handed down from mediaeval times, and because of their uniqueness and artistic value, were added to UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List in 1993, where has been listed seven painted monasteries as a world heritage site:  Arbore, Humor, Moldovita, Patrauti, Probota, St. John the New Suceava, Voronet and later in 2010 Sucevita.  

 

           There is, indeed, no other place in the world where such a group of churches, with such high quality exterior frescoes, are to be seen. Visiting the monasteries can be an unforgettable experience. Not only is the architecture and the artwork unique, but the monasteries are inhabited by Orthodox nuns or monks who follow Christian traditions which have changed little for hundreds of years.