G’day folks! Continuing on again from where I left off in Romania, Suceava today’s post is about my day trip/tour to the famed Painted Monasteries of Bucovina, a highlight of the region of Moldavia. I had spent the previous evening on What’s App organising the tour, the group AXA travel – Vincent runs the company and was a great guide for the day.

If you recall my health was poor, but I woke up having a decent night’s sleep and feeling a bit better than I had been. Watching back the vlog though I do sound quite congested and I was coughing quite a bit as the day went on.

The Painted Monasteries number eight that are UNESCO Heritage Listed, and we would visit four in the day trip. They are not all together at all and we must have driven a few hundred kilometres through valleys and over mountains for the day, and the views were certainly a highlight of the day. There were three guys from Spain, myself and Vincent the guide in our group of five.

The countryside is a brilliant green in this part of Romania, at least in June, and there are rivers and mountains, it’s very impressive. The monasteries themselves were built between the 14^th and 16^th centuries, and are well maintained and still in operation today. They have survived wars and the Ottoman Empire, and are testament to the uniqueness and identity of Moldavia.

Our first stop was the Voronet Monastery. We probably started at the most impressive of the four first, this was principally a fort I guess with a church in the middle. Built in 1488, a small fee is paid to enter and there were a number of other visitors in larger groups and families visiting, but it’s not a patch on the numbers you get visiting places elsewhere in Europe. A small ecclesiastical museum on one side of the fort, the fortifications are testament to wars and attacks throughout the centuries that these monasteries had to withstand.

The painting has to be touched up and cleaned from time to time, and as such they have kept it looking amazing. Also known as the ‘Blue’ Monastery, the paintings inside but particularly outside do use a lot of blue. As with all the monasteries it’s Eastern Orthodox in denomination, and such is the style of the paintings, a common theme being the three levels of being – earth, heaven and hell. Inside the churches are never as big as you think, there were three chambers here and Vincent is well known and we were able to take some photography in all the churches being discreet and respectful.

The Moldovita Monastery/Church was next. This was built in 1532. Voronet Monastery was built under the reign of Stephen the Great, who is regarded as the founder of Hungary. A lot of modern day Romania I think was once considered part of Hungary. Again, a large fortification with the church, which again had chambers, in the middle. A statue of the son of Stephen the Great, Peter, is found in the grounds too.

After stopping for a hearty Romanian lunch of sausage and meat, we went to the Sucevița Monastery. Sucevițais a small town in Moldavia I think basically meaning ‘little Suceava’. This one was built between 1581 and 1601. The exterior of the church in the middle of the Ottoman built fortress (to protect from the Poles and the Tartas) is beautiful, although one side sadly was covered in scaffolding whilst we were there.

The fourth and final monastery/church was closer to Suceava on the way back and was a replacement as one of the others usually on the tour was closed. The  Pătrăuți Church is the oldest of all, if small and opposite the monastery which is on the other side of the road. Built in 1487 it’s the smallest of the churches, and painted only on the inside. We were there alone though which made it somewhat special.

And then we returned to Suceava, my health deteriorating in the second half of the day. It was a good day though, perfect weather, sunny but not too hot, and monasteries were beautiful. A special and unique place to visit. I would take the next day off, then do sight seeing in Suceava – but I covered that last time! Anyways, thanks for joining me today! More adventures to follow. Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!