Before I share what I meant by that question, we had also visited one of the most famous monasteries here in northern Romania. I know, I know, another monastery!!! On Saturday, we headed for the mountains to visit one of the most popular Orthodox monasteries in Moldavia. The monastary is simply called Manasterca Moldovita. When we arrived, there was a tour group from Spain visiting the monastery. This monastery is run by an order of Orthodox nuns. The grounds were covered with all kinds of rose gardens. So beautiful.
Some history on the Molovita Monastery. The monastary was built in 1532 by Petru Rares who was Stephen III of Moldavia's illegitimate son. It was built to be a protective barrier agains the Muslim Ottoman conquerers. Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia from 1457-1504 fought 36 battles against the Ottoman Emire, winning 34 of them. His son Petru Rares ruled Moldavia from 1527 to 1538 and again from 1541-1546 promoting a new vision for Bukovina churches (which is the name of this region in Moldavia). He commissioned artists to cover the interiors and exteriors of the monastery with elaboratee frescoes of saints, prophets and the life, death, resurrection, ascension and heavenly riegn of Jesus.
The best preserved monastaries in Romania are located in the northern towns of Sucevita, Moldovita, Voronet, Humor, Suceava, Patrauti, Abore and Probota. Many of these we have seen and shared with you in these blogs. These eight monasteries including this one here in Moldovita were placed on the United Nations World Heritage list in 1993. The list title is Painted Churches of Moldavia.
Where there are mountains, there are often times ziplines. Jo Ann and I went zipping hundreds of feet over the trees in the Carpathian Mountains. We can now officially mark that one off our bucket list. Actually, we had to add it to our bucket list before we could mark it off. We had really never considered riding a zipline before. We had no idea we would actually ride the longest zipline in Romania. It was an exhilerating and fun experience. We didn't get any photos since we were hanging on for dear life as we zipped along. I did add a couple of photos of our friends who enjoyed the same experience. Oh yeah, and we actually saw lots of hay stacks out in the field rather than the bales we see at home. Enjoy!
"Where's Pastor?!"
Luther Quote of the Day
“By faith we began, by hope we continue, and by revelation we shall obtain the whole.”
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