Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia 1: Arbore

A few years ago I have traveled to Bucovina with my family and we wanted to see all the churches included in UNESCO World Heritage List. My mother insisted that not all worth a visit just because she saw them and was disappointed because the poor care and destructions. I decided I have to see all them so we did it and the visit was amazing. One of the oldest ones is Arbore, a very small church from Suceava country. It is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The name in the UNESCO list is Painted Churches of Northern Moldavia (there are 8 such places and I will describe all of them in time). The church from Arbore was built in 1503 by boyar Luca Arbore, one of the right hands of Ștefan cel Mare (Stephan the Great), the Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504. The construction of the church was completed in about 5 months. Its exterior paintings date from 1541 and were made by Dragoş Coman and took about 4 decades. The outside paintings on the western wall are the best preserved, as opposed to those on the northern facade, which suffered extensive weather-related damage. This damage arose mostly because the church roof was plundered by marauding Cossack troops and melted in order to make bullets (the original roof was made of lead). Inside painting depicts Luca Arbore and his family offering the church to God through the intercession of Saint John the Baptist. Also inside are the tombs of Luca Arbore and his family. Luca Arbore died in 1523 by decapitation at the order of the Stephan IV (son of Bogdan III; also called Ştefăniţă) (he was the grandnephew of Stephen the Great). Luca Arbore was the regent of Stephan IV until 1523. From 2005 there are no religious rituals.

This is dedicated to Penelope Avril Binder from Germany because she said she is interested and Anca Ioana Bandaş who sends me many postcards from Bucovina.
Also I want to tell that the postcards of the monasteries are from Terra Design and Mr. Marius Vasiliu and his team did a great job editing such amazing postcards. Soon they will publish a series dedicated to all UNESCO Monasteries from Bucovina, including Arbore and for the first time Pătrăuţi.

47.729632,25.920255 Click for Google Maps or use numbers on your GPS to navigate.

Wikipedia For more information, links, pictures and many more Wikipedia is the perfect site to be informed.

Official Site For visiting information (like fees and open days and times) use the official site.
Romania For travel information, the official site of the National Tourist Board, is the perfect location.

Photos taken by me: