On the Road Again...FINALLY!: Surviving the Centuries and the Passing of an Icon

This was day eight of 12, and we could tell that some folks were getting tired. Today was a built-in day off, but an optional tour to a series of painted monasteries from the 15th and 16th centuries was offered. We had signed up for all the optional tours on this trip, to include today, but I halfway expected more people to not participate. The husband of the couple from Virginia was having a back problem, so he backed out, and the four Romanian ladies stayed back -- as they'd visited the sites before -- but otherwise everyone else from our tour was the bus in the morning, when we headed north.

We were very glad to see that the gloomy weather of the previous day was a distant memory, and we had nearly cloudless skies and warm weather for the entire day. Moldova is a huge agricultural area, and we drove through endless fields of sunflowers, corn, potatoes, etc. We had seen fields of sunflowers earlier in the trip, but they were very prevalent today. It made sense, too, as we were driving very close to the border with Ukraine -- we got as close as 15 miles -- and they provide more than half of all the sunflower oil in the world. The sunflowers we saw, however, were all black, so I wrongly assumed they had already peaked in their bloom, and they were waiting for them to dry so they could be harvested. We learned, however, that as part of the record hot summer experienced by Europe, coupled with extreme drought, the flowers were all essentially dead. Evidently sunflowers require a lot of moisture, particularly early in the season. As rain has not traditionally been a problem, most farms aren't equipped to irrigate their fields, so this year the sunflowers didn't get enough water, and they can't be harvested. The flowers and stalks would, instead, be used as animal feed. Their lack of production for oil and seed, however, only adds to the global shortage caused by the war in Ukraine.

As I mentioned earlier, Moldova remained autonomous for most of the middle ages, and pretty much up until the early 20th century. As such, they were free from empirical influence and were independent to build churches and monasteries, as well as to determine how to propagate the faith throughout the region. They ended up with a huge concentration of orthodox monasteries and churches. To teach the mostly illiterate population, the clergy agreed upon on a series of biblical stories and teachings that were to be painted on the exterior and interiors of all the churches/monasteries in the region. Essentially, a standardized text book for the masses. With that, the churches were covered inside and out with elaborate painted frescoes, depicting the agreed-upon teachings. These frescoes are different that those you might see in Rome, as the layer of plaster is much thinner, which made them both harder to create, but resulted in greater resiliency.

I wasn't sure what to expect, nor had I seen a picture of what we would be seeing, so needless to say, I was surprised. Our first stop was the monastery at Voronet, which we learned was the most famous, but probably because it is the most visited. We also learned that we were visiting on the occasion of the birthday of the Virgin Mary. Interesting enough, the orthodox religious calendar runs September through August, aligned to the birthday (September) and ascension (August) of Mary. With the holiday, we were told to expect to see devotees visiting and attending mass. Ironically, we did not come across other tour groups, only parishioners.

Walking into Voronet, we saw a demonstration of how they create traditional painted eggs, which are evidently famous across the region. After our tour, Katherine and I returned and had our pictures taken in traditional Moldovan costume. I was a bit hesitant at first, but have to now admit that I'm glad we did it.

Woman Who Made these Table Cloths We Purchased

The monastery itself was surrounded by a high wall, which hid everything inside. We had to pass through a narrow entry gate -- past the obligatory stall selling icons and candles. From there, we emerged into the sunlight and caught our first sight of the church, which was awash in bright frescoes. I quickly asked the guide to confirm that the paintings were original, and that they dated from the 15th and 16th centuries, which she did. They were in amazing condition, and I still cannot fathom how they have survived over 500 years exposed to the elements, as they have been. There was a service underway, and we could hear the choir's songs being played through loudspeakers. It was a rather magical experience. We were able to make our way inside, once the service concluded, and the inside was equally elaborate. We learned that the interior paintings had been cleaned in recent years, removing centuries of soot from burning candles. The last monastery we visited this day had not yet been cleaned, so we could see the tremendous difference of the before-and-after pictures. Evidently they use bread soaked in milk to scrub the walls. There is an enzyme in the milk that breaks down the soot, and the bread serves as a nonabrasive and porous "brush" to absorb the color.

Cemetery Outside the Gates of Voronet

Voronet Monestary

Exterior Detail

Interior of Voronet

I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside, but I snuck these...

We then continued further north a few miles, to the monastery at Humor. This was equally as impressive as Voronet. Our guide pointed out how each church had chosen to convey some of the same approved stories, but in different ways. The detail, too, in the paintings was incredible. I still cannot quite understand how the exteriors survive to this day, particularly given that I'm sure the amount of pollution -- particular under communism -- was severe. All of these churches survived that era, too, as they were deemed "museums of Byzantine art," so we can be thankful for that.

New Church, built next to Humor Monastery

Humor Painted Monastery and Protective Battlement

Interior Detail at Humor

We had lunch at a huge hotel in the center of the town of Bura Humorului, which is the administrative capital for the region of Bukovina. The hotel -- a Best Western -- was made by renovating a former dormitory for single miners. Evidently there were large coal mines in the area -- since closed -- and to accommodate single miners, they built a high-rise building for communal living. When the mines closed, I give them credit for making good use of the building.

Former Dormitory for Single Miners, Converted to Best Western Hotel

We visited on more monastery after lunch, on our way back to Piatra Neamt. As I noted earlier, this one -- Neamt -- has not yet been cleaned inside, so we could see the damage inflicted by centuries of burning candles. Unlike the monasteries in the morning, this one did not have the equivalent of a convent, meaning that only men lived there. Our guide attributed the lack of elaborate gardens -- as we'd seen earlier -- to the absence of nuns. The bishop in charge of this particular parish is evidently quite a character, and well known to our guide and people in the area. We met him later, as he ran a very large book shop outside. We were warned by our guide that he was a talker, and to be careful as to which topics we elected to discuss with him. For example, she shared that he -- and many members of the church hierarchy -- openly preach that the Covid vaccine is "from the devil," and that faith (and financial contributions to the clergy) are all one needs to be protected from the corona virus. While we visited this church, we came across a young family, with three very young children. They were obviously very devote, and they had come to pray to Mary on her birthday. In two separate churches we watched as they went through very elaborate genuflections in front of Mary's icon. The ritual included lots of kissing of the icon, and various paintings on the wall. We later talked among ourselves about the health implications of that, and our guide affirmed our suspicions that they family was likely completely unvaccinated and had put their faith in the church to protect them. I avoided talking to the bishop, but a couple on our tour from Idaho -- who had lived in Germany for a while, and both of whom spoke German -- did get into an extended conversation with him. They spoke in German, and it devolved into a discussion of procreation. We never confirmed but I suspect the couple were Latter Day Saints. I secretly hoped that would have come out in the discussion, if only to see the bishop's reaction. Alas, despite my eavesdropping, it never came up.

Outer walls of Neamt Monastery

Inside the Walls at Neamt

Interior of Neamt (surface not yet cleaned of candle-smoke residue)

Devote (and likely unvaccinated) family paying homage to Mary

The Three-Handed Madonna (it's a long story...)

Book shop at Neamt Monastery

Interior of the Neamt Book Shop

We had a couple of hours back at the hotel before dinner, which was nice. We had "dinner and show" this evening, with a "traditional Romanian folklore show." We have had these during previous Gate1 tours, and they were always enjoyable, though admittedly touristy. The show was entirely for our group, though we were seated in hotel's huge ballroom. We strategically positioned ourselves to sit with the four Romanian ladies, as we wanted their take on the music and authenticity. A troupe of very young (in my mind) couples came out and performed songs with dancing for a good 30 minutes. Our tablemates recognized many of the songs, though they said the dancing and tempo were much faster than "down south." They joked that the Moldovans were always in a rush. Also at our table tonight was Kevin, our British co-traveler. He received an alert on his phone during dessert, which broke the news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. That dominated conversation for the remainder of the evening. Ironically, at several points during the tour we had talked about the then Prince Charles' extensive work in Romania, primarily focused on sustainable organic farming. His foundation has built and funds numerous cooperatives across the country, and he also has a private home in Transylvania which he visits multiple times per year. He is well known and respected in the country, though I do not know how or why he came to focus on Romania. Our guide relayed that once during a tour, they were in a church and one of the travelers joked to her, "that man there looks like Prince Charles." Upon hearing that, the man turned around and introduced himself as Prince Charles. Our guide also exclaimed the next day that she had to start conditioning herself to refer to him as King Charles.