Saturday 30 June 2012

The Romania circuit - The morning of the fifth day - the Agapia Convent - The 24th od May 2012



By the time we left the Monastery of Voronet it had started to rain and upon reaching the Agapia Convent it was raining really hard, though it did not affect our visit to the main complex of Agapia din Vale, whose convent Church was built in 1644-47by Prince Basil.

Its helmet-shaped copola is fairly similar to the one at the entrance gate tower. Nicolae Grigorescu, the country's foremost  painter at the time  is said to have repainted the  church's interior  when it was restored between 1858 and 1861.























The gate tower is said to aim at concealing rather than protecting the whitewashed enclosure around a beautiful looking garden we came across the moment we walked in.




























Outside the convent and going down the village we walked past a row of nuns' cottages. along which was the Casa Memorial Alexandru Vlahuta, where the author is said to have spent several summers visiting his mother and sister, who were both nuns there.




















Similarly to what still happens in a few convents in Portugal the nuns sell a wide variety of jams and syrups, all of which are home produced.



It was a fairly interesting visit which preceded a change in the itinerary, once the arrangement regarding the Neamt Monastery and lunch in its premises had to be altered, as we headed to the Monastery of Secu instead.












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