SAMURCASESTI  Monastery
 
Ciorogarla commune, Ilfov county. Convent for nuns.
Dedication day: “The Holy Trinity”, second day after Whitsuntide.
 

The monastery was founded by the princely treasurer Constantin Samurcasi in 1808. In 1847, Alexander Samurcasi, the founder's son, donated six hectares (14,82 acres) of tillable land to the monastery.

The earthquake of November 10th, 1940 caused considerable damage to the church, which had to be completely pulled down; it was reconstructed between 1941 and 1944.
The architecture of the church is characteristic of the architectural style that flourished during the reign of Constantin Brancoveanu Voivode: the church has three alters and its exterior walls are covered with bricks and ceramics. The paintings of the old church - of which only two segments have been preserved - were executed by the famous Romanian painter Gheorghe Tatarescu.

The new paintings (in fresco and ceramics) have been made between 1951 and 1953. The church is also provided with exterior iconography, consisting of ceramics frescoes on the outside of the church, whose execution was owed to the Patriarch Justinian.
The monastery has a collection of liturgical art objects and of ancient religious manuscripts, which have been collected from the Ilfov and Giurgiu Archpriest Administration Headquarters.
In the churchyard there were interred the following personalities: Alexander Beldiman (the founder of the Adevarul newspaper), the mother of the national hero Walter Maracineanu, Frosa Sarandi (one of the first stage-actresses of Romania), and Sophia Heliade, Ion Heliade Radulescu's daughter (who took religious vows here and after wards became an abbess). A workshop for manufacturing icon frames is also functioned here.


Google
 
Web www.romanian-monasteries.go.ro
Webmaster