BISTRITA  Monastery
 
Costesti commune, Bistrita village, Valcea county. Convent for nuns.
Dedication day: “Assumption of the Virgin”, 15 August.
 

The main church was founded by the following members of the Craiovesti family: Barbu (who thereafter took religious vows under the name of Pahomie), Parvu, Danciu, and Radu – who were brothers. It was founded between 1492 and 1494.

The holy establishment was demolished on the orders of Mihnea cel Rau (the Bad) Voivode in 1509. During the reign of Negoe Basarab Voivode, between 1515 and 1519, it was reconstructed and repainted by the Craiovesti and by master-painters Dobromir, Dumitru, and Chirtop.
Constantin Brancoveanu Voivode repainted the church repainted. Unfortunately, the disastrous earthquake in 1838 generated serious damage to the church and to the monastic outbuilding. All of them were pulled down in 1845 and reconstructed on the orders of Gheorghe Bibescu Voivode and Barbu Stirbei Voivode between 1846 and 1855.

The famous Romanian painter Gheorghe Tatarescu executed the paintings of the church. Inside the church, there are preserved the holy relics of Gregory of Decapolis, which had been brought over here by Barbu Craiovescu in 1497.
The church and the hospital that is accommodated within the monastery (both of them constructed by Barbu Craiovescu between 1520 and 1521) are preserved. Inside the monastic establishment situated in the village of Bistrita, the first printing-press in Walachia was inaugurated by Hieromonk Macarie, as well as an outstanding workshop for binding religious books. The Missal of Macarie was printed in this printing house in 1508.
Very closed to Bistrita Monastery there is the Bistrita Cave, inside which there are two sketes whose dedications days are the ”Vovidenia” and the “Synaxis of the Archangels Michail and Gabriel”.
 

 

 

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