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Monastery buildings on the hillside above Peypul.
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This monastery -- Snagov Monastery -- is located about 25 miles north of Bucharest in Ilfov County. (It's close enough that I'm including it as a Bucharest album.)
So what's the deal with Snagov Monastery? Honestly, I don't know. It seems there's no consensus on much of anything here, other than that the monastery exists. Nobody is sure when it was built, exactly, and that may have part to do with the reason it was built...if you choose to believe that, too.
This is (or not?) Vlad Tepes's final resting place. (For sake of argument, I'll say it is, though...who knows?) Vlad's English sobriquet is Vlad the Impaler (Tepes in Romanian), and he was...rather cruel. By the time of his death, he had many enemies, and it seems he was beheaded as his form of demise. This monastery was possibly built Vlad himself (at his orders, that is), or at the request of his grandfather.
Vlad's "tomb" in the middle of the church floor. Well...as he had a lot of enemies, one thought is that his burial spot was hidden. Some say he was -- and still is -- buried here, but deep under the floor, and animal bones were buried above him to throw off anyone who found the location. Well...the place was excavated, animal bones were found, and (I guess?) they didn't dig deeper. Short answer...nobody knows and it serves tourism's interests not to confirm. I'll leave it at that.
As for the aesthetics of the monastery, it's a standard Greek Orthodox church on the inside. That means...lots of paintings covering 100% of the wall. (This small monastery, though, is not a great example of Romanian churches; the churches up in Transylvania at Maramures are all much better representations. The painted monasteries there are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Having said all of that, if you're in Bucharest, this is worth seeing just for the fun of it. Day trips are cheap and easy.
Thiksey Monastery, Ladakh, India.
Some fundas now..
Thikse Gompa or Thikse Monastery (Tiksey or Thiksey) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Yellow Hat (Gelugpa) sect, located on top of a hill in the Indus Valley, approximately 19 kilometres east of Leh, in Ladakh, India. It is noted for its resemblance to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet and is the largest gompa in central Ladakh.
The monastery is located at an altitude of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) in the Indus valley. It is a 12-storey complex and houses many items of Buddhist art such as stupas, statues, thangkas, wall paintings and swords. One of the main points of interest is the Maitreya Temple which is installed to commemorate the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to this monastery in 1970. A 15 metres (49 ft) high statue of Maitreya, the largest such statue in Ladakh, covering two storeys of the building is defied in the monastery
Varatec Monastery - Neamt county - Romania
Văratec Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox nun monastery located in north-eastern part of the country, in Văratec village, Agapia Commune, Neamţ County. It is situated at 12 from Târgu Neamț city and 40 km from Piatra Neamț city. It is the largest nun monastery in Romania, with more than 400 nuns living here.
Rila Monastery was founded in the 10th century by St John of Rila, a hermit canonized by the Orthodox Church. His ascetic dwelling and tomb became a holy site and were transformed into a monastic complex which played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 19th century, the complex was rebuilt between 1834 and 1862. A characteristic example of the Bulgarian Renaissance (18th–19th centuries), the monument symbolizes the awareness of a Slavic cultural identity following centuries of occupation.
This monastery was founded in 1140. This is one of the libaries we visited. Look at that ceiling (you may want to view it large.) This is Theological Hall, built between 1671 and 1679. It houses the theological book collection of the famous Strahov library. Its collection contains over 200,000 books and includes works from famous printers such as Christoffel Plantin from Antwerp.
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Theological Hall took four years to complete. They depict the profession of the librarian.
Amarbayasgalant Monastery is one of the three largest Buddhist monastic centers in Mongolia. The monastery complex is located in the Iven Valley near the Selenge River, at the foot of Mount Büren-Khaan in Baruunbüren sum (district) of Selenge Province in northern Mongolia. The nearest town is Erdenet which is about 60 km to the southwest.
Amarbayasgalant was one of the very few monasteries to have partly escaped destruction during the Stalinist purges of 1937, after which only the buildings of the central section remained. Many of the monks were executed by the country's Communist regime and the monastery's artifacts, including thangkas, statues, and manuscripts were looted, although some were hidden until more fortunate times.
Today, only 28 temples remain. Restoration work began in 1988 with funds provided by UNESCO and private sources and some of the new statuary was commissioned in New Delhi, India.
If you want an example of a constructive way of relating to Muslims, consider Saint Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai Desert. This is one of the oldest monasteries in the world, a place of uninterrupted prayer and worship since its founding in the sixth century. (In fact here was already a church here, at the site of the Burning Bush, erected in 330 AD at the direction of the Empress Helena.)
If you look attentively at photos of the monastery, close to the monastery church you will notice a bright, white tower. This is the minaret of the only mosque within a monastic enclosure. The Fatimid Mosque, still used by the monks’ Bedouin grounds-keepers and neighbors, was originally a hospice for pilgrims, but in the year 1106, more than nine hundred years ago, was converted to its present use. It must be one of the oldest mosques in the world. No doubt the monk’s hospitality to Muslims helps explain how it survived all these centuries in what became Muslim territory and became the safe harbor for a number of the oldest icons and biblical manuscripts to survive from Christianity’s first millennium. It’s a striking witness to a genuinely Christian response to conflict in a non-fear-driven manner.
(I regret I do not have the photographer's name -- this is not one of my photos.)
Local people took rest who bulitted monastery on mountain. They had special tools on back, for carry some heavy stone and wood. The machinery can not be used here because of high land. 2010, Tibet.
Amarbayasgalant Monastery is one of the three largest Buddhist monastic centers in Mongolia. The monastery complex is located in the Iven Valley near the Selenge River, at the foot of Mount Büren-Khaan in Baruunbüren sum (district) of Selenge Province in northern Mongolia. The nearest town is Erdenet which is about 60 km to the southwest.
Amarbayasgalant was one of the very few monasteries to have partly escaped destruction during the Stalinist purges of 1937, after which only the buildings of the central section remained. Many of the monks were executed by the country's Communist regime and the monastery's artifacts, including thangkas, statues, and manuscripts were looted, although some were hidden until more fortunate times.
Today, only 28 temples remain. Restoration work began in 1988 with funds provided by UNESCO and private sources and some of the new statuary was commissioned in New Delhi, India.
Calaraseuca Monastery - Moldova
The hard working nuns.
Calaraseuca Monastery is a monastery in the north of Moldova, located on the right a river Nistru. It was founded in the eighteenth century. In 1780 the old church could no longer be used, and Hagi Marcu Donici of Movilau, on the left a river Nistru, built a church and a steeple, which was sanctified in 1782 dedicated to the Assumption Holy Mother of God. In 1853 starts the construction of two churches dedicated to St. Mitrofan of Voronejului.
In 1916 the monks go to other monasteries, and nuns are brought Calaraseuca Virov refugees in the monastery, from Poland (located at the time of the Austro-German occupation). In 1961 the communist authorities Calaraseuca monastery transformed into a hospital for mentally disabled children. The church winter was transformed in a club and summer in the hospital warehouse. On 3 May 1991, nuns from the monastery was reopened Calaraseuca.
Amarbayasgalant Monastery is one of the three largest Buddhist monastic centers in Mongolia. The monastery complex is located in the Iven Valley near the Selenge River, at the foot of Mount Büren-Khaan in Baruunbüren sum (district) of Selenge Province in northern Mongolia. The nearest town is Erdenet which is about 60 km to the southwest.
Amarbayasgalant was one of the very few monasteries to have partly escaped destruction during the Stalinist purges of 1937, after which only the buildings of the central section remained. Many of the monks were executed by the country's Communist regime and the monastery's artifacts, including thangkas, statues, and manuscripts were looted, although some were hidden until more fortunate times.
Today, only 28 temples remain. Restoration work began in 1988 with funds provided by UNESCO and private sources and some of the new statuary was commissioned in New Delhi, India.
Cozia Monastery - Romania
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea cel Bătrân in 1388 and housing his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania.
Cozia features a museum of exhibiting old art: old manuscripts and prints, embroideries and objects of worship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozia_Monastery
Interesting te read:
www.romanianmonasteries.org/other-monasteries/cozia-monas...
While the main chapel was built in 1215, the monastery complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator at the site of a sacred spring inside a cave. The monastery had thus been originally named Ayrivank, meaning "the Monastery of the Cave". The name commonly used for the monastery today, Geghard, or more fully Geghardavank (Գեղարդավանք), meaning "the Monastery of the Spear", originates from the spear which had wounded Jesus at the Crucifixion, allegedly brought to Armenia by Apostle Jude, called here Thaddeus, and stored amongst many other relics. Now it is displayed in the Echmiadzin treasury.
So instead of braving the shopping crowds on Friday, we opted for a peaceful drive in the country to see the Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, IN.
Tasks
“Ora et labora et lege - pray and work and read”
St. Benedict of Nursia’s Rule for the Order can be summarized in these words. The Father of the Monks wrote it around 529 in Montecassino in Italy for his community.
Since their Abbey was founded the Admont Benedictines have been living and working for over 900 years to this Rule. The over 26 monks are under the direction of a freely elected abbot, at present Abbot Bruno Hubl. They meet several times a day to celebrate choral prayers and Mass together.
Deputizing for all Christians, they do this in a special way in the concerns and needs of the time. In addition to the Divine Services, the service of one’s fellow men is a special duty for the monks. At present Admont Monastery serves 26 parishes, runs a Monastery secondary school and a nursing home for senior citizens in Frauenberg.
The Monastery employs roughly 500 people in its businesses. The continual engagement of the Monastery in science and the arts is mirrored in the new museum. The basic tenet of St. Benedict always stands over the manifold activities: “Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus - May God be glorified in everything!”
Located on the outskirts of Shigatse, Tashilhunpo Monastery is one of the Six Big Monasteries of Gelugpa (or Yellow Hat Sect) in Tibet. Founded by the First Dailai Lama in 1447, the monastery's structure was expanded by the Fourth and successive Panchen Lamas. The monastery houses the 22meter-high gilded bronze statue of Qiangba Buddha, the tallest of its kind in the world.
St. Simeon Monastery
There were a number of visible wall paintings in the principal church of the monastery that were still discernable at the end of the nineteenth century, but alas, most of these are now badly damaged or even destroyed. It has been suggested that these paintings date to the eleventh or twelfth century, though below those that can still be seen are at least another layer of paintings in the apse of the church. In the eastern semi-dome their remains visible a scene of Christ enthroned within the mandorla, held by two angles, with flames rising to its base. Christ holds a book on one knee with his left hand, while his right hand is raised in blessing beyond the edge of the mandorla. A human figure with a square nimbus appears in a praying position on the extreme right. Below this scene, the walls are adorned with arcades and pendentives.
Thiksey Monastery (Ladakh, India)
---------- Shooting Data ----------
Date: 8 July 2011
Time: 01:53:58 PM
Model: NIKON D90
Lens: AF VR Zoom 17-50mm f/2.8G IF-ED
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/100sec
Aperture: f/16
Focal Length: 17mm
Focal Length (35mm): 25mm
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All rights reserved, no usage without prior written permission.
Moldova - Hancu monastery.
Hancu Monastery was raised up on a nuns’ hermitage in 1678 by the Great High Steward Mihail Hancu due to the wish of one of his daughters, who accepted monasticism under the name of Parascheva. The hermitage had the name of Viadica until the 17th century.
Because of the Tartars invasion, the nuns left the hermitage for another place approximately at the half of the 18th century. After the Russian army arrived in Basarabia under the command of Field Marshall Rumeantev in 1770-1772, the first Hancu family successors asked the hieromonah Varlaam from the Varzaresti Monastery to take care of the abandoned hermitage. Varlaam together with a group of monks, who came with him, took care of the household, and repaired the cells and in time the monastery became a living place for the monks.
In 1817 all the monks at the monastery were Moldovans, who took the habit being hallowed by the Husi bishops and the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldova. They all had good connections with the hermitages and the monasteries from all over Moldova and the Athos mountain. There were three Russian hieromonks in the monastery as well, who ran away from the liberal stream of Queen Catherine the Second. The books for the church and the manuscripts were written in Romanian.
Back in 1817 the church was built of wood, fenced, glued with clay and whitewashed. The roof of the church was made of shingle. Also, it had a belfry attached to the church. The church had an iconostasis of wood with delving flowers gilt with gold. The walls inside of the church were fashioned with many beautiful icons, 8 of which were painted on planks of wood and gilt with gold.
Hancu was the first monastic settlement of Basarabia, where the community life was introduced approximately in 1820-1822.
Both, the inner life of the hermitage, and its community household, developed significantly during the supervision of abbot Dosoftei, Bulgarian by origin.
Since its existence, more precisely at the beginning of 1836, the hermitage is considered to be a monastery. On the place where the wooden church was standing, he raised up in 1835 a church built in stone with the festival Saint Pious Parascheva, but in 1841 he had built another one dedicated to the Holy Virgin Dormition festival. He built cells for the monks as well, brought water into the monastery and took care of the administration bettering.
At the end of the 19th century, the monastery was known under the name of Hancul-Parascheva.
The lands, the fortune and the buildings of the monastery were nationalized in 1944, but in 1965 the monastery had been closed and the monks were chased away.
In 1978 the monastic ensemble was distributed to the Institute of Medicine from Chisinau that set working a sanatorium for people suffering of tuberculosis and opened a leisure station for students and employees. Saint Pious Parascheva summer church was later turned into a club.
Hancu Monastery was re-established as a place for monks in 1990. There is no information about the activity of the monks during those two years they have spent in the monastery. In 1992 the community of monks was abolished.
In the spring of 1992 the monastery for nuns is being established at Hancu. On the 10th of September, 1992, the reconstruction of the monastery was started. In 1993 the reparation of Holy Virgin Dormition winter church had been finished.
The church was framed within the body of the priory, which was built in 1841. It was painted provisionally and hallowed in the same year. In 1998 the interior of the church was repainted.
Saint Pious Parascheva summer church was erected in 1835 and repaired not earlier than 1996.
Three old buildings raised up in 1841 remain untouched on the monastery’s territory. Nuns and sisters started living there after a major overhaul. The number of the ones living there estimates 58 in 1995.
Cozia Monastery - Romania
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea cel Bătrân in 1388 and housing his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania.
Cozia features a museum of exhibiting old art: old manuscripts and prints, embroideries and objects of worship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozia_Monastery
Interesting te read:
www.romanianmonasteries.org/other-monasteries/cozia-monas...
Surrounded by pine forest, the monastery of Panagia Kalopetra was built in 1782 on a mountain slope above the Valley of the Butterflies (Petaloudes). It was founded by Alexander Ypsilantis during his exiles in Rhodes. Ypsilantis was a Greek prince, ruler of Wallachia and Moldavia, engaged in various wars against the Ottomans. His grandson was the leader of the Filiki Eteria that began the Greek Revolution in 1821.
There are two contrasting stories involving the founding of this small monastery. One, the most plausible, relates that Ypsilantis brought his daughter to the area to cure her of tuberculosis, as the water that sprung from a rock on the mountain was considered to be therapeutic. In gratitude, he founded this small monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary, giving it the name of Kalopetra which in Greek means 'good stone'.
According to the other story the prince built the monastery after having survived a terrible storm at sea with his two children. This version says that Ypsilantis saw a divine light emanating from the area of Kalopetra that helped their ship reach land safely.