The monasteries of Bucovina · Slatina, Suceava County
1554–1558 · Alexandru Lăpușneanu
A princely court that has stayed whole: walls, towers and the house the prince slept in, all still standing. It is the largest foundation of Alexandru Lăpușneanu and one of the few places in the country where you can see what a sixteenth-century monastery actually looked like.
If you only have a minute
The largest foundation of Alexandru Lăpușneanu and one of the best-preserved fortified enclosures in Moldavia. The complex includes the princely house, recently restored, and a museum with objects from the founder's time.
What you find only here
Almost every Moldavian monastery has lost its princely house: it burned, it collapsed, or new buildings swallowed it. At Slatina it is still there. Together with the walls and towers, the enclosure keeps the whole ensemble of a sixteenth-century court, which makes it rarer than it looks: it is one of the few places in the country where you can understand how a prince actually lived when he came to his monastery.
Open daily.
Lăpușneanu's largest foundation keeps the triconch plan, but the windows have late Gothic frames, and the fortified enclosure is among the best preserved.
You arrive in the courtyard and look around without knowing where. These are 3 places on the walls that people who know look for.
Few Moldavian monasteries still keep the princely dwelling. Here you can see what a sixteenth-century court looked like.
Pointed-arch window frames, masons who came from Transylvania. The mixture is typical of the Lăpușneanu period.
Lăpușneanu and lady Ruxandra, under plain slabs.
Things that are less widely known, and that nobody tells you at the gate.
The prince and lady Ruxandra lie here, in the church they built.
Few Moldavian monasteries still keep the princely dwelling inside the walls.
If you only have 30 minutes: The enclosure and the princely house.
The forest around opens up.
Cool, being at the forest's edge.
The finest season here.
Open; the road is a secondary one, but passable.
the last church painted on the outside
a town
Suggested circuit: Slatina → Râșca → Fălticeni, on the southern road.
Slatina, jud. Suceava · 95 km from Câmpulung Moldovenesc
Further on
Hours and fees change from one season to the next, and we could not confirm them from an official source.
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Via Transilvanica