A monastery that resembles nothing else in Bucovina, because it is not Moldavian: it is Armenian. It stands on a plateau at the edge of Suceava, ringed by walls and by earth ramparts raised by a Polish army that used it as a camp.
If you only have a minute
A fortified Armenian monastery, raised on a plateau at the edge of Suceava. The name comes from the Turkish “zamca”, a fortification: in 1690 the Polish army of John Sobieski turned it into a military camp, and the walls and ditches of that time can still be seen.
What you find only here
The Armenian community of Suceava is attested from the fourteenth century, and in 1606 it raised here a monastery that resembles nothing around it: a free-standing bell tower with a vaulted ground floor, Armenian decoration, inscriptions in another language. In 1690 the army of John Sobieski occupied it and fortified it with earth ramparts, which can still be seen as terraces in the grass. The name comes from the Turkish zamca, a fortification.
Open for visits; being an Armenian monastery, services are held rarely, on feast days.
The enclosure is a fortress: walls, earth ramparts, towers. The church carries Armenian decoration, and the bell tower is a free-standing structure with a vaulted ground floor, unusual in Moldavia.
You arrive in the courtyard and look around without knowing where. These are 3 places on the walls that people who know look for.
With a vaulted ground floor, raised as an independent structure. Moldavian architecture does not do this.
Raised by the Poles in 1690, they can still be seen as terraces in the grass.
Motifs and inscriptions that appear in no other monastery in the region.
Things that are less widely known, and that nobody tells you at the gate.
The Armenian community of Suceava was one of the oldest in Moldavia, attested from the fourteenth century.
In 1690 the army of John Sobieski occupied the enclosure and raised earth ramparts around it. That is where the name comes from.
A free-standing structure with a vaulted ground floor, unusual for Moldavian architecture.
If you only have 30 minutes: The enclosure, from above, and the bell tower.
The plateau is green and empty.
It fits into the same day as Suceava.
Low light across the walls.
The enclosure can be seen any time; the interior, by arrangement.
the citadel of Suceava
a UNESCO monument, in the city
Suggested circuit: Zamca → Saint John the New → the princely citadel, a day in Suceava.
Suceava · 70 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.
Book direct
No platform fee, because there is nobody in between. You let yourselves in with a code, you leave late if nobody is coming after you, and if plans change you cancel free up to seven days ahead.
Via Transilvanica