Căpriana Monastery
One of Moldova's oldest monasteries, with a 16th-century stone church in the Codri forest.
Căpriana stands in a clearing of the Codri forest some forty kilometres west of Chișinău and is among the oldest monastic sites in Moldova. It appears in a charter of 1429 in which Alexander the Good granted it the status of a princely foundation, and it was afterwards endowed by Stephen the Great, Petru Rareș and Alexandru Lăpușneanu. The earliest buildings were of timber; the stone summer church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, raised in 1545, survives as the core of the complex and combines Byzantine plan forms with Gothic detail.
Two further churches were added later, St George in 1840 and the winter church of St Nicholas in 1903, and the monastery served for a time as the residence of the Metropolitan of Bessarabia, Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni, who is buried here. Its library was among the largest in the country. The Soviet authorities closed the monastery in 1962 and used the buildings for secular purposes; monastic life resumed in 1989 and a thorough restoration followed in the early 2000s. The site is listed as a monument of national importance.
Highlights
- Stone church of the Dormition, built in 1545
- Burial place of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni
- Winter church of St Nicholas, completed in 1903
- Set in a clearing of the Codri forest west of Chișinău
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