Orheiul Vechi Archaeological Complex
Cave monastery, medieval citadel and layered settlement remains in a limestone gorge above the Răut.
Orheiul Vechi occupies a deep meander of the Răut in central Moldova, where limestone cliffs enclose the villages of Butuceni and Trebujeni. The site has been settled almost continuously since the Palaeolithic, and excavation has revealed Geto-Dacian fortifications, a fourteenth-century Golden Horde town with a mosque, caravanserai and bath house, and the later Moldavian citadel that gave the place its name. The whole landscape is protected as a national cultural reserve and appears on Moldova's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status.
The best known monument is the cave monastery cut into the cliff above Butuceni, whose small church of the Nativity of the Virgin is reached through a rock-hewn passage and topped by a bell tower on the plateau. Monks are recorded here from the thirteenth century; the site was reoccupied by monks in the 1990s after decades of closure. A nearby church built in 1904 serves the village, and the reserve runs a museum of archaeology and anthropology and an ethnographic house in Butuceni, together with marked walking routes across the gorge.
Highlights
- Cave church cut into the cliff above Butuceni village
- Remains of the Golden Horde town, with mosque, bath and caravanserai
- Medieval Moldavian citadel on the promontory
- Museum of archaeology and anthropology and ethnographic house
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