Saharna Monastery
Holy Trinity monastery in a limestone gorge above the Dniester, with a rock-cut hermitage in the cliff.
Saharna lies in a wooded limestone gorge that runs down to the Dniester, and monastic life there is much older than the present buildings: a hermitage cut into the cliff face, dedicated to the Annunciation, is traced to the early medieval period and was restored in 1857. The monastery on the valley floor was founded in 1776 by the schemamonk Vartolomeu Ciungu, who according to tradition chose the site after a vision of the Mother of God, whose footprint is shown on a rock above the valley.
The winter church of the Nativity of the Mother of God dates from 1777 and holds the relics of St Macarius, the only saint canonised in Bessarabia. The larger summer church of the Holy Trinity was built between 1818 and 1821 and gave the house its dedication. Closed in the Soviet period and used for other purposes, the monastery was returned to the church in 1991 and rebuilt. A marked path climbs past a chain of waterfalls in the gorge to the cliff-top hermitage and a viewpoint over the valley.
Highlights
- Rock-cut Annunciation hermitage high in the gorge wall
- Holy Trinity summer church of 1818-1821
- Relics of St Macarius in the church of 1777
- Marked path past waterfalls to the cliff-top viewpoint
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