Bogdana Monastery

Bogdana Monastery is the oldest still standing religious building of Moldavia.

The monastery was built by Bogdan I of Moldavia (1359-1365) somewhere around 1360.

It was to become his and some the Muşatini voievods necropolis.

Here are buried all the rulers of Moldavia from Bogdan I to Alexandru cel Bun.

There are ten graves inside the monastery's church:
* seven in the naos:
** Bogdan I - in the south-eastern corner
** Laţcu Voievod - besides the same wall as Bogdan I
** an unmarked grave (supposedly Maria's - Bogdan I's wife, or Ana's - Laţcu's wife). The grave is at the level of the ground and not above it as the other ones
** Ştefan I - on the northern wall
** Roman I - on the northern wall
** Bogdan, Alexandru cel Bun's brother - on the northern wall
** Bogdan, Alexandru cel Bun's son - on the northern wall
* three in the pronaos:
** Doamna Stana, the wife of Bogdan al III-lea, the mother of Ştefăniţă Vodă - on the northern side
** Anastasiei, daughter of Laţcu - on the northern side
** Bishop Ioanichie (?-1504) - before the pronaos door

The grave were attended to, and marked properly by Ştefan cel Mare. The rocks on top of the graves were created by Jan (cca 1480) at the order of Ştefan cel Mare, "in a style that is different by principle from the oriental decorative sculpture" (P. Comarnescu). They are decorated with byzantine-oriental ornaments like palmata - a stylized Palm (plant) leaf and local motives like leafs of beech , ash tree leafs, elm tree leafs.

In 1559, Alexandru Lăpuşneanu enlarges the church building.

The first internal painting of the church is from the times of Alexandru cel Bun (XIV-th century). In 1558 Alexandru Lăpuşneanu starts the restoration of the original painting. Other restorations happen in the XVIII-th and XIX-th centuries: between 1745-1750, in the time of Bishop Iacob Putneanul and in 1880 when Epaminonda Bucevschi a Bukovinean painter creates in tempera the current fresco.

External links

* http://www.bogdana.ro/ - Romanian only
* http://www.manastiri-bucovina.go.ro/bogdana.htm - Romanian only
* http://www.manastiri-bucovina.go.ro/bogdana-eng.htm - less information than from the Romanian version, but in English.