A monastery (Hurezi Monastery) and a curiosity!
As I mentioned here, on December 31st we went visiting some places, including Hurezi Monastery. I told you in the post that I’ll dedicate a special article to this monastery – for we’ve discovered a very-very interesting thing! So here’s the article 😉
First of all, I have to tell you that this monastery is a fortified one. It is a convent for nuns, and it was built between 1690 and 1697 by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. Situated near the town of Horezu, this monastery is considered a masterpiece of Romanian “Brancoveanu art”. The Hurezi Monastery is part of UNESCO World Heritage. It is said that the name of the monastery comes from “huhurezi” (eagle owls), a species of night birds with coloured plumage.
As mentioned in the post, when we got there the monastery was closed – so we don’t have interior photos. However, we have some interesting findings.
This is the monastery from the road
This is the monastery after the “first entrance”.
We parked the car and entered.
And now the curiosity: at the entrance, in the paintings, there are palm trees! and we don’t have palm trees in Romania… (growing naturally here). It is not a specific tree for us – and as we found out in other churches (from Moldavia), the paintings are always adapted to the area, showing specific vegetation, animals, occupations of people… So how come there are palm trees here?!? See it for yourself.
We also photographed the paintings on the right wall
and a detail from one of the columns from the entrance:
What do you think about that?
I’m a huge fan of visiting monasteries. we have some really cool ones here in Central America, too.
NOw, I want to stay in one over night.
Staying in a monastery is an interesting experience, especially if you manage to get closer to the people there (nuns or monks). I wish you to have the chance to go and stay over night in one 🙂
This monastery in Romania has, however, an interesting element and I don’t have an explanation yet for it – the palm trees in a country that doesn’t have such trees.
This is indeed amazing, the palm trees in those paintings! I’d love to know how comes they are there. If I find out, I’ll share the story with you.