Putna Monastery

Putna was founded by Stephen the Great in 1466 and finished a few years later, and it holds his tomb, which makes it the closest thing Moldavia has to a national shrine. The buildings have suffered fire, earthquake and reconstruction, so the church you see today reflects seventeenth-century rebuilding rather than the original, with the marble tomb in the burial chamber under a canopy. What survives most vividly of the fifteenth century is in the museum: embroidered epitaphioi, illuminated manuscripts, silver and vestments from Stephen's foundation, one of the finest collections of medieval Moldavian art anywhere. Around the church are the monastic ranges, a treasury tower from the original building, and a small wooden church nearby said to be among the oldest in the country. Putna is not one of the painted monasteries, and visitors sometimes arrive expecting exterior frescoes and find plain white walls instead.

What you actually see

• Stephen the Great's tomb - the marble sarcophagus in the burial chamber.
• The treasury museum - embroideries, manuscripts and silver from the foundation.
• The old treasury tower - a surviving fragment of the fifteenth-century complex.
• The wooden church - a small early timber church near the monastery.

When to go

Year-round. Summer brings coach tours doing the Bucovina circuit; early morning avoids them. Major feast days and the July commemoration of Stephen fill the grounds. Winter is quiet and the setting under snow is fine.

Honest expectations

The church exterior is white and plain: Putna is not painted, and the confusion with the painted monasteries is the most common disappointment here. Photography is not allowed in the church or museum. Modest dress is required. The museum has limited hours and is sometimes closed without notice.

Nearby

Sucevița and Moldovița painted monasteries are south; Rădăuți and Suceava lie southeast.