When I think of Romania, I immediately think of Transylvania and vampires. It’s probably not that strange to think that way. Transylvania is a region in Romania. Books, movies, and TV have made Transylvania famous for Dracula and vampires in general. Hence, Romania equals vampires. However, one thing I have never associated with Romania is the presence of monasteries. Yet there are some famous, and extremely beautiful, painted monasteries in the Bucovina region of Romania. For the moment, I’ll just focus on one of them. Sucevita.
The monastery at Sucevita was founded in the 1580s and the extensive paintings were completed in 1601. The architecture of the building is a combination of Byzantine and Gothic style, neither of which I can describe without extensive research. So I’m not going to try. You can look those up yourself. The paintings themselves are considered masterpieces of Byzantine art.
The various paintings of monasteries portray Biblical episodes. Sucevita boasts a magnificent depiction of the Ladder to Paradise. This was a popular concept and image taken from the account of Jacob’s vision in Genesis 28. Over time, the ladder to heaven developed into a complex depiction of salvation and condemnation. In the Sucevita depiction, red-winged angels in orderly rows attend the righteous on a slanting ladder to the heavens, each rung inscribed with one of the monastic virtues. Sinners fall through the rungs and are driven by grinning devils to the chaos of hell.
In the last ten years, Romania has created the Via Transilvanica. It’s an 800 mile hiking trail that crosses the Transylvania, Bukovina, and Banat regions of Romania. When I came across this fact, I realized that these painted monasteries are relatively close to the fictional location of Dracula’s Castle. In the future, I’m going to alter my self-thought. Romania equals vampires equals painted monasteries. That’s a better thought to end on.