Buciumeni Monastery

Buciumeni Monastery stands at 17 Dumbrava Minunată Street, in the former village of Buciumeni, now a district on the western side of Fălticeni. The old church is surrounded by the cemetery of the former village. The 1930 inscription mentions a charter issued on 16 February 1424 by Prince Alexandru cel Bun to the brothers Popa Iuga and Nanu of Buciumeni. The wooden church of St George was built in the eighteenth century, but the exact year is not known. The 1930 inscription dates it to "around 1765" and names Archpriest Andrei and the freeholder Michinda as its founders, while the historian Nicolae Stoicescu placed it in 1700-1706. Local freeholders repaired it in 1884, and its windows were enlarged in 1892. Having fallen into disrepair, it stood closed from 1912 to 1930 and was reconsecrated on 9 June 1930, after repairs paid for by the parishioners, the Fălticeni town hall, the Commission for Historic Monuments and the Church Fund. The church is built of timber beams on a concrete foundation. It is rectangular in plan, with a polygonal altar apse and a square tower above the porch. The outer walls are clad in boards painted light blue, and the roof is covered with shingles. The interior, made up of a closed porch, nave and altar, is not painted: the walls are hung with icons. The church is a historic monument, LMI code SV-II-m-B-05535. The convent was founded as a skete for nuns on 18 May 1994 and raised to the rank of monastery on 1 September 1998. Work on the new church began on 4 August 2002, and it was consecrated on 28 August 2005 by Archbishop Pimen Zainea. In 2005 the Fălticeni Local Council granted the monastery free use of 2.73 hectares, including the "Dumbrava Minunată" wood. Between 2008 and 2011 a care home for 50 elderly residents was built within the grounds and consecrated on 18 August 2011.