Frumoasa Monastery

Frumoasa Monastery is an Orthodox convent in the south of Iași, at Strada Radu Vodă no. 1, in the Frumoasa district. The complex stands on a terrace 8-10 m above the Bahlui floodplain and is surrounded by a stone enclosure wall. The first monastery was built around 1583-1586 by the hetman Melentie Balica, on land granted by Prince Petru Șchiopul, and is first documented in a charter of 10 April 1587. From 1729, Prince Grigore II Ghica rebuilt it, enlarging the church and adding enclosure walls, a bell tower and princely residences. The present church was rebuilt from its foundations in 1836-1839 by the abbot Ioasaf Voinescu. The church, dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, is Neoclassical, with a single nave and a Doric portico, and its interior tempera painting was completed in 1841. At the entrance stands the Neoclassical bell tower, rebuilt by Ioasaf Voinescu in 1819-1833, with Ionic columns and a bulb-shaped metal dome. The enclosure also contains the Palace on the Walls, the ruins of a former palace and the white marble mausoleum of the Sturdza family. After the secularisation of monastic estates in 1863, the princely courts became cavalry barracks and later a military hospital, while the church served as a parish church. Monastic life resumed in 2003 with nuns from Războieni Monastery. The complex is a historic monument, LMI code IS-II-a-A-04006.