Hadâmbu Monastery

Hadâmbu Monastery stands in the village of Schitu Hadâmbului, Mironeasa commune, on Dealul Mare in the Iași forests, about 30 km from the city of Iași. In February 1659 Prince Gheorghe Ghica granted the Greek boyar Iani Hadâmbul, a former cellarer, a plot "in the forest of Iași, at Dealul Mare" on which to build a church. Iani Hadâmbul built it on the site of an older skete dedicated to St Nicholas, and the Slavonic inscription above the door records that he renewed and built the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the reign of Gheorghe Ghica, on 8 September 1659. The monastery took its name from its founder. From the outset the monastery was dedicated to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It was plundered in 1661 and 1671, was placed by Patriarch Chrysanthos Notaras under Sfântul Sava Monastery in Iași, and from around 1734 appears in documents as a dependency of Galata Monastery. The church was repaired in 1780. After the secularisation of monastic estates in 1863 the Greek monks left and the complex stood abandoned for more than 70 years. Romanian monks led by Hieromonk Iov Mazilu re-established it in 1937; it was closed under Decree 410/1959 and reopened in 1990 under Abbot Nicodim Gheorghiță. The old complex is a fortified ensemble typical of seventeenth-century Moldavian architecture: the enclosure wall has a rectangular plan with round towers at the corners, and the entrance tower also serves as the bell tower. The old church is small, built of rough stone, with Gothic frames. After 1990 a new church dedicated to the Protection of the Mother of God was built in traditional Moldavian style and consecrated on 8 September 2008, with a chapel of St Nicholas in its lower level, together with a large pilgrims' guesthouse, an abbot's residence and a museum. A fire on 22 January 2003 destroyed 28 monastic cells. The old church, after consolidation, was reconsecrated on 11 October 2009. The old church keeps the icon of the Mother of God with the Child, painted in 1938 by the priest Octavian Zmău and regarded by the faithful as wonder-working. The main feast of the monastery is on 8 September. The complex, comprising the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God (1659), the entrance tower and the enclosure wall (seventeenth century), is a class A historic monument, LMI code IS-II-a-A-04242. The monastery is home to a community of monks.