Petru Vodă Monastery

Petru Vodă Monastery lies in the village of Petru Vodă, Poiana Teiului commune, Neamț County, in a clearing called Hașca in the Stânișoara Mountains. It is reached by a forest road that branches off in Petru Vodă village, on the left of the road from Poiana Largului to Târgu Neamț. It is a monastery for monks under the Archdiocese of Iași, dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The monastery was founded in 1991 by Archimandrite Iustin Pârvu (1919-2013), who had previously served as a hieromonk at the Secu and Bistrița monasteries. According to the monastery, it was built in memory of those who suffered in detention under the communist regime. The wooden church was completed in 1992 and painted between 1994 and 2000. Iustin Pârvu, the monastery's abbot, died on 16 June 2013 and is buried here. The church is built of timber beams on a concrete foundation, with an octagonal tower above the nave and an entrance through the porch on the south side, by a carved oak door. The painting, in tempera and in Byzantine style, covers both the interior and the exterior and is the work of the painter Mihai Gabor. The oak iconostasis was made by Pantelimon Peiu of Târgu Neamț. Visitors can also see Father Iustin Pârvu's cell, presented by the monastery as a museum, and the monastery cemetery with his grave, which draws large numbers of pilgrims. Nearby is the Paltin-Petru Vodă convent, for nuns, dedicated to the Protection of the Mother of God. The monastery is not on the list of historic monuments. The community is led by Protosyncellus Hariton Negrea, and the monastery has two dependent hermitages in Neamț County, Urecheni (2000) and Păstrăveni (2001). The monastery is open to visitors.