Podgoria Copou Monastery

Podgoria Copou Monastery, known to locals as the "little church among the vines", stands on Podgoriilor Street amid the vineyards inside the Iași Botanical Garden. The church was founded in 1638 by Prince Vasile Lupu, before his better-known Three Hierarchs Monastery, and was consecrated on 30 April 1638 by Patriarch Cyril Lucaris of Constantinople, dedicated to Saints Athanasius and Cyril. The Slavonic inscription above the door between the porch and the nave names Vasile Lupu, his wife Lady Tudosca and their children Ioan, Maria and Ruxanda. According to legend, during a Tatar raid Lady Tudosca hid in a hollow tree in the forests on the hill, and the prince found her with the help of his hunting dog, Copou. In gratitude he built a stone church on the site of an earlier wooden one, and the hill is said to have kept the dog's name. The church was destroyed in 1653, rebuilt in 1702 by Prince Constantin Duca and rebuilt again in 1809, the date recorded in the national list of historic monuments. After the secularisation of church estates in 1864 the monastery was dissolved and the church became a parish church; in 1960 it was included within the Botanical Garden. The 1983-1986 restoration brought new fresco painting by Vasile and Violeta Carp, including the votive portrait of the founders. On 20 April 2001, the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers, Metropolitan Daniel re-established it as a convent and added this second feast day. The nuns run embroidery, tailoring and church-painting workshops.