Saints Peter and Paul Monastery, Cârțișoara

Saints Peter and Paul Monastery in Cârțișoara is an Orthodox convent, located about 5-6 km south of the village of Cârțișoara, in the commune of the same name in Sibiu County, in a small clearing at the foot of the Făgăraș Mountains, near the Transfăgărășan road. The monastery operates under the Sibiu Archdiocese, within the Transylvania Metropolitanate. The old monks' hermitage on this site is documented since around 1400, through donations made by Wallachian ruler Mircea the Elder (1386-1418), who also styled himself "Prince of Făgăraș Land" and actively supported the monasteries on the northern slope of the Făgăraș range, as an outpost against Catholic expansion. The monastery kept its spiritual role for centuries, until 1761, when it was completely burned down on the orders of Austrian general Nicolaus Adolf von Bukow, in an attempt to suppress the monks' Orthodox faith — the same campaign that also destroyed the monasteries at Sâmbăta de Sus, Bucium, and Prislop. Local tradition says the soldiers burned the wooden church during evening prayers, with the monks inside, who received the crown of martyrdom for refusing to renounce their faith. For 230 years, the site remained just a clearing at the edge of the forest, known in local place-names as "La mănăstire" ("At the monastery"). Only in 1991 did a group of devout believers from Cârțișoara commune take the initiative to re-establish the old hermitage, with the blessing of Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală of Transylvania and the approval of the Holy Synod. The entire current monastic complex — church, cells, outbuildings — was built from nothing, through great effort, by the monastic community, under the spiritual guidance of Archimandrite Dimitrie Papacioc (the monastery's spiritual father since 1998, nephew of the renowned elder Arsenie Papacioc) and led by the abbess, nun Siluana. Today, the community numbers about 20 nuns. The monastery has a small icon-painting workshop, producing canonical Byzantine icons on wood panels, faithful to Orthodox iconographic tradition. Its feast day, celebrated on 29 June for Saints Peter and Paul, is marked each year with a hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Worth visiting for its dramatic history, tied to Transylvanian Orthodox resistance against Habsburg pressure, and for its spectacular mountain setting at the foot of the Făgăraș range.