Slatina Monastery

Slatina Monastery lies in the village of Slatina in the commune of the same name, Suceava county, about 28 kilometres north-west of Fălticeni, in a wooded area at the foot of the Stânișoara Mountains, in the valley of the Suha Mică stream. Its name comes from a nearby saltwater spring (slatină), now dry. The founder was Prince Alexandru Lăpușneanu. According to the chronicle of Bishop Eftimie, building began in 1553 and was completed in 1564, during Lăpușneanu's second reign, while the chronicler Grigore Ureche records that Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca consecrated the church on 14 October 1558. The church of the Transfiguration has a triconch plan, with the side apses set within the thickness of the walls. An octagonal tower on a star-shaped base rises above the nave, and the walls have buttresses and windows with Gothic stone frames. Inside are a closed porch, narthex and nave; the burial chamber was removed in the nineteenth century. The original painting burned in 1821, during fighting between the Greek Eteria rebels who had taken refuge here and the Turks. The present fresco painting was completed in 1828, and the west wall of the narthex holds the votive portrait of Alexandru Lăpușneanu, Lady Ruxandra and their children. The monastery keeps part of the head of St Gregory the Theologian, returned here in 2001. The monastery is the burial place of the founder's family. Buried here are Alexandru Lăpușneanu (died 1568, having become a monk under the name Pahomie), Lady Ruxandra, daughter of Petru Rareș (died 1570), and their daughters Teofana (1561) and Teodora (1565). Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi retired here in 1842 and died at Slatina in 1846, and from 1949 to 1956 the abbot was Archimandrite Cleopa Ilie. Under Decree 410/1959 the monks were expelled, and since August 1962 the monastery has housed a community of nuns. The complex is a class A historic monument (LMI code SV-II-a-A-05644). It comprises the church (1553-1564), the refectory (1561), the fountain (1591), the chapel of St Nicholas (1834), the chapel of the Three Holy Hierarchs and the towers from the nineteenth century, and the enclosure wall from 1834.