Holy Three Hierarchs Monastery

The Holy Three Hierarchs Monastery stands at 28 Bulevardul Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt in central Iași. The church was built in 1637-1639 by Prince Vasile Lupu as a princely burial church and was consecrated on 6 May 1639 by Metropolitan Varlaam, according to the inscription carved on its south façade. It is dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, celebrated on 30 January. In 1641 the relics of St Parascheva, sent by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, were brought here; they were moved to the Metropolitan Cathedral after its consecration in 1887. The monastery housed a school known as the Schola Basiliana (Vasilian Academy) and a printing press brought from Kiev with the help of Metropolitan Petru Movilă, which produced the first book printed in Moldavia (in Greek) and, the following year, Metropolitan Varlaam's Cazania. The Gothic Hall, the former refectory of the monastery, hosted the Synod of Iași in 1642, which adopted the Orthodox Confession of Faith. The church was plundered and burned in 1650 and 1686 and damaged by earthquakes in 1711, 1781, 1795 and 1802. The restoration led by French architect André Lecomte du Noüy between 1882 and 1890 (painting and interior work continued until 1898) destroyed most of the original interior painting; the church was reconsecrated in 1904. The work was controversial and prompted public debate on the principles of restoring historic monuments. The church has a triconch plan modelled on Galata Church, with an additional tower over the pronaos. All four façades, including the buttresses, are covered in carved stone decoration arranged in horizontal registers: niches with arcades, colonnettes, Persian vases with flowering branches, geometric motifs and a rope-shaped central band framed by two marble strips; the decoration was originally coloured blue and gilded. The church holds the tombs of Lady Tudosca, Vasile Lupu's first wife, and their son Ștefan, as well as those of Dimitrie Cantemir, whose remains were brought from the USSR in 1935, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Monastic life resumed in 1991, and the monastery complex is a historic monument, LMI code IS-II-m-A-04076 (church: IS-II-m-A-04076.01), and is on Romania's UNESCO World Heritage tentative list.