Văratec Monastery

Văratec Monastery lies in a clearing at the foot of the mountains, in the village of Văratec, Agapia commune, about 12 km from Târgu Neamț and 40 km from Piatra Neamț. Its founding is linked to Bălașa Herescu (1757-1842), who took the name Olimpiada at Topolița Skete and who, advised by Abbot Paisius Velichkovsky of Neamț Monastery, established a small hermitage in the Văratec clearing between 1781 and 1785. In June 1785, together with her confessor Iosif, she began building a wooden church dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. In 1787 the skete was merged with Topolița Skete, and in 1788 the nuns of Durău Skete arrived with Abbess Nazaria, who led the community until 1814. Văratec was for a time administered by Agapia Monastery and became an independent monastery in 1839. Because the wooden church had become too small, Abbess Nazaria began a stone church in 1808, consecrated in 1812. The church of the Dormition was painted in 1841 and reconsecrated by Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi, then repainted in oil in 1882 by the painters T. Ioan and D. Iliescu; the painting was cleaned in 1968-1969. In the first half of the nineteenth century the enclosure walls and the bell tower were built, and under Abbess Eufrosina Lazu the church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (1844, replacing a wooden one of 1817) and the church of the Transfiguration (1845-1847) were added. On the night of 10 to 11 June 1900 a fire destroyed most of the cells and the roof of the main church, and the complex was rebuilt afterwards. The narthex of the main church holds the grave of St Iosif (died 1828), canonized in 2008. Also buried at Văratec are Safta Brâncoveanu (died 1857), a major benefactor of the monastery, and her mother, Elisabeta Balș; a bronze statue of Safta Brâncoveanu by Ion Jalea was placed beside the apse of the church in 1935. The poet Veronica Micle retired to Văratec after the death of Mihai Eminescu, died here on the night of 2 to 3 August 1889 and was buried in the old monastery cemetery. The monastery cemetery also holds the grave of Bishop Partenie Ciopron (died 1980), and from 1982 to 1993 Archimandrite Bartolomeu Anania, later Metropolitan of Cluj, lived here. The Văratec Monastery complex is a class A historic monument (LMI code NT-II-a-A-10732) and comprises the church of the Dormition, the gate bell tower, the churches of St John the Baptist and of the Transfiguration, and the monastic houses lining narrow lanes around the enclosure. Since 1960 the former Queen Mary Workshop building (1934) on the south side has housed the monastery museum, with old icons, Gospel books, vestments, manuscripts, carpets and tapestries. The patronal feast is on 15 August. Access is from the DN15C road along the DN15E for about 4 km.