Pahomie Hermitage

Pahomie Hermitage is one of the most isolated hermit retreats in Romania, lying beneath the crests of the Căpățânii Mountains, at the foot of the Buila massif, in the Buila-Vânturarița National Park — the smallest national park in the country — within Bărbătești commune, Vâlcea County. It is reached from Râmnicu Vâlcea on the DN64A towards Băile Olănești, then through the village of Cheia, along a forest road climbing the Cheia Valley to the "Beautiful Spring". The hermitage is dedicated to "St Elijah the Prophet". According to its inscription, it was founded in 1520 by the monk Pahomie and Sava the Outlaw — hence the name. By another tradition, Pahomie was none other than the great ban Barbu Craiovescu, founder of Bistrița Monastery, who, fleeing through the mountain wilderness from Mihnea the Bad, is said to have discovered the Beautiful Spring here and raised the hermitage in thanksgiving. The church was repaired in 1684 by Constantin Brâncoveanu, the future ruler of Wallachia, and received gifts and exemptions from rulers such as Alexandru Moruzzi (1793). The truly unique feature of the hermitage is the church itself: a small structure, attached to and covered for nearly three-quarters by a huge limestone wall about 50 metres long, on which tradition says the face of Christ can be discerned. Beside it, the "Beautiful Spring" gushes from beneath the rock with cold, turquoise-coloured water. Left to ruin after 1880, when the church collapsed, the hermitage was rebuilt identically, following the surviving walls, between 1952 and 1956, through the care of Patriarch Justinian Marina, and reconsecrated in September 1956. Together with the nearby Pătrunsa Hermitage, Pahomie is today considered one of "Romania's Meteora". It is worth visiting for its unique church set under the rock, for the Beautiful Spring and for the wild scenery of the Buila Mountains.