Sinaia Monastery

Romania is dotted with many historical and religious sites. Among them are the monasteries. In Bucovina we were both fortunate and lucky enough to visit two of the great painted monasteries. I say lucky as the infrastructure in Romania can vary from day to day. Simple road flooding here is a disaster there, often resulting in deaths and loss of property. Sinaia monastery is located on Strada Manastirii and is a magnificent walled complex housing not one but two monasteries; but you have to know where to look to find the second building. As you enter the grounds you will see the bell tower and the large monastery built in the years of 1842-1846. As you tour the grounds there are many beautiful rose bushes. The orthodox Christians in Romania make the sign of the cross somewhat differently than the Roman Catholics and cross themselves three times before entering a church or monastery. I saw several worshipers performing this rite at the threshold of a small unobtrusive door located directly across from the monastery and this clued me to what lay beyond. This passage way leads to the older grounds of the original hermitage and smaller walled courtyard ringed with monk’s apartments and in the center of the rose filled courtyard is the original monastery that was built around the year 1690. While we were in Sinaia this older monastery was surrounded by scaffolds for the restoration of the outside of the building. If you took the time to look carefully there was an opening left in the scaffolding to permit entry to the monastery. Many visitors failed to notice this entrance and as a result I was left in this beautiful monastery to meditate for hours, undisturbed. It was an energy recharging time for me and I emerged like a new person with many new insights. I was also able to photograph the frescos inside of the monastery. Also located on the old grounds is a tomb of an important Romanian and also an even older area that was used for worship. The frescos in this room are un-restored and they allow us to see, first hand, the ravages of time on these frescos. We are indeed fortunate that UNESCO has deemed these monasteries in Romania cultural artifacts to be preserved. It would be a terrible loss to humanity to have these cultural, religious, and historical sites to perish. Please enjoy these photographs as the journey to some of these sites is an arduous one. I am so glad that I was able to view these sites for myself and to meditate and pray in many of them.