Hey! We meet again at a new article in the Visit Romania! This time we will travel in time, visiting fortified fortresses full of history and impressive monasteries. Places full of stories and memories from
Hey! We meet again at a new article in the Visit Romania! This time we will travel in time, visiting fortified fortresses full of history and impressive monasteries. Places full of stories and memories from childhood at Ion Creanga’s Memorial House and we will disconnect from the agglomeration of the city on a fast jogging tour at zoo. We begin?
You certainly need time to visit Moldova. Along the way, you will start to visit places with a touching historical signification, but also places from Sadoveanu’s stories.
Mausoleum from Marasesti
The first tourist destination on my way was the Mausoleum of Marasesti, a historical monument dedicated to the heroes of the First World War. The monument was erected on the place where, in the summer of 1917, the fighting in Marasesti took place, where the Romanian troops were victorious. In the confrontations at Marasesti, 480 officers and 21,000 Romanian soldiers died.
Visit schedule: Monday-Sunday: 9: 00-19: 00
Entrance fees:
- adults -8 lei
- children -2 lei
Hanul Ancutei
Hanul Ancutei is a famous tourist inn located along one of the main European roads that crosses Romania (E85) and became famous by placing here the action of the volume Hanu-Ancut (composed of 9 stories), published in 1928 by the great Romanian writer Mihail Sadoveanu.
Memorial Museum “Ion Creanga” Humulesti
Ion Creanga Memorial House in Humulesti is a memorial museum founded in the house where the Romanian narrator Ion Creanga (1837-1889) was born and raised in the village Humulesti (today suburb of Targu Neamt). The house has two small rooms and a porch. The tourist attraction hosts a permanent exhibition, comprising archival dumpers, letters, postcards with autographs, manuscript photocopies, photographs and 14 graphic works.
Visiting fees:
- adults – 10 lei
- students – 5 lei
- pupils – 2 lei
- retired – 2 lei
Visit schedule:
- Monday: 9: 00-17: 00
- Tuesday – Sunday: 10: 00-18: 00
The theme park “Ion Creanga”
Next to the “Ion Creanga” Memorial Museum in Humulesti is the “Ion Creanga” Theme Park. Here you can meet the sympathetic and loving characters from the children’s stories written by Ion Creanga. This is the first theme park about the work of a writer built in Romania.
Entrance fees:
- Adults – 2 lei
- children – 1 leu
Visit schedule: Monday-Sunday: 9: 00-18: 00
Neamt Fortress
Few places cut your breath, and the Neamt Fortress is one of them.
Located at the edge of Targul Neamt, on the Timus rock on Cetatii Hill, the Neamt Fortress was part of the fortification system built in Moldova at the end of the 14th century, when Ottoman dangers appeared. I think it is important to know what you are visiting, to know the history and the meaning of the place, so let you know some information about this tourist destination.
Neamt Fortress:
- was built during the reign of Peter I (1375-1391) and was first mentioned on 2 February 1395 during the expedition of King Sigismund of Luxemburg of Hungary to Moldova;
- Considering that the Neamt Fortress is insufficiently reinforced to withstand the attacks of the Moldavian enemies, Stefan the Great commanded the overhanging of the walls of the fortress by about 6-7 m and the construction of narrow crenellations and narrow windows, the raising of four bastions of the exterior courtyard and the construction of the bridge in the form arch, supported on 11 pillars of stone;
- While Stefan the Great was in the north of the country to regroup army, the fortress was besieged for 8 days by Mahomet II. The siege caused much damage to the fortress, but the walls resisted. The Turkish tents were bombed, forcing Mahomet to leave his position;
- In the time of Alexander Lapusneanu (1564), the fortress was partially destroyed;
- In the year 1600 Jeremiah Movila order the restoration of the fortress;
- The Neamt fortress opens its doors in front of the army of the one who made the first political union of all Romanians: Michael the Brave;
- In 1646 Vasile Lupu turned it into a monastery;
- 1691, the fortress will withstand a siege of the Polish Army led by King Ioan Sobietski;
- Neamt fortress permanently loses its military importance in 1717, after the destruction ordered by Mihail Racovita;
- After a long period of devastation, in 1866 the fortress is declared a historical monument;
- In 2007-2009, Neamt Fortress was rehabilitated with European funds.
Entrance fees:
- adults: 5 lei
- children: 3 lei
Visit schedule:
- Monday – closed.
- Tuesday-Sunday: 10: 00-18: 00 (April to September)
9: 00-17: 00 (October to March)
Neamt Monastery
The Neamt Monastery, according to the documents dates from the 14th century and is the oldest monastery in Moldova
Today, there are two churches, two chapels, the bell tower with 11 bells, the “Veniamin Costache” Theological Seminary, and a museum with a collection of church art and The Printing Hall. In the church there is the Icon of the Mother of God doing miracles, painted in 665 in Israel, whom Prince Alexandru cel Bun received in gift from the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Paleologus.
The monastery also has the oldest 18,000-volume monastery library with a special contribution to the development of medieval culture and art in Romania. In the narthex there is the tomb of Bishop Paul of the Roman (1632) and schimonahi, but also the relics of the unknown saint, discovered in 1986 by removing the asphalt from the alley. In the tomb room there is the tomb of Stefan Voievod the son of Alexander the Good (uncle of Stefan cel Mare) and the tomb of the famous Father Paisie Velicicovschi (1794).
Zoo “Dragos-Voda”
It was founded in 1968 and is located within Vanatori -Neamt, near the Neamt Monastery. The first specimens of bison, in number three, were brought from Poland in 1969, named Rarau, Roxana and Raluca. Within the reservation are three ponds (Zimbru, Corbii and Roebuckles), rich in fish fauna.