Description of the attraction
Capriana Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries on the territory of Moldova, located 40 km from Chisinau, in the village of the same name.
The monastery was built from wood in 1429. A century later, in its place, under the patronage of a representative of the Moldovan nobility - Peter Rares, a large stone church of the Assumption was erected in the style of a medieval temple, which to this day is the main building of the Capriana monastery complex. However, after reconstruction in 1820, only the apse, richly decorated with decor, remained from the previous building. At the same time, the area of the church was expanded with the addition of walls, a pyramidal bell tower with nine bells and an imposing drum with a dome.
In 1840, near the Assumption Church, the St. George Church was erected, made in the late Baroque style, and in 1903 - the St. Nicholas Church, after the type of medieval Moldavian temples.
The Capriana Monastery housed one of the most respectable and largest libraries at that time on the territory of Moldova, where valuable manuscripts, gifts and gifts from noble persons were carefully kept.
In 1947, the Capriana monastery was closed, all the monks were dispersed, and the building was given for the needs of the children's tuberculosis dispensary. However, the date of the official closure of the monastery is 1962. In the early nineties of the last century, the Capriana monastery was returned to the faithful again, restoration work began to restore the temples.
On the territory of the monastery is the burial place of the head of the Bessarabian diocese from 1813 to 1821 - Metropolitan Gabriel Banulescu-Bodoni, who made an invaluable contribution to the development of Orthodoxy and the culture of Moldova.
Not far from the monastery you can find the oak of Stephen the Great, at the base of which, according to legend, he rested after one of the battles.
