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Bucolic Bucovina is dotted with slant-roofed village houses and lovely groves of beech trees (indeed, the name 'Bucovina' derives from the ancient German and Slavic roots for beech). As in neighbouring Maramureș, across the mountains, you'll encounter old women in colourful traditional dress, fearless children riding bareback on horses, and enterprising locals scouring the forest for some truly massive mushrooms. It's an ornery place, and both public transport and foreign languages can be lacking, but Bucovina is nevertheless highly worthwhile for hill walks, cycling, rural idylls and, of course, taking in those unforgettably colourful monasteries.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Bucovina.
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Built in just three months and three weeks by Ştefan cel Mare following a key 1488 victory over the Turks, Voroneţ Monastery is the only painted monastery that has had an internationally recognised colour associated with it. 'Voroneţ Blue', a vibrant cerulean hue created from lapis lazuli and other ingredients, is prominent in its frescoes. A 2011 restoration of frescoes in the entryway revealed the incredible quality of these paintings even more clearly.
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This Unesco-protected church in the village of Arbore receives a fraction of the visitors of the other painted monasteries and hence feels more private and special. The small scale allows you to study the paintings up close, to appreciate the skills and techniques. The monastery dates from 1503 and was the brainchild of local nobleman Luca Arbore. It took about five months to build and four decades to paint.
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Suceviţa Monastery (built 1582–1601) is the largest Bucovina monastery, and some regard it as the finest. It's perhaps best known for its exterior Ladder of Virtues fresco, with its 32 steps to heaven, near the main entry. It exhorts priests to righteous behaviour and to avoid the unfortunate fate of the clerics depicted tumbling from the ladder due to sins such as greed or vanity. The church's tomb room contains the coffins of monastery founders Simion and Ieremia Movilă.
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Suceava's rugged, abandoned 14th-century citadel has gotten a high-tech makeover, allowing visitors to scramble over the rocks and into the various chambers and learn the structure's history through clever video presentations and hands-on touchscreen exhibits. It's great for kids, the only downside being most of the text and video is only in Romanian. The unconquerable fortress withstood multiple attacks, including one by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1475, just 22 years after his conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul).
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Built in 1532, Moldoviţa Monastery occupies a fortified quadrangular enclosure with tower, gates and well-tended lawns. The central painted church has been partly restored and features impressive frescoes from 1537. The southern exterior wall depicts the siege of Constantinople in AD 626, under a combined Persian-Avar attack. Interestingly, the besiegers are depicted in Turkish dress – keeping parishioners concentrated on the contemporary enemy.
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Rădăuţi is home to Moldavia's oldest church, the mid-14th-century Bogdana Monastery, built by Prince Bogdan I. The church also functions as a mausoleum for eight early Moldavian rulers and their families, including Bogdan I, Latcu, Roman Muşat and Ştefan I.
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Founded by Chancellor Theodor Bubuiog under Moldavian Prince Petru Rareş, Humor Monastery, built in 1530, is surrounded by ramparts, with a three-level brick-and-wood lookout tower. The narrow walls enclosing the last stretch of stairway were designed so that defending soldiers could kill off attacking Turks one by one. Humor's predominantly red-and-brown exterior frescoes (1535) are divided topically. On the southern wall's left-hand side, patron saint the Virgin Mary is commemorated; on the right, St Nicholas' life and miracles are captured.
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Some 28km northwest of Rădăuţi, along a forested road dotted by traditional villages, Putna Monastery (1466–81) was built by Ştefan cel Mare, following his victory over the Turks at Chilia. About 60 monks live here. While Putna lacks spectacular frescoes, its royal inhabitants (Ştefan cel Mare is buried in the tomb room) keep it close to the Romanian heart. The graves of Ştefan's third wife, Maria Voichiţa, their two children, Bogdan and Petru, and Ştefan’s second wife, Maria, are here too.
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About 10km north of Suceava in Mitocul Dragomirnei, the 60-nun-strong Dragomirna Monastery was founded between 1602 and 1609 by scholar, calligrapher, artist and bishop Anastasie Crimca. The intricate rope lacing around the midsection of the main church's exterior (and repeated throughout the interior) represents the Holy Trinity, and the short-lived unification of the Moldavian, Wallachian and Transylvanian principalities in 1600.