Neamţ Monastery

Moldavia & the Bucovina Monasteries


The 14th-century Neamţ Monastery is Romania's oldest and largest male monastery. Founded by Petru I Muşat, it doubled as a protective citadel. Ştefan cel Mare built today's large church in the 15th century, though some of the paintings date from Muşat’s time. The fortified compound houses a medieval art museum and a house museum dedicated to novelist Mihail Sadoveanu (1880–1961). The library, with 18,000 rare books, is the largest of any Romanian monastery.