At five kilometrers distance off the little town "Gura Humorului", in the picturesque village "manastirea Humorului", surrounded by old trees and dewy fields, Humor Monastery is set on a hill„s top in one of the most fascinating of the Suceava county landscapes. This natural setting is associated with an original architectural and decorative diversity. The Church of the Humor Monastery is a famous fundation of the Middle Ages.

Set in the exterior façade above the entrance, a votive instription carved in stone learns us the church was founded in 1530 by a Moldavian boyar named Toader Bubuiog and his thre Anastasia, under the reign of Petru Rares. In the vicinity, five hundred meters farther off, are the ruins of another church, older than the Church of Humor Monastery, those ruins belong to an ancient church which was constructed during the reign of Alexander the Kind (1400-1432).

We should also mention here the distinct architecture of the Church of the Humor Monastery. For the first time was constructed here the open porch and "tainita" (a hiding room); that room is placed upstairs and is overlaped above the tombs room. From the open porch we walked into the pronaos (nartes) and further into the naos. On the eastern side the church construction is finished with the circular apse of the altar. The altar is separed form the naos bu a beautiful ancient iconostasis carved in wood.

The Church of the Humor Monastery was entirely painted al fresco as well as Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita, Arbor churches - all of them in Moldavia. The interior and the exterior walls have been adorned with traditional Orthodox fresco-paintings in Byzantine style. The exterior walls covered by a delicate painting make those five churches unique throughout the Orthodox world. The exterior fresco-paintings of the Humor Monastery's Church were painted in 1535 by Toma Zugravul. The entire painting has conserved the original XVIth century character.

Walked into the curch's pronaos we see a series of images representing the Synaxary (Calendar), the icon of the Assumption of the Mother of the God, the icon of the Achathis Hymn of the Virgin, the portraits of the great hermits of christianity and angels. On the vault of the tomb s room are painted the scenes of Holy Virgin's Life. On the walls of the naos were painted mural images representing portraits of the saints and the cycle of Christ Passion and the Entombent; on the vault - Christ Panthocrator. The votiv portraits of the founders can be also seen on the walls of the naos. The altar with its sacred images, completes this precious ensemble of fresco-paintings. The apse's vault of the altar is reserved to the Holy Virgin with her Son, Last Supper, saints, great hieraches, according to the Orthodox tradition.

Doubtless the most important things which attract the admiration and the appreciation of the visitors, here to the Humor Church are the old painting exterior walls. The important religious themes are: The Acathist of the Announciation, The Iesei's Tree, The Last Day of the Judgement. To the bottom of the southern façade was painted the extraordinary scene of the Constantinopole's Siege. That fresco represents a mirror of the historical events concerning the conquest of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 by the Ottoman army.

The all style of the sacred monument, but especially the fresco-painting is strongly connected of salvation's idea of the people; pleople whom look to the scenes of the salvation's history and they feel the irresistible attraction of the Christian's consummation.

Last update: 1999, September 13
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