Cetatuia Monastery, Iasi, Romania
Celebration: The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29)
Address: 1 Cetatuia Street, Iasi, Romania
The founder of the Cetatuia Monastery was Prince Gheorghe Duca. The construction works started in 1669 and were completed in 1672.
The inscription in Greek above the entrance into the pronaos reads: "This house of God has been raised, with the protectorship of the revered saints, all over praised and forerunning Apostles Peter and Paul, by the lover of God and eminent Prince Duca of the entire Moldavia, for the salvation of his soul, the Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem being Dositei, the administration of the Metropolitanate of Moldavia being held by His Eminence, Metropolitan Dosoftei, in the year 7180 since the Creation of the world and 1672 since the Incarnation of the Lord".
Amazed by the greatness of this construction, on June 10, 1672, in his campaign against Poland, sultan Mehmed IV predicted the imminent fall of the monastery. His words never came true, however, although the monastery underwent many hardships over the years.
On the southern side of the precincts is the building that contains the "Princess Anastasia" Gothic Hall and the cellars that shelter the wine obtained in the vineyard of the monastery.
The church was surrounded since the beginning by tall stone walls, with ramparts and a sentinel's path, entrance and corner towers. Within the monastery there have been built rooms for the monks, a bathroom, a kitchen, cellars and a starets' house with a dining hall.
The uniqueness of Cetatuia consists in the fact that the entire ensemble of monastic architecture has been preserved.
A special place is the palace destined to the lodging of the prince, a fortified building characteristic to the XVIIth century and the kitchen or, according to other opinions, the Turkish bath which is the only construction of this kind that has been preserved within a monastic ensemble.
The bell tower and the massiveness of the walls prove that the monastery was also conceived as a military guarded refuge, being a real "cetatuie" ("citadel") in case of need.
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Inside the Church of the Monastery
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The church of the monastery is characteristic to the religious architecture of the XVIIth century Moldavia, being nevertheless an original synthesis of several separate architectural elements.
In a certain way the church of the Cetatuia Monastery is a copy of the church of the "Trei Ierarhi" (Three Hierarchs) Monastery of Iasi. The painting of the church is a distinct artistic creation. Unfortunately only a part of it has been preserved without modifications (like the frescos representing Jesse's tree and the Last Judgement).
On the west wall of the pronaos we may still see today the votive painting, representing Prince Gheorghe Duca's family.
The church shelters the founder's tomb, the tombs of his daughter, Mrs. Maria, his brother, Saul, and his son, Ionita.
The Cetatuia Monastery played an important cultural role. Here was established, in 1662, a Greek printing house, where Greek books were printed for the Orthodox Orient, the only one of this kind in the whole East. Gheorghe Duca provided the financial support, so that the delegation of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem brought printing materials from Venetia to Iasi. The organization of the printing press, the first of its kind in this part of Europe, was trusted to a few Romanian monks who could speak Greek, led by hieromonk Mitrofan, who became the bishop of Husi afterwards. In the ecclesiastical cultural milieu of the Cetatuia Monastery activated patriarch Dositei of Jerusalem and other renowed Greek scholars of the time (Nicolaos Kerameos, Ieremia Cacavelas, Ioan Comnen, Chesarie Daponte). Many of the Greek texts printed here entered the famous J.P.Migne Patrology.
The epochs when Cetatuia was most active culturally are well reflected in the monastery's museum which may be visited by the pilgrims.
Nowadays, like in the past centuries, the Cetatuia Monastery, guarded by God, from its high setting on the South hill of Iasi, watches over the city and its inhabitants whom he protects with the same power of the unchanged faith through the undefeated strength of prayer.
A wonderful panorama can be admired from the "Pilgrim's Supper" tower in the elder's house.
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