A fortified monastery with a painted church dedicated to St. George.
One of the famous painted monasteries in southern Bukovina, Suceava County, it was built by Stephen the Great in 1488 in just 3 months and 3 weeks, to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Vaslui.
Often referred to as the “Sistine Chapel of the East” because of its vivid frescoes.
Voroneț was renowned for its school of calligraphy, where priests, monks, and scholars learned to read, write, and translate religious texts. The school produced two notable Romanian translations of the Bible: the Voroneț Codex, discovered in 1871, and the Voroneț Psalter, found in 1882.
The monastery was abandoned shortly after 1775, when the Habsburg monarchy annexed the northern part of Moldavia. The monastic community did not return to Voroneț until 1991.
Voroneț Monastery
The Last Judgment
A monumental fresco covering the entire western façade, uninterrupted by any windows or doors.
At the top level of the fresco, God the Father is depicted, with angels on either side rolling up the heavens as a sign of the end of time.
Just below, Christ the Ruler is shown, flanked by Mary, John the Baptist, the Apostles, and angels.
Finally, at the lowest level, paradise is represented as a walled garden, contrasted with the infernal river of hell.
The Tree of Jesse
A fresco very typical of the Bukovinian churches, an artistic representation of Christ’s genealogy.
From Jesse, the father of King David, lying on the ground, rises a stem or trunk of a tree, whose branches bear the images of Christ’s ancestors.
The source of this iconography is the prophecy from the Book of Isaiah: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”
The Heavenly Hierarchy
An exterior fresco painted on the apse of the church.
