Tag Archives: Romania

Putna in the damp, Part 1

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Wednesday 24 September – The gloomy predictions of the chap on reception – and Accuweather – turned out to be spot on. Yesterday’s sunshine was the merest memory, summer was over, clouds had descended to ground level

and the hotel had taken precautions against there being actual rain.

The forecast was for merely damp but not actually raining this morning and tomorrow afternoon, and the strong likelihood of rain this afternoon and tomorrow morning. Accordingly, we’d made an outline plan to get up and out early today to beat both the weather and the putative invasion of the breakfast room by the bloody tourists in the coach party. (The hotel’s normal breakfast arrangements had been replaced by a buffet, we assume because of the coach party.) Sadly, whoever was planning the coach itinerary seemed to have had the same idea, so when we got down to breakfast, it was still bedlam in the restaurant. We retired for a while and came down again later. Although it was much quieter, it was clear that the hotel staff were well on the back foot when it came to keeping the buffet refreshed. We eventually cobbled together something approaching the requisite sustenance as we watched the coach depart outside.

It was damp but not actually raining as we finished breakfast, so we donned light waterproofs and sallied forth. There were a few items we’d noted as being worth a visit. Because of their religious connotations, calling them “attractions” seemed to me to demean them a bit, so “items of interest” they were. The first one we planned to visit was called Chilia Daniil Sihastru, Daniil Sihastru’s hermitage. Its official opening time was 10am so we made our way towards it in a leisurely fashion, so as not to arrive there too early. En route, we passed a, or perhaps the, local market, where mainly food produce was on offer, although there were a couple of non-food stalls as well.

We had both had the Romanian “cabbage salad” at various restaurants during our time here. I was a little surprised on getting my first one to see that its ingredients were limited to one – cabbage – my normal expectation is that a salad is a varied thing, but there you go. Anyway, cabbage salad is definitely A Thing in Romania, and we were delighted to find that one stall had a machine for making it.

That is really quite an industrial-strength mechanism for making a bit of salad, which underlines the popularity of the dish here. The state of the guy’s van also demonstrates the ubiquity of the vegetable. The market was a pleasant distraction from the mainstream of today’s litany of religious site visits.

The hermitage is only 1km outside Putna. The thing itself isn’t huge, a tiny chapel hewn from the rock above a cave,

but is sited within a park area with benches and so forth, which contributes to an air of calm about the place. Whilst we were there, it remained locked, but I was able to get a shot through the door

showing a simple interior. Daniil Sihastru lived in the cave beneath for some twenty years of his life, in the mid 1400s, creating the chapel above; later he withdrew to the monastery in Voroneț. Whilst we were there, a handful of other people came to visit the site, one of whom was dressed in monk’s garb. As he left, he did the traditional Orthodox Romanian obesiance of three bows and crossing himself.  The religious import of the place stems from the fact that Daniil Sihastrul (Romanian for “Daniel the Hesychast”) was a renowned Moldavan Orthodox spiritual guide, advisor of Stephen the Great, and (latterly) hegumen of Voroneț Monastery. He is regarded as a saint and it was on his advice that Stephen the Great built the Putna monastery.

I’m learning all sorts of religious vocabulary on this trip. “Hesychasm” is a contemplative monastic tradition among the Eastern Christian traditions of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches in which stillness (hēsychia) is sought through uninterrupted prayer to Jesus. (I have to say that when I pray to Jesus, it’s rarely in a moment of stillness.)  “Hegumen” is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, or an archpriest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, similar to the title of abbot. Stay tuned for more arcane religious terminology, by the way.

After the hermitage, we headed back towards downtown Putna, with the next objective being further exploration of the handsome parish church we’d passed yesterday. In doing so, we passed a selection of the interesting and attractive houses in the village.

A short cut took us towards the church, past a promising entry in Google Maps, MishuCoffee, a small but perfectly-formed establishment where we stopped for a flat white. Another customer, a local, on hearing our Englishness, started chatting with us. He had worked for seven years in Wembley, “in construction” (i.e. a Romanian builder) and we had a pleasant few minutes talking to him before moving on.

The parish church seemed to be closed, but actually we were also interested in a building in its graveyard, a wooden church, formally dedicated to “Dragoş Vodă”, according to some commentaries the founder of Moldavia, who reigned in the middle of the 14th century.

It is dated from the early years of the 15th century, and tradition has it that it was brought by Stephen the Great from Volovăţ. It is the oldest and only medieval wooden church known in Romania. It was closed, so all we could do was to peek in through the windows.

The graveyard itself is a thing of beauty.

The parish church was closed, so we didn’t get a chance to look in, and instead moved on to the monastery, intent on looking inside the museum and the chuch there.

En route, we of course passed through the white portal that we first saw yesterday, but today stopped to look in more detail at the memorial beside it.

The memorial, consecrated in 2018, commemorates the Fântâna Albă massacre, which took place on 1 April 1941 in Northern Bukovina, which had been forcibly occupied by the Soviet Union under the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. A number (disputed but hundreds if not thousands) of Romanian villagers were killed by Soviet Border Troops as they attempted to cross the border from the Soviet Union to Romania near the village of Fântâna Albă (now Staryi Vovchynets in Ukraine). Many more of the area’s villagers were subsequently deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

In the monastery area itself, the church is an active one; there had been a service going on whilst we were there yesterday

and thus we couldn’t sensibly have gone in anyway. So, today we had the chance. Entering the doors takes you into the narthex – another new word for me. A narthex is the vestibule of a Christian church, typically located between the main door and the central nave. Historically, it served as a place for unbaptized people to stand and listen to the service, as they were not allowed in the nave.

This narthex is spectacular!

As you might infer from the state of the narthex, the church itself is a remarkable place.

It includes the tombs of Stephen the Great and his wife

The church is rather darker than the pictures show – the camera has allowed me to bring out the colours from the gloom.

We also went into the museum there. As one would expect, it has many devotional items on display: elaborately worked crosses;

icons;

a display of hand-crafted gospels from the 15th and 16th centuries, inscribed and illuminated on parchment;

and some extraordinarily elaborate embroidery work.

Here is a detail from the right-hand one above, which dates from 1510.

It’s astonishing to contemplate how something so elaborate, intricate and finely-crafted could come into being – the work of just three monks.

As you exit the museum, you see a pretty much life-size protrait of Stephen the Great himself.

That’s a fitting way to exit the museum, after which we headed back to the hotel, via a mini-market to buy some milk for the mugs of Twinings finest Earl Grey which would sustain us through the rainy afternoon to the point where we could decently go for an aperitif (slightly modified by the fact that we had drunk all their tonic yesterday, so it was gin and bitter lemon instead) and dinner. The rain had arrived during the afternoon, so our plan thus far is intact. Let’s see what tomorrow afternoon brings….

Zărnești to Putna – getting to the start of Phase III

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Tuesday 23 September 2025 – The start of the third and final phase of this trip was reached via a long car journey, as we had to travel 400km to the northernmost reaches of Romania. The delightful but incomprehensible Ioana had set up our breakfast for us prompt at 8am and so we had our various egg orders there for us, amid quite a spectacular spread, including little sausages, slices of bigger sausages, ham, various cheeses, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken goujons and some croquettes of some description. There was also bread and jam, so we were able to construct ourselves toast and tea to go with the eggs, and we left the rest of the spread substantially untouched. The lounge area is a nice place to breakfast in, anyway.

Prompt at 9, our driver arrived to whisk us away. He could speak English, but largely chose not to, instead concentrating on getting us to Putna, our destination, as efficiently as he could, allowing for three stops for breaks on the way. The stops were all at petrol stations, and I noticed with a little amusement the slightly old-fashioned nature of these places. They still offered squeegees at the pumps to clean the windscreens,

and the shops offered things that no self-respecting British service station offers any more:

stuff that motorists might actually need, like oil and windscreen wipers. One of the service stations had a guard cat.

On the way over, I contented myself with reading the papers (and dozing – Ed), and Jane tried to capture photos of the passing landscape – not easy when you’re whizzing past it at 80kph.

To start with, the scenery was distinctly agricultural,

as we were crossing a large (and, as you can see, very flat) plain. Corn or maize was a major crop, as were sunflowers, which, having flowered, were patiently lined up in the fields awaiting their doom.

Another major crop was potatoes, as evidenced by this not untypical lorry load.

There were also churches, of course,

various roadside decorations

and many interesting buildings, which were of course, vanishing into the distance behind as soon as one realised that there might have been a photo there if we’d been able to stop. Jane did register that several roofs featured the same sort of wooden tiling that had adorned the barn we’d seen as we left Măgura.

The towns featured, as one might expect, some unattractive communist-era apartment blocks, but Jane particularly noted that the rural villages appeared to have escaped unscathed; there were lots of buildings of wood or brick, which (while in some cases in need of renovation) displayed wonderful architectural details and ornamentation – including crosses on every possible high point – which we imagine might have characterised pre-communist Romania.

One signpost we passed outlined why we were headed on this long journey.

Keep reading. All will become clear in good time.

We got to Putna, which, incidentally, is less than 10km away from the border with Ukraine, at around 4.30pm and checked into our accommodation, the Pensiunea Mușatinii.

With time to kill before dinner, we decided we’d go for a walk. Obviously. The nice man on reception applauded this move on the basis that today’s nice summer weather was emphatically going to end tomorrow. So, off we went, with the main objective being, of course, to visit what Putna is best known for whilst the sun was shining,

En route, we passed the village’s very handsome church

and some attractive houses.

We puzzled a little as to what the thing was outside the house above – Jane had noted several of them in the towns and villages that we’d passed through. We walked by another one

and closer examination showed that it was a well.

Soon, we reached the gateway to Putnas’s main attraction:

and indeed its rather handsome portal.

In we went, and were greeted by this magnificent building.

This is the church part of Putna’s monastery. The monastery premises house this and several other photogenic corners.

The monastery was founded by Stephen the Great in 1466 and consecrated in 1470 as one of the first and most important monastic establishments of his reign. It houses Stephen’s own tomb along with those of his family and other Moldavian rulers. Over the centuries the monastery has suffered damage from fires, earthquakes and invasions, but it has been repeatedly rebuilt and strengthened, preserving its role as a stronghold of Orthodox faith and Moldavian culture. It’s one of several monasteries for which this area is well-known, among monastery buffs at least, and our plan over the coming days is to visit a few more, each of which has its own story to tell.

We wanted to get a brief look at the monastery while the weather was decent, hence the swift visit today. We got back to the hotel in the nick of time to get dinner before a coachload of bloody tourists arrived to cause utter bedlam.

Tomorrow, as the weather propects are uncertain, we plan to look inside the monastery’s church and museum. We may also get to see some of the other significant buildings around here. You’ll have to come back and find out.

Măgura to Zărnești – Enjoying the results of a good decision

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Monday 22 September 2025 – The utter correctness of our decision to ignore the extreme hike that was scheduled for the day became apparent almost immediately we got under way. Before that, though, we had a pleasantly leisurely start. The bathroom was a clear winner in the “Best Bathroom So Far This Trip” competition, and since breakfast didn’t start until 9am, we were able to take things nice and easy. At a few minutes after 9, we got down to the rather attractive terrace outside the building, to find a forest of upturned chair legs, but people fairly soon appeared and got things in order

and we had a decently eggy breakfast to set us up for the day’s walking.

We were joined by the family cat.

Romania seems to be a very cat-friendly country. Wherever we’ve gone, cats have been in evidence. There has been the usual plethora of dogs which spend their day (and night – Ed) barking at nothing – we suppose that this is just such a part of the local way of life that no-one really notices – so it has been lovely to see cats being such a part of the pattern of life here.

Although we weren’t doing the Well ‘Ard hike, we still had some 8km to cover to get to Zărnești, and set off a few minutes after 10am.

The overall direction of the route was downhill, descending some 300m in the 8km. However, although I felt fine walking along the straight and level, there were a couple of very gentle uphill stretches to start with, and it was immediately clear that my body hadn’t replaced the energy sapped from it by yesterday’s exertions – my legs felt leaden and uncooperative, such as when being asked to walk past a pub. However, these gentle uphill gradients were short, few and far between, and we could enjoy the great views in the lovely weather – glorious sunshine and temperatures around 20 Centigrade.

Măgura is a textbook example of a “Kalibash Village”, a uniquely Romanian development. Farms are scattered along ridges with these dramatic views over the Piatra Craiului mountains. The emphasis is on harmony with the land and self-sufficiency in the community. Just as well, frankly; it’s bloody miles from anywhere and the local shop

doesn’t look as if it keeps a ready supply of life’s necessities. The library is small, but perfectly formed

and there are no tarmac roads. It’s a lovely place, very strung out, with well-spaced houses. It was a 2km walk through the village from the church end, passing a couple of interesting buildings, such as this fairly modern place with a very traditional turf roof

and this barn, which had a very unusual texture to its walls.

On closer examination, the texture appears to come from wooden tiles

which are of an unusual shape. If of clay and on a house, I would call these hanging tiles, but these were clearly nailed into position.

It was right at the far end of the village that our route left the dirt road and headed off into the valley.

The sign says that it’s 15 minutes to the Zărnești gorges. The path leads clearly downhill and we were prepared for it to be steeply downhill. Just as well, as it was probably as steep in a couple of places as anything we’d encountered yesterday.

Being the misguided macho man that I am, I tried to cover this 100m vertical descent without using my poles. However, there were a couple of places where I really needed them, so I was glad to have them with me. It wasn’t all steep downhill

but most of it was, right down to the dirt road that leads to Zărnești.

The overall gradient we walked down (ChatGPT calculates for me) was 1 in 7, which doesn’t sound very steep, but I invite you to consult my knees for a second opinion on that.

At the bottom is a riverbed, which seemed dry, with a dirt road beside it.


The area is part of Piatra Craiului National Park, and had we done the Difficult Bastard Hike originally planned for the day we would have headed off up there, to toil up 600m and then down 900m over 15km – er no. Bollocks to that. We went down the dirt road instead. It seems to be popular as a destination for a stroll; we passed several people just walking about, and you can clearly get a car up the dirt road so you don’t have to walk too far.

We passed some mystery buildings

labelled “Danger!” and with other ominous signs outside.

We also passed the point where the Difficult Bastard Hike would have rejoined our route.

The national park has an information centre, with info boards telling you about some of the lovely wildlife you might find there, and

also some for which care is recommended. There was plenty of poo lying around on the track, of various sizes and consistencies. Because this wasn’t actually in the woods, we assumed that none of it was bear shit, but we could have been wrong, I suppose. Some of it clearly came from a couple of cows that were grazing in the margins.

As we approached the end of the dirt road and the start of the tarmac that leads into Zărnești

we were adopted by a friendly little kitten

which I think was hopeful that we could feed it. It certainly did the kitten thing, running around us and between our legs. It would have been ironic to have made it down two mountainsides without falling, only to be tripped up by a bloody kitten, but we made it intact into Zărnești and eventually the kitten stopped following us.  It was a cute little thing, and it seemed harsh to ignore it, but there was nothing we could do for it.

Zărnești is an attractive town, with a few local quirks: driveways with decorated gates;

a relaxed attitude to piping rainwater away from the houses;

some interesting chimneys;

a stork’s nest;

and several rats’ nests.

One restaurant has a quirky entrance

and another house has a very fine grapevine growing all over it.

Our accommodation, Maria’s Dream House, was by the roundabout that houses the town fountain

and appeared to be closed, as we might have expected – it was not yet 1pm. However, Jane optimistically rang the bell and the door was opened by the charming, vivacious and moderately polyglot Ioana. Her languages didn’t include English, so we used a mobile phone app to understand what the deal was, and a very nice place it is, too.

We had free rein in the kitchen, which could have been fantastic had our bags, with their useful supply of Twinings finest Earl Grey, turned up. So we satisfied ourselves with Nescafe and mint tea and settled down to relax until the bags arrived and we could have a Proper Cup Of Tea, after which it was time go out for a bite to eat.

We got a nice surprise when we did, too. Jane had identified a candidate restaurant. It was identified on Google Maps as “Pizzeria Family”, but had a real name of Orașul de Sub Munte – “The Restaurant Under the Mountain”. We walked up through the town, which is handsome

with its not necessarily oil-driven transport

and passed the church, dedicated to St. Nicolas,

at which point we decided, hungry as we were, that it might be worth looking in. The very elaborate door

seemed to have swung shut, but we dismissed this as merely caused by a gust of wind and looked in. Inside was a chap in overalls and

a quite extraordinary interior – beautifully decorated. The church is 600 years old, but has been renovated more than once; the main part in its current state dates from 200 years ago.

The chap inside was delighted to allow us to see the church and particularly its museum, which was in the 400 year-old chapel beside it, featuring some remarkable original frescoes.

Serendipity is a wonderful thing; we hadn’t known about the church and might not have looked in and might therefore not have met the deightful chap inside who was so proud of the church’s wonderful treasures.

We carried on to the restaurant, where we had a very fine meal, of mici (Jane) and pizza (me). We got chatting to a neighbouring couple, who were American but had Romanian family connections, which was a nice distraction from the service, which was, well, strange. The lass who was supposed to be looking after the tables seemed to be lost in the teenage thing of it being NOT FAIR that she had to do all this stuff; but the food was very good. And they had gin. So we had a nice time there before stumbling back to Maria’s Dream home, where we could have another Nice Cup Of Tea.

We have a very relaxed schedule for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, we will be whisked to Putna, some 400km further north. It’s a six-hour journey (at least, if our experience so far is anything to go by) and will deposit us in the area which is the main objective of our visit to Romania. The hiking bit is only a bluff really, and you’ll have to keep your eye on these pages to find out why we really came to Romania.