Neamt Monastery

The Neamț Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox religious settlement, one of the oldest and most important of its kind in Romania. It was built in 15th century during Ştefan cel Mare's reign, and it is an example of medieval Moldavian architecture. The church – considered a masterpiece of romanian architecture – has suffered along the time many modifications generated, on one side by the impact of time (earthquakes, fire, wars) and on other side by taste changing. In 1954 decision was taken to start restoration works here. The project, coordinated by the Direction of Historical Monuments (DMI) was commissioned to the most illustrious of restoration architects, Stefan Bals that received a scholarship in Rome (1928-1930) to study restoration. At that time, the church was dressed up in a neogothic garment and a neobaroque roof of the steeple. At the end of XVIII century in premises of the monastery was built a SF Gheorghe church, a neoclassical construction. We must highlight that the restoration architects worked under Athens Charter, so they approved the fact that XIX century architecture has no value so it can disappear. Stefan Bals choses a measure that we consider (we’re not the only ones) a gesture of history understanding. Because the presence of Sf Gheorghe church was distorting seriously the proportion between the old church and monastery enclosure, Stefan Bals propose to unbuild from the yard and rebuild the new church on the defensive surrounding construction, on the same direction from entrance, as it had initially. The memory of initial location was kept by marking on the court plan the footprint of the moved church. Through this operation, it illustrates at superlative the direction that Romanian restoration school fallows, adding it a new valence. In this way, the church from Stefan cel Mare period, was brought to its primary shape.