Rătești Monastery is a monastery of

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

nuns located in

Berca Berca is a commune located in the hillside of Buzău County, Muntenia, Romania, in the valley of the river Buzău. It is an oil and natural gas extraction location. The commune is composed of thirteen villages: Băceni, Berca, Cojanu, Joseni, Mân ...

Commune,

Buzău County Buzău County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Buzău. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 432,054 and the population density was 70.7/km ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, on the left bank of the

Buzău River Buzău (; formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu'') is a city in the historical region of Muntenia, Romania, and the county seat of Buzău County. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Car ...

History

The monastery was erected by the

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

family of Dragomir, an army captain. The oldest known document relating to it is a donation deed, dated 6 May 1634. At the time, it was a monastery of

monks A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

. Because of the lack of monks, the monastery went deserted in 1752, and in 1760 was revived as community of nuns. As of 2006, about 75 nuns live there. It is deserted since 2014 following a landslide. A smaller monastery has been built across the road.

Architecture

The monastery church was built in a mixed neoclassical and local ecclesiastical style. It was painted in 1843–1844 by Nicolae Teodorescu and his nephew

Gheorghe Tattarescu Gheorghe Tattarescu (; October 1818 – October 24, 1894) was a Moldavian, later Romanian painter and a pioneer of neoclassicism in his country's modern painting. Biography Early life and studies Tattarescu was born in Focşani in 1818. ...

. The bell tower, erected by Dionisie Romano in 1854, was re-designed and reduced in height to 18 meters in 1894, when it was rebuilt after an earthquake.

The museum

The compound includes a museum, near the water-well (which dates from 1911). The museum was opened in 1975, in a wide hall painted in 1859 by a monk from the nearby

Ciolanu Monastery Ciolanu Monastery is a monastery of Eastern Orthodox monks, located in Tisău commune, Buzău County, Romania. It was erected around 1570 by Dumitru Ciolanu, a boyar from Buzău, whose name it bears, together with the Sorescu boyar family from t ...

. It exhibits a multi-language Bible printed in 1629 in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. The visitors can also see a fragment of the original 1688

Bucharest Bible The Bucharest Bible (), also known as the Cantacuzino Bible, was the first complete translation of the Bible into the Romanian language, published in Bucharest in 1688. It was ordered and patronized by Șerban Cantacuzino, then- ruler of Wallachi ...

, the first edition translated into

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, along with the anniversary reprint of the Bucharest Bible from 1988. Other items on display are numerous icons painted on wood or glass, as well as gold and silver-thread

embroidery Embroidery is the art of decorating Textile, fabric or other materials using a Sewing needle, needle to stitch Yarn, thread or yarn. It is one of the oldest forms of Textile arts, textile art, with origins dating back thousands of years across ...

Gallery

Image:Manastirea_ratesti_3.jpg, Rătești Monastery Image:Manastirea_ratesti_8.jpg, Outside view from Rătești Monastery Image:Manastirea_ratesti_6.jpg, Wall picture from Rătești Monastery Image:Manastirea_ratesti_7.jpg, Wall picture from Rătești Monastery

External links

*
The Rătești monastery web-site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratesti Monastery Romanian Orthodox monasteries of Wallachia Historic monuments in Buzău County Museums in Buzău County Religious museums in Romania 17th-century Romanian Orthodox monasteries