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A princely house’s ruins are still visible on the northern side of establishment, as well as cells
for the monks. In that time the interior and exterior painting of the church have been done.
The church, dedicated to the “Resurrection of Lord Jesus”, was built in the Moldavian
architecture style which was consolidated under the rule of Prince Stephen the Great and Saint. Actually there is a harmonious blending of elements of Byzantine and
Gothic art, extended with architectural elements of the old wooden churches in Moldavia.
A characteristic of the painting at Sucevita it its prevailing narrative feature, as it presents
complete cycles of the lives of such saints as : St. Pachomius, St. John the New
of Suceava, St. Hierarch Nicholas, St. Martyr George, the Life of Moses, etc.,
depicted for educative purposes. The painters craft and gift are obvious
especially in the treatment of elaborate perspectives, of the post-Byzantine
artistic space in this part of Europe. The fresco painting was done by two Moldavian painters, Ioan Zugravul and his brother,
Sofronie and it is preserved in its original form.
The iconography of the interior and exterior painting sticks to the tradition developed in the
early half of the 16th century - the time of Petru Rares. It also introduces
some new themes, of a dogmatic-theological nature, such as the scenes in the
nave shell, representing the liturgical hymn “Thou, One Born…” and other
representations of the Holy Trinity.
The votive painting, featuring the whole family of Ieremia Movila, unfolds on the left side
of the nave door; on the opposite side there is the other votive painting,
featuring Metropolitan Gheorghe Movila, who started the building of the church,
as well as the father of the Movila brothers, Ioan Movila, who, before turning
monk, in his old years, by the name of Ioanichie, had been a high chancellor.
The nave painting features “The life of Jesus Christ the Savior- the Miracles and Passions”.
The exterior painting of the Sucevita Monastery is the best preserved one of the group of
Moldavian churches with exterior painting the only one that preserves its
northern side, where “The Ladder of Virtues” is represented the most impressive
scene, due to its wide scale and to the contrast between the order of the angels
and the chaos of the hell. The scene features the fight between the good and the
evil, man’s effort to step up toward perfection, in order to regain his figure,
lost through sin.
On the walls of the three apses, in seven registers, there unfolds “The Prayer of All Saints”, a
singular theme n the Christian Orthodox art, a creation of the Moldavian
painting school.
The southern side is decorated with “The Stem of Jesse” which is based on the ancient
philosophers, “The Annunciation Hymn”, “The Burning Bush” and “The Veil of the
Virgin Mary”. The mural painting at Sucevita, considered by French art
researcher Paul Henry to be “the testament of the Moldavian Art”, rounds off the
era of the great creations-the 16th century- whose monuments of exterior
painting at Humor, Moldovita, Arbore and Voronet, represent masterpieces of the world art.
In the burial chamber rest in peace the two brothers and princes, Ieremia and princes, Ieremia
and Simion Movila, whose tombstones, carved in Romanian marble of Ruschita,
represent artistic values of the Romanian medieval sculpture.
The Sucevita Monastery possesses a collection of objects of real artistic and cultural value,
on display in the current museum, formerly the monastery’s council chamber, on
the western side of the precincts. Among the exhibits, outstanding are several
embroideries of an exceptional value, dating from the 15th-16th centuries, from
the time of Stephen the Great and Ieremia Movila, made in gold, silver, silk and pearls. The most important
pieces are the portraits of Ieremia and Simion Movila and an epitaph with
pearls, the Four Gospels in gilded silver binding, a casket donated by
Metropolitan Gheorghe Movila.
The iconostasis or the shrine screen that separates the sanctuary from the nave was carved in yew,
in the baroque-rococo style, in 1801.
In the cultural-artistic ensemble of the Sucevita Monastery, the visitor anxious to
know the medieval art of the 15th-16th centuries finds also wood and stone
carvings, embroideries, illuminated manuscripts and silver objects.
Thanks to its complex value and especially to its cultural religious educative role, the fame
of the Sucevita Monastery has long gone beyond the country’s frontiers. This
splendid gem of the Romanian Orthodoxy stands finely among the world culture
masterpieces.
The Sucevita Monastery, that has for four centuries stood proof, by the mountain foot, to the
Romanians ancestral belief and history, will endure over more centuries, keeping
alive the torch of the Romanian Orthodox spirituality.
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