Sucevița Monastery
The last of the painted churches and the most heavily fortified — a monastery inside real defensive walls, carrying a Ladder of Virtue thirty-two rungs high.
- How long to allow
- About an hour
- Best for
- Anyone who wants the fortress and the frescoes together
The background
Sucevița is the one that looks like a castle, because it partly is. It was founded in 1581 by Gheorghe Movilă, then Bishop of Rădăuți, and enlarged by his brother Ieremia — a ruling prince of Moldavia — who added the ramparts and corner towers that give the complex its shape. It served as a princely residence as well as a monastery.
It was also the last of the painted churches. The exterior frescoes were finished in the first years of the 1600s, and after Sucevița nobody built another one.
The Ladder of Virtue
The north wall carries the image the monastery is known for. Thirty-two rungs climb diagonally across the wall, each one a monastic virtue. Ranks of red-winged angels attend the monks who are making it up; on the other side of the ladder, those who are not fall through the rungs into a dense and busy hell.
It is unusually well preserved, and the north wall is the reason — the face that takes the worst weather at every other painted church here is the one that has survived best at this one.
Where it sits
Sucevița is the furthest of the main group from Suceava, up a valley towards the Ukrainian border, and it is the one most often dropped from a rushed day trip. Dropping it is the wrong economy: the walls, the towers and the Ladder together make it the most complete thing to see in Bucovina.
Prefer to have the route organised for you?
Guided private trips and custom itineraries are arranged externally, with a local driver-guide.
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