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This is a medieval monastery complex built in the village of Voroneț, which is today a district of Gura Humorului. The monastery is situated 36km from the Suceava municipality and only 4 km from the centre of the town of Gura Humorului. This is one of the most important constructions of Stephen the Great (1457-1504). The church was built in the year 1488 in only 3 months and 3 weeks, which is a record for that time. This place of worship is included in the UNESCO world heritage. The legend of the church origin brings together two great personalities of the Romanian national destiny: the founder of the monastery, Stephen the Great and the holy father Daniil Sihastrul, the first prior of the monastery. A holy candle which is always alight watches the tomb of the Saint Daniil Sihastrul, where the entire community of the monastery takes the blessing for the morning, after-noon and middle of the night sermons. The monastery church, which is small, with trefoil shape, having the tower with Moldavian arch on the nave, is one of the few monuments of religious architecture on the North of Moldavia which substantially retains its initial shape. In the year 1547, the Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca, a cousin of Petru Rareș, initiated the addition of a closed porch, for which he adopts an unique solution, in which the architecture is visibly subordinated to the painted background: the western wall of the porch is a full wall with no opening, as the painting on the external walls, from the bottom to the eaves, which gives the building a great brightness. The inner painting of the church dates back mostly to the time of Stephen the Great, the year 1496. The scenes from the sanctuary and the nave render the theological sense of the images, making a solemn assembly, with a clear monumental character. Among these interior paintings, the ones who draw attention are The Last Supper, The Communion of the Apostles, Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet (from the sanctuary), The Road to Calvary and the votive picture of Stephen the Great (in the nave). The external painting, which dates back the time of Petru Rareș, is considered the most successful assembly of Moldavian feudal art. The biblical faces depicted in this frescoes distinguish themselves through their live colours, similar to the ones in the surrounding nature in which green and blue prevails, through the widely unfolded composition of the different scenes. The west façade, with an impressive scene of the Final Judgement, comprises four registers: •At the top there is God the Father, the second register comprises the Deisis scene, surrounded by the apostles sitting on the chairs; •From the Saviour’s feet starts a river of fire in which the sinners find their ordeals: the third register is the Holy Spirit's Etimasia, in the form of a pigeon, the Holy Gospel and the protoparents of the Romanian people – to the north having a group of believers guided by the Holy Apostle Paul, and to the south the groups of non-believers being admonished by Moses; •In the middle of the forth register, there is the Balance weighing the good and the bad deeds, the fight between angels and demons for the souls; in the north side is the heaven, and in the south is the hell. A significant note of these frescoes is represented by the wealthy creative imagination of its makers which introduce folkloric elements into the composition (for instance the archangels who blow in alpenhorns, instruments used by the shepherds in the mountain regions). Inside the church, the stall and the pews of the XVIth century (among others there is a throne, a true masterpiece of wood sculpture), the grave of the metropolitan Grigorie Roșca, in the porch, the grave of the hermit Daniil Sihastrul in the narthex are retaining our attention.

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