Big Church

In a short period of time Anastasie Crimca succeeds into climbing the steps of the Orthodox priest hierarchy in Moldavia and while he was the Bishop of Roman(city in Moldavia) he begins the building of a large church and by the finish of its construction he was already great Bishop (Mitropolit) of Moldavia.

In the year 1609 the big church of the Dragomirna monastery has already been built and blessed on the 1st of September with the “hram” (titular saint of a church) The Descending of the Holy Spirit. There is no “pisanie” (inscription on the walls of a church, caved or painted, containing the name of the founder and important dates) in the new church, considering maybe that the one in the old church is enough.

Still, as the famous will, better said curse, Crimca left behind in 1610, states that the Bishop considers Stroici as the founder.

The elements that the building bases itself upon are Traditional and respect the Moldavian style, also borrowing certain ascendancies from the countries nearby, although the style at Dragomirna bears it own specificity unseen before anywhere else.

The architectural plan describes a large building, with no lateral apses, as many of the 16th century churches have, with a threshold, Preaisle, Aisle and an Altar, resembling the plan of Saint George’s church in Suceava. However, certain elements make Dragomirna church unique, having the polygonal apse towards the West, as has the church in Bălineşti. What is truly surprising in Dragomirna church is its unsusual size.

The tendacy of introducing certain elevation into the architecture of the 16th century churches transforms Dragomirna into an unique structure, its hight being excessive into comparison with its breadth. The church measures 35 m endlong, 9.5 m in breadth and a hight of approximately 42 m.

The great historian Nicolae Iorga in his work “The Romanian People in Bucovina” speaks about the beauty of Dragomirna: “Seing the church brings so much joy. It stands tall and blunt resembling a reliquary and is one of the most brilliant monuments of our old architecture and for Crimca it is a title of his eternal glory.”.

While the churches built during Steven the Great’s reign are characterized by an outer decoration of the walls based of varying the bricks-simple or glazed, the whole building being enriched by colourful ceramic discs and are famous for their outer painting, the Dragomirna monastery opens a new road in architecture, mainly concentrated upon conditioning stone-used for elevating the sanctuary.

La Dragomirna faţadele bisericii mari sunt lucrate din piatră brută, însă pilaştrii cărora le revine aici deosebitul rol decorativ, sunt alcătuiţi din blocuri de piatră cioplită şi şlefuită. Porniţi de pe un soclu puternic, destul de ridicat şi mult ieşit în afară, pereţii sunt împărţiţi în două spre mijlocul înălţimii lor de un brâu torsadă de piatră ce înmănunchiază trei tori răsuciţi alternativ ca o funie.

Originea acestui element decorativ trebuie căutată în Georgia şi Armenia, regiuni ale căror influenţe artistice, au pătruns încă din secolul al XVI-lea până în Ţara Românească la cunoscuta ctitorie a lui Neagoe Basarab de la Curtea de Argeş; însă la Dragomirna tradiţia spune că mitropolitul Crimca l-ar fi aşezat aici cu o semnificaţie aparte: simbol al celor trei virtuţi creştineşti, Credinţă, Nădejde şi Dragoste, simbol al Sfintei Treimi şi ca un îndemn lăsat urmaşilor ca prin unitatea de credinţă ortodoxă în Sfânta Treime, românii din cele Trei Principate să rămână uniţi peste veacuri. Pilaştrii relativ masivi şi laţi, ritmic distribuiţi pe faţadele laterale, iar doi dintre ei aşezaţi în axul bisericii, întărită la bază cu contraforturi, sunt legaţi între ei sub cornişă prin două şiruri de arcaturi, din care unul puţin reliefat faţă de suprafaţa zidului, iar celălalt bogat ornamentat cu modele florale. Chenarele acestor ferestre ca şi uşa pridvorului conţin unele elemente de factură gotică. Astfel arcurile în acoladă încadrate în rame dreptunghiulare, cu baghete încrustate la colţuri de la ferestrele naosului şi ale pronaosului şi de la uşi, amintesc de împodobirea influenţată de gotic din veacul anterior, pe când ferestrele pridvorului mai mari şi în arc frânt cu menouri şi cu lunete ajurate sunt ecouri de gotic târziu moldovenesc.

Dar folosindu-ne de cuvintele marelui istoriograf  Nicolae Iorga, frumuseţea de nedescris a Dragomirnei, o reprezintă turla, giuvaerul acesta lucrat cu iubire fără de margini, care e împodobit cu o mare bogăţie de podoabe. Trandafiraşii de piatră sunt răspândiţi darnic înflorind orice colţişor şi astfel întreaga turlă pare un rug de floare învoalată. Nota puţin exotică întâlnită pentru prima oară în arhitectura Moldovei, în decorul dăltuit în piatră al turlei bisericii mari a Dragomirnei, se va transforma după trei decenii într-o trăsătura caracteristică la Biserica Sfiinţii Trei Ierarhi din Iaşi ale cărei faţade sunt în întregime acoperite cu broderie de piatră. Sculptura decorativă de la turla este de o mare bogăţie, varietate şi măiestrie.

At Dragomirna the outer walls are made of coarse stone, but the pillars that have a decorational purpose are made of grinded and conditioned stone. The walls on an elevated ground are devided into two and at crossed at the middle by a rope moulding, resembling a rope, a decoration which can be seen in many of the churches and its origin dates back from Georgia and Armenia, regions that shared their artistic influence in the 16th century in Ţara Românească for the well-known church founded by Neagoe Basarab-Curtea de Arges. 

But in the case of Dragomirna the legend says that the Bishop Crimca placed the element with a very specific reason: it represents a symbol of the three Christian virtues, faith, hope and love, symbol of the Holy Trinity and as an advice left for the future comers that to unite themselves in one single country (Romania used to be devided into three regions Moldavia, Ţara Românească and Transilvania) and remain united till the end of time. 

The pillars, realatively massive and wide, rhythmically distributed on the lateral façade and two of them placed on the axis of the church, streghtened at its base with an abutment and tied to each other under a cornice through two arches, from which one is bold and the other is richly ornamented with floral elements. The frames of the windows, as well as the threshold’s door contain some elements of Gothic inspiration. Thus the arches in the shape of an accolade, framed by squares, with certain elements at their edges remind us of the Gothic style characterstics in the former century, when the threshold’s windows, which were larger and had a Gothic arch became adopted by the Moldavian architectural style. However, if we consider the words of the great historiographer Nicolae Iorga, the undescribable beauty of Dragomirna consists of its steeple, the treasure which has been built using great artscraft and love. The stone roses are spread all over the steeple offering the impression of a flowery stake. The slightly exotic hint that can be seen in Dragomirna’s architecture is the one that would later be replied in every Moldavian church, the stone embroidery, also seen at the façade of the church The Three Hierarchs in Iaşi. The ornamented sculpture on the steeple is of great richness and mastery. We find a great variety of elements, geometrical and vegetal, stylistic rosaces, stars made out of two dimonds, squares or other shapes. The impression of embroidery is obtained through the technic used in sculpture of the steeple on one single plan, almost flat. This ornamentation is very special and separates the steeple from the rest of the assembly, enriching the whole monastery with an unique element, as an emblem.