The Agapia Monastery was built in 1642. It is one of the largest monasteries of nuns in Romania, where over 300 nuns live. Outside the monastery, there are 141 houses built in the traditional style of mountain areas. The porch, the wooden columns, the stone are recurring elements of these houses. They are 150-200 years old, which confirms the special historical or artistic value.
Here live a large part of the nuns who chose the spiritual life at this monastery.
Because they were always asked what life is like at the monastery, one of the beautifully arranged houses was opened for visiting, with construction specific to mountain areas. This house is called the Vivant Museum.
For 160 years the monastery and the surrounding houses were inhabited by monks, and later, at the wish of Metropolitan Veniamin Costache of Moldova, who wanted to set up a seminar for priests at the Socola Monastery in Iași, it was inhabited by a group of 50 nuns. They took the place of the monks, attesting also the first school for nuns where Greek language and the crafts of weaving and embroidery were learned. In 1949, the four-year seminary, where girls from all the monasteries from the Moldova area came to attend was set up. In the monastery village, Mother Elisabeta Strajescu built a cottage with a porch where the writer Alexandru Vlahuță or the painter Nicolae Grigorescu often came.
Discipline, tranquility and emotional loading are unique things that we find in the well-cared-for houses of the nuns around the monastery.
These make a walk through the narrow streets a unique, relaxing experience. You will rarely meet a nun, as everyone has their own obedience during a day. At any time of the year you come, the streets and houses have a special charm.