Svensky Monastery (Russian: Свенский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox monastery located at the confluence of the Desna and Sven Rivers, three miles from Bryansk, Russia. The monastery was originally known as Svinsky, after the Svin River, but the spelling was subsequently changed to Svensky, because "svinsky" also means "of the swine" in Russian.
Church legends attribute the monastery's foundation to Prince Roman of Bryansk, who was reportedly buried there. As the legend has it, the monastery was founded to mark the place where a miraculous icon of the Theotokos appeared to Roman, the second son of St. Mikhail of Chernigov, and cured him of blindness. A tree where it was found, was chopped down to be used for icon painting.
The miraculous icon represents the Theotokos Panachrantos with SS. Anthony and Theodosius. It is popularly attributed to the most celebrated icon-painter of Kievan Rus, St. Alypius from the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. Nikodim Kondakov supposed that the icon was modeled on a mosaic from the central conch of the Assumption Cathedral in the Pechersk Monastery.

In the 16th century, the monastery was repeatedly sacked by the Crimean Tatars. After one such raid, Ivan the Terrible donated funds sufficient to build a cathedral of five domes, a refectory church, and a belltower. The cathedral doors of rare craftsmanship were endowed by Prince Ivan Mstislavsky. The church of SS. Anthony and Theodosius was started on 19 May 1566; its vaults suffered a collapse a year later but were restored.
After Russia gained the Left-bank Ukraine by the Treaty of Andrusovo, the liveliest fair in the region was held annually underneath the walls of the Svensky Monastery. Its ties with the Kiev Pechersk Lavra were so close that in 1682 the Svensky Monastery was transformed into a branch of the lavra, its name changed from Svensky to New Pechersk monastery.
During this period of Ukrainian domination, Cossack Baroque was liberally applied to its buildings. The Presentation Church, rising in three towers above the main entrance to the abbey, was erected in the late 1680s in the simplified Ukrainian Baroque style. The main cathedral was rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1715. The ancient clocktower was built up to the height of 42 meters. The Saviour Church over the fair gates was constructed in five levels, ringed by a gallery, in 1742. The walls of the monastery were erected between 1749 and 1769.
On 30 July 1749 work started on the new cathedral, which was to be modeled on the New Cathedral of the Donskoi Monastery in Moscow. It is believed that its design was commissioned from Ivan Fyodorovich Michurin, who had supervised construction of St Andrew's Church of Kiev. The cathedral of the Svensky Monastery was reminiscent of another structure ascribed to Michurin — St. Clement's Church in Zamoskvorechye. A seven-tier Baroque iconostasis from the old cathedral was carefully preserved and assembled in the new structure before it was consecrated in 1758.
There was no new construction in the monastery after that. In the 19th century, the cloister declined, especially after the fair had been moved to Bryansk in 1864. A garden of cedars, chestnuts, and cherry-trees was planted to mark its historical location. The Bolsheviks closed the monastery in 1926. Its valuables were expropriated, while the miraculous icon of the Theotokos was given to the Tretyakov Gallery. Michurin's cathedral was blown up; the Church of SS. Anthony and Theodosius (the oldest in the complex) reduced to rubble; the house where Peter the Great stayed before the Battle of Poltava torn down. It was not until the late 1980s that conservation works on the remaining structures started. The monks were readmitted into the monastery in 1992.


The Velika Remeta Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Велика Ремета, romanized: Manastir Velika Remeta) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in the village of Velika Remeta on the mountain Fruška Gora in northern Serbia. It is one of several monasteries of Fruška Gora. Traditionally, its founding is linked to King Stefan Dragutin. The earliest historical records about the monastery date to 1562. It was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia.


The traditional story of the monastery's founding says that, during a journey to the Holy Land, the ship transporting Saint Andrew went off course and struck rocks here. On coming ashore, Andrew hit the rocks with his staff, at which point a spring gushed forth. The waters proved to have healing powers and restored the sight of the ship's captain who had been blind in one eye. Thereafter, the site became a place of pilgrimage. A fortified monastery stood here in the 12th century, from which Isaac Komnenos negotiated his surrender to Richard the Lionheart. In the 15th century, a small chapel was built close to the shore. The church of the main monastery dates to the 18th century, while the main buildings are 100 years later.
Mass pilgrimage, however, is only comparatively recent, dating back to the 20th century. The story is told that in 1895 the son of Maria Georgiou was kidnapped. Seventeen years later, Saint Andrew appeared to her in a dream, telling her to pray for her son's return at the monastery. Living in Anatolia, she embarked on the crossing to Cyprus on a very crowded boat. Telling her story during the journey, one of the passengers, a young Dervish priest became more and more interested. Asking if her son had any distinguishing marks, and on hearing of a pair of birthmarks, he stripped off his clothes to reveal the same marks, and mother and son were reunited.
After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the number of pilgrims to the monastery dwindled, but with the opening of crossing points in 2004 more pilgrims have begun to visit the monastery. The monastery has fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years, and UN funding is in place to pay for refurbishment.


Apostolos Andreas Monastery (Greek: Απόστολος Ανδρέας; Turkish: Apostolos Andreas Manastırı)  is a monastery situated just south of Cape Apostolos Andreas, the north-easternmost point of the island of Cyprus, in Rizokarpaso in the Karpass Peninsula. The monastery is dedicated to Saint Andrew and is an important site for the Cypriot Orthodox Church. It was once known as "the Lourdes of Cyprus", served not by an organized community of monks but by a changing group of volunteer priests and laymen. Both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities consider the monastery a holy place. As such it is visited by many people for votive prayers. The contents of the monastery are also noteworthy.


The Liplje Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Липље, romanized: Manastir Liplje) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Annunciation and located in the Municipality of Teslić in northern Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stands at the widest part of a narrow gorge through which a little river named Bistrica flows. The earliest mention of the monastery is found in a chronicle dated to the second half of the 15th century. During the 17th century, the monks of Liplje were active in transcribing religious books.
At some point during the Great Turkish War (1683–1699), the monastery was burned down by the Ottomans. Surviving monks fled north across the Sava River and found refuge in the Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia. They brought with them a number of their manuscript books, which thus became part of the Orahovica library.
Unlike the nearby Stuplje Monastery, Liplje was not razed to the ground. Its church was partially repaired so that it could serve as the parish church for the surrounding area. After Ottoman authorities permitted it, the church was restored between 1867 and 1879. The works were mostly funded through donations by the Serb population of the area. Remains of the church's old frescoes were carefully collected and buried beside its wall. In 1922, a bell tower was added at its western side. Almost three hundred years after the monastic community ceased to exist at the church, the Liplje Monastery was re-established in 1965. It was renovated in the 1980s, when the bell tower was removed.


The monastery was founded in the 13th century. At the end of the 14th century, when Urvich, Sredets the whole region of Sofia fell under Ottoman rule, the monastery was destroyed. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was abandoned definitively but was restored in the 17th century. Written records, the oldest one from 1671, testify that there was a school in the monastery with a teacher Yakim from Sofia and students from Sofia and the surrounding villages. In 1671-1694 there was a literary and calligraphic school. In 1737 the monastery became a centre of the Uprising of the bishops of Sofia and Samokov. It was quelled in late July and early August 1737. By an order of Ali Pasha Kyupryulyuoglu, some 350 Sofia citizens, priests, monks and people from the surrounding villages were killed, including bishop St. Simeon of Samokov. After the participation of monks in the Uprising, the Monastery of Sveti Spas was destroyed again by the Turks.


The monastery is located at 5 km south-east from the former village of Dolni Lozen (today the eastern part of Lozen), near Sofia, deep in the bowers of the Lozen Mountain under the Polovrak peak (1182 m), on a natural terrace with views of the Sofia Valley.


The Betania Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God (Georgian: ბეთანიის ყოვლადწმინდა ღვთისმშობლის შობის მონასტერი) commonly known as Betania or Bethania (ბეთანია [bɛtʰania]) is a medieval Georgian Orthodox monastery in eastern Georgia, 16 km (9.9 mi) southwest of Tbilisi, the nation's capital. It is a remarkable piece of architecture of the Georgian Golden Age of the Kingdom of Georgia, at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, and is notable for its wall paintings which include a group portrait of the contemporary Georgian monarchs.


Construction began during the reign of Alexander Ypsilanti (1774–1782) and was completed by Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes (1786–1790) during the Phanariote age also called the Greek origin government of Wallachia. It was built in neoclassical style, and was considered very large for that time: 43 meters long and 18 high, with walls 1 and 2 meters thick. The structure was completed under the rule of Mavrogenes between April 1786 and September 1790.
The church was meant to be one of the most important places of worship for Romania, but that never happened. The monastery was abandoned during the plague in the reign of Alexander Ypsilanti.
Other sources say that work on the monastery began in 1792, but was abandoned during the time of plague, when the prince was Mihai Suțu.
The tower collapsed in the earthquake of 1977.
The monastery is featured in the video for Ava Inferi's "Majesty".


Chiajna Monastery is the name of a ruined church situated on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania which is the subject of many legends, including the story that it is cursed. The information centre, Giulești Park, is devoted to the upkeep and protection of the building, which is a national heritage site.


The monastery was first built in AD 586, during the Sui Dynasty. Its original name was Longcang monastery (simplified Chinese: 龙藏寺; traditional Chinese: 龍藏寺; pinyin: Lóngcáng Sì). One of the oldest stelas on the grounds of the monastery, the "Longcangsi Stele" (simplified Chinese: 龙藏寺碑; traditional Chinese: 龍藏寺碑; pinyin: Lóngcáng Sì Bēi), dates from the year the monastery's foundation. Much of it was reconstructed during the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279). Today, the Longxing Temple is open to the public as a museum.


The Hall of Dajueliushi (simplified Chinese: 大觉六师殿; traditional Chinese: 大覺六師殿; pinyin: Dàjué Lìushī Diàn) is the second hall of the monastery and should have been the main hall (if it didn't collapse), located right to the north of the Hall of Four Heavenly Kings. This hall is dedicated to the six mentors of Shakyamuni, namely Vipassī Buddha, Sikhī Buddha, Vessabhū Buddha, Kakusandha Buddha, Koṇāgamana Buddha and Kasyapa Matanga. In Chinese, the "liushi" (六师) part in its name means "six mentors". There was a statue of Shakyamuni himself accompanied by six statues of the six mentors in the hall and over a hundred small statues of the Arhats and Bodhisattvas. So the locals also refer to this hall as "the hall of the seven buddhas".
The hall was built in the Yuanfeng Period in the Song Dynasty (AD 1078-1085) with the hip roof style, which is the highest level of roof styles in ancient China. In the following centuries, it was restored several times. In the early years of the Republic of China, it collapsed due to poor maintenance and war. Now only the stone platform exists, on which the wooden structure stood in history.
The hall is nine Jian (simplified Chinese: 间; traditional Chinese: 間, the space between two columns on the façade) by six Jians (53.35m by 35.2m), covering 1,878 square metres (20,210 sq ft), which is slightly larger than the largest existing Buddhist hall in China, the Main Hall of Fengguo Temple. Nine was the largest number allowed for the Jians of Buddhist halls in the hierarchy system in ancient China. The Hall of "Dajueliush", if still existing, should be the largest and highest-level Buddhist hall all over China.


Rheinau Abbey (Kloster Rheinau) was a Benedictine monastery in Rheinau in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland, founded in about 778 and suppressed in 1862. It is located on an island in the Rhine.


Alaverdi Monastery (Georgian: ალავერდის მონასტერი) is a Georgian Eastern Orthodox monastery located 25 km (16 mi) from Akhmeta, in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia. While parts of the monastery date back to 6th century, the present day cathedral was built in the 11th century by Kvirike III of Kakheti, replacing an older church of St. George. It is considered one of the four Great Cathedrals of the Georgian Orthodox world.


The monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph (Yoseb, Amba) Alaverdeli, who came from Antioch and settled in Alaverdi, then a small village and former pagan religious center dedicated to the Moon. At a height of over 55 m (180 ft), Alaverdi Cathedral was the tallest religious building in Georgia, until the construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, which was consecrated in 2004. However its overall size is smaller than the cathedral of Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta. The monastery is the focus of the annual religious celebration Alaverdoba. Situated in the heart of the world's oldest wine region, the monks also make their own wine, known as Alaverdi Monastery Cellar. The cellar has been dated to between the 10th and 12th centuries.


WikiWeb_Basilica of Saint Martin, Tours_0

The Basilica of St. Martin is a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, over whose tomb it was built. It is located in Tours, France.
The first basilica was established here in the 5th century (consecrated in 471) on the site of an earlier chapel. It was at first served by a community of monks under an abbot, the Abbot of St Martin, who between 796 and 804 was Alcuin, the adviser of Charlemagne. Shortly before this the monastic establishment was changed to a collegiate church manned by a community of canons, but the office and title of abbot persisted.
The mediaeval basilica was completely demolished during the French Revolution. The present church was built between 1886 and 1924 by French architect Victor Laloux in a neo-Byzantine style, on part of the site of the original basilica which was repurchased by the Church. It was dedicated on July 4, 1925.


According to the legend, the monastery was built in the 13th century (1224), when Kievan Rus knyaz Georgi Glozh settled in the area with Ivan Asen II's approval. The knyaz founded a monastery carrying the name of St George, whose icon he had brought with himself. The icon then disappeared numerous times only to be found on a hill not far from the village of Glozhene, which was interpreted by the monks as a divine sign to move the monastery there. This was eventually done near the end of the 14th century. The two monasteries existed in parallel for a short time, being connected by a tunnel to each other, but the tunnel, used many times by Vasil Levski during his secret missions, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1928.
The monastery church was erected after the creation of the monastery in the 14th century, but was destroyed by another earthquake in 1913 along with its frescoes. The modern church was constructed in 1951 on the grounds of the old one.


The Glozhene Monastery (Bulgarian: Гложенски манастир [ˈɡɫɔʒɛnski manɐsˈtir]) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located on the northern slopes of Stara Planina in Bulgaria, near the village of Glozhene and the Cherni Vit river, 12 km from Teteven.


Otkhta (Georgian: ოთხთა, Turkish: Dörtkilise) is a 10th-century Georgian monastery which was built in 961–965 by Davit Kurapalat and renewed in 978–1001. Georgian monastery and cathedral church  located in Dörtkilise, the town of Yusufeli, Artvin Province, Turkey.
Otkhta is one of the large cathedrals in Tao-Klarjeti, with Oshki, Ishkhani and khakhuli, and one version that is why it is called Otkhta, which means in English "from fourth".


The Katskhi Monastery of Nativity of the Savior  (Georgian: კაცხის მაცხოვრის შობის სახელობის მონასტერი), more commonly known as the Katskhi Monastery (კაცხის მონასტერი) is a medieval monastery in Georgia, located in the village of Katskhi near the town of Chiatura. It was built at the behest of the Baguashi family in the period of 988–1014. The church building is noted for a hexagonal design and rich ornamentation. Closed down by the Soviet government in 1924, the monastery was revived in 1990 and is now operated by the Eparchy of Sachkhere and Chiatura of the Georgian Orthodox Church.


The Katskhi monastery is located in the medieval district of Argveti, later part of Imereti. It was built in honor of the Holy Trinity at the behest of the late 10th-century nobleman Rati, of the house of Liparitids (Baguashi), who settled down in Argveti c. 988 after losing his stronghold of Kldekari to the Georgian Bagratids. The construction was completed around 1010–1014 in the reign of King Bagrat III of Georgia as suggested by a tympanum inscription over the south-western entrance. In the following centuries, Katskhi served as a familial abbey and burial ground for the Liparitids. According to the Georgian chronicles, the once-powerful Liparit IV was buried there after his death in exile in the Byzantine Empire.
After the downfall of the Liparitid dynasty in the 11th century, the Katskhi monastery fell into oblivion. It reemerged from obscurity early in the 16th century, when Katskhi was granted by Bagrat III of Imereti to Prince Abulaskhar Amirejibi, who renovated the church and restored it to Christian use as the monastery of the Savior. By 1627, Katskhi appears in possession of the princely family of Abashidze, a member of which attained to the crown of Imereti as George VI from 1702 to 1707 and was buried at the Katskhi monastery after his death in exile in Tbilisi. The monastery was closed down by the Soviet authorities in 1924 and became functional again in 1990.
The Katskhi monastery was also a vibrant center of Christian culture. Surviving medieval icons and manuscripts formerly held at Katskhi are preserved in the museums of Tbilisi.


Although of smaller dimensions than the southern doorway, this is the most important door to the Jerónimos because of its ornamentation and its position in front of the main altar. This western portal is a good example of the transition from the Gothic style to Renaissance. It was built by Nicolau Chanterene in 1517. This was probably his first commission in Portugal. It is now spanned by a vestibule, added in the 19th century, that forms a transition between the church and the ambulatory.
In the tympanum there are scenes from the birth of Christ: from the left to right: the Annunciation (of the angel indicating to Maria that she would give birth); the Nativity (the birth of the Christ child); and the Epiphany (the adoration of the magi). Two angels hold the arms of Portugal, close to the archivolt. The splays on each side of the portal are filled with statues, among them are statues of King Manuel I and Queen Maria of Aragón kneeling in a niche under a lavishly decorated baldachin, flanked by their patrons: Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, respectively. The supporting corbels are decorated with little angels holding the coat-of-arms and, at the side of the king, an armillary sphere and, at the side of the queen, three blooming twigs. Renaissance elements include angels in Roman garb, cherubs, the detail and realism of the kings and the nude study of Saint Jerome.
Throughout the monastery there are representations of Saint Jerome, in paintings, sculptures and stained glass. There are three important examples:
O Penitente no deserto (The Penitent in the Desert), located in the sub-chorus, near the tomb of Vasco da Gama, showing an emaciated saint in the desert, with a rock in his hand, while meditating in front of a crucifix;
O Estudioso na sua cela (The Studious in his Cell), showing the saint seated at his workplace encircled by open books;
O Doutor da Igreja (The Doctor in the Church), located in the high choir, depicting a solemn Saint Jerome standing in the red robes and hat of a cardinal.
The saint is always accompanied by a lion and bible.


The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery (Portuguese: Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, IPA: [muʃˈtɐjɾu ðu(ʒ) ʒɨˈɾɔnimuʃ]) is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal. It became the necropolis of the Portuguese royal dynasty of Aviz in the 16th century but was secularized on 28 December 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to the charitable institution, Real Casa Pia de Lisboa.
The Jerónimos Monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the late Portuguese Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It was erected in the early 1500s near the launch point of Vasco da Gama's first journey, and its construction funded by a tax on the profits of the yearly Portuguese India Armadas. In 1880, da Gama's remains and those of the poet Luís de Camões (who celebrated da Gama's first voyage in his 1572 epic poem, The Lusiad), were moved to new carved tombs in the nave of the monastery's church, only a few meters away from the tombs of the kings Manuel I and John III, whom da Gama had served. In 1983, the Jerónimos Monastery was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém.


The name of the monastery is of Cuman origin and it means "walnut grove", from Turkic word koz, meaning walnut. The original name of the place was the Romanian equivalent, Nucetul, but already in 1387, a document of Mircea cel Bătrân uses the current name.
The fortified cloister dates from the foundation (1388) and is the only in Byzantine style preserved in Romania. Two chapels are incorporated in the side toward the Olt River and their Byzantine cupolas are reflected in the water, creating one of the most iconic cultural - natural landmarks in Romania.
The church façades' decorations with stone rosettes, horizontal Byzantine-style rows of brick and stone and vertical frames are unprecedented in Wallachian architecture and are typical from the Serbian Morava School, which flourished in central Serbia between the 14th century and the 15th century. In fact, the strong resemblance with the Lazarica church indicates that  Mircea cel Bătrân employed Serbian craftsmen.
The appearance of the church was modified under Neagoe Basarab (1517), Şerban Cantacuzino and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1707), who added a veranda, a new fountain, a chapel and a watch tower, adding to its architecture the 'brâncovenesc style'.
Of great value is the hospital church, 'bolnița' (1543), with original well-preserved indoor frescoes like the votive portrait of ruler Mircea cel Bătrân and his sons.
Cozia was painted between 1390 and 1391. Some of the original frescoes (1390) are still well preserved.
The church of the monastery was put on a Romanian stamp in 1968.


This Russian Orthodox convent was built to house Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. After she was disallowed succession to the throne, she opted to become a nun. However, her Imperial predecessor, Ivan VI, was overthrown during a coup d'état (carried out by the royal guards in 1741). Elizabeth decided against entering monastic life and accepted the offer of the Russian throne. Work on the convent continued with her royal patronage.
The convent's main church (catholicon or sobor), a blue-and-white building, is considered to be one of the architectural masterpieces of the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who also redesigned the Winter Palace, and created the Grand Catherine Palace (Yekaterininsky) in Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), the Grand Palace in Peterhof and many other major St. Petersburg landmarks.
The Cathedral is the centerpiece of the convent, built by Rastrelli between 1748 and 1764. The projected bell-tower was to become the tallest building in St. Petersburg and, at the time, all of Russia. Elizabeth's death in 1762 prevented Rastrelli from completing this grand design.
When Catherine II assumed the throne, it was found that the new Empress strongly disapproved of the baroque style, and funding that had supported the construction of the convent rapidly ran out. Rastrelli was unable to build the huge bell-tower he had planned and unable to finish the interior of the cathedral. The building was only finished in 1835 by Vasily Stasov with the addition of a neo-classical interior to suit the changed architectural tastes at the time. The cathedral was consecrated on 22 July 1835; its main altar was dedicated to the Resurrection and the two side altars were dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and Righteous Elizabeth.
The church was closed by the Soviet authorities in 1923. It was looted and allowed to decay until 1982, when it became a concert hall.
The faculties of sociology, political science and international relations of the Saint Petersburg State University are located in some of the buildings surrounding the cathedral.
In April 2015 Smolny Cathedral was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, and is now an active Orthodox church. Divine services are held daily.
The nearby Smolny Institute is named after the convent.
The name "Smolny" derives from the location. In the early days of St. Petersburg the place at the edge of the city where pitch ("smola" in Russian) was processed for use in shipbuilding and maintenance.  As a result, the locale was called "smolny" - the place of pitch.


The church was erected between 1637 and 1639, in the Moldavian capital, in honour of the Three Holy Hierarchs of Eastern Orthodoxy (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom), and was blessed by Bishop Varlaam. In 1640, Prince Vasile Lupu, the renowned defender of the Orthodox Church, set up here the first printing press in Moldavia and the Vasilian College, a higher education institute. In 1643, the first volume ever printed in Moldavia was issued in Iași. The Trei Ierarhi Church was dedicated by Vasile Lupu to the 20 monasteries on Mount Athos.
Several Romanian royal figures are buried inside the church: Tudosca (Vasile Lupu's first wife) and Ștefan Vodă, their son; prince and scholar Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723); and Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the first ruler of the united Romanian principalities (1859–1866).


Mănăstirea Trei Ierarhi (Monastery of the Three Hierarchs) is a seventeenth-century monastery located in Iași, Romania. The monastery is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments and included on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.


The church became renowned for the extraordinary lacery in stone which adorns the facades, from bottom to the top of the derricks. One can count over 30 non-repeating registers of decorative motives. Western architectural elements (Gothic, Renaissance) combine with the Eastern style, of Armenian (Khachkar), Georgian, Persian, Arabian or Ottoman inspiration, in a totally bold conception, whose result is a harmonious ensemble. The effusive scenery makes the church resemble a shrine of architectonic proportions, especially conceived to protect the Sfanta Cuvioasa Parascheva's relics (1641). After the 1882 restoration, the original fresco was derusted, some fragments still being kept today in the monastery's museum.
Near the church one can find the Gothic Hall, which shelters a religious art museum. It has, among other things, objects related to the history of the monastery. In the gate's tower (which today no longer exists), that served as belfry, Vasile Lupu had installed a huge horologe, the first public use clock in Romanian Principalities (1654). During the 1882 restoration, the whole mechanism was disassembled and transported to France, where it remained.


The Mihai Vodă Monastery, founded by Mihai Viteazul, is one of the oldest buildings in Bucharest. It was built in 1591, surrounded by stone walls, similar to a fortress. The monastery buildings served multiple purposes over time such as residence of the country's leaders, military hospital, medical school and the site of the National Archives of Romania. The monastery was an important archeological site; inside the monastery yard used to be a Dacian archeological site, more than 3000 years old, where old pottery and other relics were found.
In 1813 Mihai Vodă Monastery was "one of the largest monasteries of Romania". Between 1908 and 1909, Cristofi Cerchez, head of architecture for the Ministry of Religious Affairs, supervised work on the State Archives at the Monastery.
At the time of the communist regime in 1985, the church building was moved on rails 285 metres east and hidden in its present location on Sapienței street, next to Splaiul Independenței street and Izvor Park. That was to make way for a civic centre. The medieval cloisters and ancillary buildings were demolished.
Mihai Vodă Monastery has been included into the List of historical monuments of Romania and has been classified under the code B-II-a-A-19644.


The Jazak Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Јазак, romanized: Manastir Jazak) is a Serb Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in the northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. The monastery was founded in 1736. The icons on the baroque iconostasis were painted in 1769 by Dimitrije Bačević and the carved woodwork was attributed to engraver Marko Vujatović. An overall reconstruction of the monastery was carried out from 1926 to 1930.
Jazak Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1990, and it is protected by Serbia.


According to the folk tradition, the monastery named Rakovica was built in the early 14th century, during the reigns of either king Dragutin or king Milutin, who allegedly were also the ktetors. However, there are no historical records that can confirm that. The earliest written mention of the monastery was found in the travel accounts of Feliks Petančić from 1502, under the title of "Ranauicence monasterium". Later on it is also mentioned in the Ottoman sources, in the census register from 1560, among other churches and monasteries around Belgrade. The Memorial, written much later by the monks, mentions king Dragutin as the ktetor.
However, it was predated by an older monastery which was not called Rakovica and which celebrated the Dormition of the Mother of God. The monastery apparently was a big one, having church, konaks and a metochion. It seems to be an important religious location as the monks from other monasteries often gathered here. The church was called Crkva Prevelika. The monastery named Rakovica was located further to the east, above the village of Rakovica (modern Belgrade's neighborhood of Selo Rakovica, not to be confused with the neighborhood of Rakovica where the monastery is today, which is also part of Belgrade). It was situated on the foothills of the Avala mountain, between the villages of Rakovica and Vrčin. The monastery celebrated Holy Archangel Michael. The location of the old monastery in 1560 was confirmed by the Ottoman sources as being near the "village of Hrčin" (Vrčin). It is believed that on this new location, there was a prior church, called the Magnificent Church. According to the myth, the icons themselves selected the new location, as at night they would leave the old monastery on their own, and move to the new location.
Located on the unfavorable place, in the vicinity of the major crossroads and settlements, the monastery was destroyed during the Ottoman advances towards Vienna in 1592 and the national riots in 1594. Because of that and due to constant robbing, the monks relocated to its present location, deeper into the forest. The remains of the old building on its original location in Selo Rakovica (the traces of the walls, the column of the honorable table, etc.) were found. The location is across the modern IKEA department store. People still gather on the location during the church slavas, or major feast days like Dormition of the Mother of God or Archangels' Day, even though there is no cross on the lot. No archaeological survey has been done to explore what is located below the ground.
The original Rakovica monastery was mentioned in the charter of the Wallachian Duke Constantin Brâncoveanu Besaraba, from 1701, which says that the monastery was erected and built from the scratch by a good Christian, the late duke Radula, who was the lord of this country (Wallachia). It is assumed that it was the voivode Radu I of Wallachia, Prince Lazar's son-in-law., which would place the period of the rebuilding in the 1370s or the 1380s, as Radul ruled from 1377 to 1385. Besaraba donated 100 "large chunks" of salt to the monastery.
There is also a myth that the original monastery was founded by Miloš Obilić in the late 14th century. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the Ottomans burned the monastery down. Only in the 15th century, a local resident named Raka reconstructed the monastery, which was then named after him.


In 1905 the Monastic school started to work in the monastery, the first of that kind in Serbia. For its needs in 1925 the new building was erected, the so-called "Plato's konak". The building was designed by the Russian architect Valery Staševski in the Serbo-Byzantine Revival style.  The school was active until 1932, when it was transferred to the Visoki Dečani monastery in Metohija.
The monastery avoided the damaging in both World Wars. During World War II, Patriarch Gavrilo for a short period was held in detention in Rakovica by the occupational German army. Until the war, area around the monastery was one of the main excursion sites of the Belgraders. Partially because the area was heavily forested with an old ("ancient"), thick forest, and partially because of the artificial Lake Kijevo. During the war both the forest and the lake disappeared: the forest was cut while the lake was drained from 1941 to 1947.
From 1947, Rakovica was the seat of the Orthodox theology faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1958 the faculty was relocated to the newly finished educational facilities, including the campus, in the part of the Karaburma neighborhood, which today became known after the Serbian name for the seminary, Bogoslovija. As the new location of Bogoslovija was previously a hospital for the children with mycosis, the children were relocated to the Rakovica monastery. The hospital was later moved out but during the existence, the church was fenced by the wire from the konak.
Patriarch German decided to turn the monastery into a female one, or convent, in 1959. He acquired the sewing machines so the abbesses sewed the clothes and garments to support the monastery.
During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, in the process of constant, everyday heavy bombing of the Straževica hill, the monastery was damaged, especially the front wall of the old church, that is, its front wall was damaged again.
In 2002, the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was built within the complex.
In 2007 at the old building location, the archaeological researches were done, and then again from 16 July till 16 August 2008, with the aim of confirming the assumption that the building in question is actually the old monastery building. The report states that the required results "were missing", and that the "existence of medieval necropolis in this area, as well as the remains of the honourable table...indicate the existence of the sacral object in that area, although its material remains have not been asserted so far."
Though open for visits, after the burial of Patriarch Pavle in 2009, in order to preserve the peace in the complex, the weddings and baptisms are no longer performed in the monastery.


The Rakovica Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Раковица, romanized: Manastir Rakovica) is the monastery of the Serbian Orthodox Church, within the Archbishopric of Belgrade and Karlovci, located in the municipality of Rakovica in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel.
Mentioned in the 16th century, the Rakovica Monastery is the oldest holy object in Belgrade, where the regular service is still being held.
The central part of the coat of arms of the Rakovica municipality is occupied by the representation Rakovica monastery.


The site of the church was first built around year 1300, and dedicated to St. Mary, then renamed after Anthony of Padua in 1557. In 1971 it was destroyed by the communist regime, and eventually was rebuilt in the 1990s. It is a  Franciscan church. Many renowned clergy have served in the church, including Shtjefën Gjeçovi, Vinçens Prennushi, Klement Miraj,  Robert Ashta, and Zef Pllumi.
Today, it is a popular tourist attraction. Since the end of communism, attempts have also been made to proselytize the Muslim majority in Albania to Catholicism, and to persuade the Sunni Muslims, as well as Shiite members of the Bektashi Sufi order, to join the treks that annually make their way to the building on June 12.


The St. Anthony Church (Albanian: Kisha e Shna Ndout or Kisha e Laçit), is a church first built in 1300, then destroyed in 1971, and eventually rebuilt in the 1990s in the Albanian town of Laç.


Arnstein Abbey (German: Kloster Arnstein) is a former Premonstratensian abbey on the Lahn River, south of present-day Obernhof near Nassau, Germany. It is now a monastery of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SS.CC.), known in Germany as the "Arnsteiner Fathers" (Arnsteiner Patres), who maintain a youth retreat center there.


The Iversky Convent was established at the beginning of the 20th century. It was built on the fund of Rostov-on-Don merchant Samuil Fyodorov, who, according to a city legend, had a sixteen-year-old daughter who wished to become a nun. The convent was initially situated about 15 km from the city. The first Abbess of the convent was Mother Anastasia. About 50 sisters lived there back then.
The Iversky Convent was completed and consecrated in 1908. It is believed that the convent was visited by Emperor Nicholas II and his heir Alexei Nikolaevich in 1914. During World War I, the convent was also an orphanage for girls from Poland, who lived here until 1920-s.
In 1919, under the threat of closing the convent, the Abbess Anastasia had to declare nun community as a farming cooperative. At the convent there were poultry and cattle yard, a bakery, a kitchen, a large apiary, an orchard, artificial dams for fish breeding and a rose garden. Yet in 1929 the convent was closed, its property was expropriated and Anastasia and some of the sisters were expelled to Siberia.
The convent was revived on the decree of Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1991. By 2002, the convent had been renovated and in November of the same year it was reconsecrated by the Bishop of Rostov Panteleimon.


The Iversky Convent (Russian: Иверский женский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox convent in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Rostov Oblast, Russia. It belongs to the Diocese of Rostov and Novocherkassk.


Sant Miquel de Cruïlles is a Benedictine monastery in Cruïlles, Monells i Sant Sadurní de l'Heura,  Catalonia, Spain.  The 11th-century building, in First Romanesque style, was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural landmark in 1931.


Construction began on the Gelati Monastery in 1106, under the direction of King David IV of Georgia, at which time Kutaisi was the capital of Georgia. It was constructed during the reign of the Byzantine Empire; in this period Christianity was the ruling religion throughout the empire. The monastery's main church, known as Church of Virgin the Blessed, was completed in 1130 (under the reign of David IV's successor, Demetrius I of Georgia), and was dedicated to Virgin Mary. The Monastery also acts as the burial site for King David IV, near which the Ancient Gates of Ganja, which were taken by King Demetrius I in 1138, can be found. The smaller chapels within the monastery date to the 13th century.
In addition to its religious purpose, the monastery was also constructed to function as an academy of science and education in Georgia: King David IV employed many Georgian scientists, theologians, and philosophers, many of whom had previously been active at various Orthodox monasteries abroad, such as the Mangana Monastery in Constantinople. Among its notable scholars were Ioane Petritsi, who translated several classics of philosophy but is best known for his commentaries on Proclus; and Arsen Ikaltoeli, known for his Dogmatikon, or book of teachings, influenced by Aristotle. The Gelati Academy employed scribes to compile manuscript copies of important works, and people of the time called it "a new Hellas" and "a second Athos".


Gelati (Georgian: გელათის მონასტერი) is a medieval monastic complex near Kutaisi in the Imereti region of western Georgia. One of the first monasteries in Georgia, it was founded in 1106 by King David IV of Georgia as a monastic and educational center.
The monastery is an exemplar of the Georgian Golden Age and a gold aesthetic is employed in the paintings and buildings. It was built to celebrate Orthodox Christian faith in Georgia. Some murals found inside the Gelati Monastery church date back to the 12th century. The monastery was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 because of its outstanding architecture and its importance as an educational and scientific center in medieval Georgia.


The Paromeos Monastery is probably the oldest among the four existing monasteries of Scetes. It was founded c. 335 A.D. by Saint Macarius the Great. The name Pa-Romeos or that of the Romans may refer to Saints Maximus and Domitius, children of the Roman Emperor Valentinian I, who had their cell at the place of the modern monastery. According to Coptic tradition, the two saints went to Scetes during the time of Saint Macarius the Great, who tried in vain to dissuade them from staying. Nevertheless, they stayed and attained perfection before dying at a young age. A year after their departure, Saint Macarius the Great consecrated their cell by building a chapel, and told the monks "Call this place the Cell of the Romans". Another theory holds that the name refers to the Roman Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, disciples of Saint Arsenius. The latter was himself a Roman monk who established himself in Scetes, and it is possible that the two emperors had visited their teacher in his seclusion, thus giving to the monastery its name.
Following the destruction of the monastery in 405 A.D. by the Berbers and the Bedouins, Saint Arsenius returned to rebuild it. However, following a second raid also by the Berbers in 410 A.D., he retired to Troe, now a neighbourhood of Cairo known as Tura, where he died.
Beside Saint Macarius the Great and Saint Arsenius, other saints of the fourth and fifth century resided in the Paromeos Monastery, such as Saint Isidore, and Saint Moses the Black who was martyred at the raid of 405 A.D.


The Paromeos Monastery (Coptic: ⲡⲁⲣⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ), also known as Baramos Monastery (Arabic: البراموس), is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It is the most northern among the four current monasteries of Scetis, situated around 9 km northeast of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy. Ecclesiastically, the monastery is dedicated to and named after the Virgin Mary.


Rioseco Abbey (Spanish: Monasterio cisterciense de Santa María de Rioseco) is a former Cistercian abbey situated in Rioseco in the Valle de Manzanedo, in the present province of Burgos, near the River Ebro.


The monastery is in the Herreriano style. An impressive spiral staircase is still preserved, the stone walls of the church still stand, and the bóvedas retain some traces of polychromy. The cartulary is now in the Archivo Histórico Nacional (codex 91B).


The original monastery was established in the 6th century by Benedictine monks who, at some point in its first 600 years, rebuilt it with the help of the Order of Calatrava. This monastery was transferred by James I of Aragon to the Cistercian Order in 1227.
The Cistercians then destroyed the building to erect a new monastery. In the 16th century, Miguel Pérez d'Almazán, Lord of Maella, tried to establish a village close to the monastery under the name Villanueva d'Almazán, but his project failed.
At the time of the French Revolution, some French Trappist monks were welcomed to the monastery and a thriving Trappist community became established in what became known as Trapa de Santa Susana. Despite the ravages caused by the Peninsular War, this community of monks flourished until the mid 19th century, when the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal La Desamortización caused the exclaustration of the monks and brought monastic life on the site to an end.
According to local tradition the monastery was named as it is because, at some point in its history, it had housed the mortal remains of Saint Susanna, known locally as "Virgen de Levante", the 'Levantine Virgin'.
The ruins are located in isolation on one side of the road, and the graceful bell tower is very conspicuous in the relatively desolate landscape, although there are farm buildings on the other side of the road.


The Kovilj Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Ковиљ, romanized: Manastir Kovilj) is a 13th-century Serb Orthodox monastery in the Bačka region, in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. According to the legend, the monastery was founded by the first Serb archbishop, Saint Sava, in the 13th century. The monastery, often cited as one of the most beautiful, has been nicknamed the "Jewel of Bačka". Considered "one of the most monumental cultural-historical objects in Bačka", it is protected by the state since 4 August 1949 as a cultural monument.


The monastery is located near Kovilj, a suburban village of Novi Sad. It is situated just south of the village at the point where the Special Natural Reserve "Koviljsko-Petrovaradinski Rit" begins, a wetland in the valley of the Danube, stretched along its left bank. The Monastery Kovilj is in the western section of Šajkaška, a historical region of south Bačka.


Kovilj was mentioned for the first in the Munich Serbian Psalter from the 14th century. It was mentioned as having a "joint properties" with the Privina Glava Monastery, which indicates that Kovilj was originally a metochion of Privina Glava. Later sources mention the "old wooden church", which was painted with frescoes in 1651. During the wars between the Austria and Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 17th century, the Ottomans demolished the monastery and burned the church on four occasions from 1686 to 1697. After the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, the surviving monks restored the old church, with the help from the other monks and people which settled in the area from the other parts of Hungary, while the monastery was renovated in 1705-1707.
The present, stone church was built from 1741 to 1749 by the neimars (builders) Teodor Kosta and Nikola Krapić. It was built in the Morava architectural school style of Serbo-Byzantine architecture and patterned after Manasija (to which it especially resembles) and Ravanica. In 1758, Empress Maria Theresa issued a document which set the monastery's estate. By the imperial privilege, the land was strictly divided between the monastery and the nearby settlement of Koviljski Šanac. The imperial gramata confirmed monastery's ownership over some 1,000 ha (2,500 acres) of land.
The establishment of the Šajkaš Battalion in 1763, Serbian settlements surrounding the monastery were repopulated and preserved, which also influenced the prosperity of the monastery. Forerunner of the modern Serbian historiography, Jovan Rajić, became a priest in Kovilj and was appointed the archimandrite of the monastery in 1772, where he died in 1801. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the rebels used the monastery as their base in 1849 which forced the monks to move across the Danube, into the Syrmia region. When they returned after the collapse of the rebellion, the monastery was looted and burned, and many historical treasures were lost. All objects within the monastery were burned. The new church was damaged inside while the old one was almost completely ruined, so it was demolished in 1850. Since 1850, the monks began to collect funds for the restoration. Some of it was secured by the Austrian state, some by the donations of the population, and some was help from Russia. Young painter Aksentije Marodić painted the new iconostas in the 1880s, including the scenes from the life of Christ and replicas of the most famous paintings from that period which Marodić copied from the galleries in Vienna, Munich, Paris, Rome, Venice, and Naples. The walls themselves are not painted. Woodworks and carvings are the work of Jovan Kisner, while the gold plating and marble work were done by Ludvig Tauš. The work on the interior turned out to be quite lengthy, as it lasted until 1891/92.


Aghavnavank Monastery (Armenian: Աղավնավանք, also Anapat St. Astvatsatsin, Aghnabat) is a 12th–13th century monastic complex at Dilijan National Park on the outskirts of Aghavnavank village of the Tavush Province of Armenia.


The Bistrița Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Bistrița, [ˈbistrit͡sa] (listen)) is a Romanian Orthodox monastery located 8 km west of Piatra Neamț. It was dedicated in 1402, having as original ctitor the Moldavian Voivode Alexandru cel Bun whose remains are buried here.
The church is historically and archaeologically valuable. It shows features of Byzantine architecture, is richly ornamented, with a 15th-century entrance door of fine craftsmanship and detailed frescoes.
The monastery is surrounded by 4 meter high stone walls built during Petru Rareș's reign (1541–1546), the original ones being destroyed in 1538 by Suleiman the Magnificent's army. Also from the same period dates a chapel located north of the monastery.
The inner court bell tower had already been erected in 1498 by Ștefan cel Mare. With his extensive restoration of the monastery in 1554, Alexandru Lăpușneanu is also considered to be a ctitor. Thus, the monastery is considered to have been donated by 4 voivodes of the Mușatin dynasty (Alexandru I, Ștefan III, Petru IV, Alexandru Lăpușneanu).
A remarkable item preserved here is the miraculous icon of Saint Anne given as a present to the monastery in 1407-1408 by Voivode Alexandru I's wife, Lady Ana. According to tradition, the icon was given as a "patronage gift" to Lady Ana by empress Jelena, wife of Manuel II Palaiologos, emperor of Constantinople. The icon was restored in the 18th century and in 1853 was placed in a new section, made of carved and gilded wood, of the kliros.
During the year 1855 the monastery underwent major reconstruction under the lead of the famous architect Carol Benesch.
The monastery was an important cultural center for calligraphers, miniaturists and chroniclers. The monastery's museum hosts an important collection of medieval art.


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The monastery was founded by the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in Santa Fe outside the city of Granada, during the siege of the latter city, the last stage of the Reconquista. The construction of the current buildings in Granada properly began in 1504, and the monastery relocated at that time. The principal architect and sculptor was Diego de Siloé; others involved as architects or sculptors included Jacopo Torni (from Florence), Juan de Aragón, Juan Bautista Vázquez the Younger (Vázquez el Mozo), Pedro de Orea, and Pablo de Rojas, the last three associated with the Granadan school of sculpture.
The Hieronymites are an Augustinian order. The monastery church follows the usual plan for churches of this order, a Latin Cross with an elevated choir at the foot and the altar behind a wide staircase. The mannerist altarpiece of the main chapel is considered the point of departure of Andalusian sculpture as such; it is mainly the work of Pablo de Rojas. The richly decorated Renaissance interior features coffering, scalloping and sculptures, and is a late work of Renaissance humanism. The iconographic program highlights the military and the heroic grandeur of the Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, known as the Gran Capitán ("Great Captain"), who is buried in the crossing with his wife, Doña Maria de Manrique.
As of 1513, the church was under construction under the leadership of Jacopo Torni 1513. Upon his death in 1526, the task devolved to Diego de Siloé. The main chapel was completed in 1522 and the bodies of the Great Captain and his wife were moved from the Casa Grande of the Convent of Saint Francis.
Although occupied again today by the same order of monks as at the time of its founding, the monastery has undergone many vicissitudes, including invasion by the French in the Napoleonic era during the Peninsular War. The Hieronymites were expelled and the monastery eventually became a near-ruin. The State undertook a restoration of the building in 1916–1920, hiring the architect Fernando Wihelmi for the job. The slender tower of the church had been demolished by the French, who used its stones to build the bridge known as the Puente Verde, which crosses the River Genil, linking the Paseo de la Bomba to the Avenida de Cervantes. Only in the 1980s was the tower re-erected; the project was completed in 1989.


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The Royal Monastery of St. Jerome (Spanish: Real Monasterio de San Jerónimo de Granada) is a Roman Catholic Hieronymite monastery in Granada, Spain. Architecturally, it is in the Renaissance style. The church, famous for its architecture, was the first in the world consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary.


The Kurmukhi Church of St. George (Georgian: ქურმუხის წმინდა გიორგის ეკლესია, Azerbaijani: Kürmük məbədi) is a Georgian Orthodox Church located in the Qakh District of Azerbaijan. The church is believed to be constructed in 12th century, when the Kingdom of Georgia experienced a political, economical and cultural golden age. its name is first mentioned in Georgian Gospel, which dates back to the fourteenth century, 1310, that notes it under jurisdiction of Georgian Orthodox church. The old church, however was destroyed as a result of Shah Abbas I's invasions of Georgia and was rebuilt only in 1890, by the archimandrite Leonid (then Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia). The monastery is currently inactive.
The Church hosts annual Christian feast of Kurmukhoba, the festival of Saint George at Kurmukhi, which is particularly interesting in that the shrine is visited by both Christians and Muslim Ingiloys.


The Friary of La Rábida (in full, Spanish: Convento de Santa María de la Rábida) is a Franciscan friary in the southern Spanish town of Palos de la Frontera, in the province of Huelva and the autonomous region of Andalucia.  The friary is located 13 km (8 mi) south of the city of Huelva, where the Tinto and Odiel rivers meet.
The Friary of La Rábida has been Franciscan property since the thirteenth century. It was founded in 1261; the evidence is a papal bull issued by Pope Benedict XIII in that year, allowing Friar Juan Rodríguez and his companions to establish a community on the coast of Andalucia.  The first Christian building on the site was constructed over a pre-existing Almohad ribat that lends its name
(rábida or rápita, meaning "watchtower" in Arabic) to the present monastery.  The Franciscans have held great influence in the region ever since.
The buildings standing on the site today were erected in stages in the late fourteenth century and the early fifteenth century.  The friary, and the church associated with it, display elements of Gothic and Moorish revival architecture; their walls are decorated with frescos by the twentieth-century Spanish artist, Daniel Vázquez Diaz (1882-1969). There is also a cloister and a museum, where numerous relics of the discovery of the Americas are displayed.
The buildings on the site have nearly 20,000 sq ft (1,858 m²) of floor space and an irregular floor plan. Throughout its five hundred years of existence, the monastery has been refurbished and repaired countless times, but the most extensive modifications were undertaken as a result of damage from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
Christopher Columbus stayed at the friary two years before his famous first voyage, after learning that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had rejected his request for outfitting an expedition in search of the Indies. With the intervention of the guardian of La Rábida and the confessor to Isabella, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, he was able to have his proposal heard.
The friary was declared a Spanish National Monument in 1856.


The Chulevi monastery of St. George (Georgian: ჭულევის მონასტერი) is a 14th-century Georgian Orthodox monastic church located in Georgia's southwest region of Samtskhe-Javakheti.
The Chulevi monastery sits on the left bank of the Kvabliani river, near the town of Adigeni in the historic province of Samtskhe. The monastery is alternatively known as Chule (ჭულე) or Chulebi (ჭულები). The site was home to a monastic community already in the 11th century, but it was in the latter part of the 14th century that the current edifice was constructed to become a major religious and cultural center in south Georgia. An inscription in the medieval Georgian asomtavruli script reveals the name of the artist Arsen who frescoed the interior of Chulevi in 1381. The murals depict, inter alia, a group portrait of the local princely house of Jaqeli, patrons of the monastery.
The Chulevi monastery shares a series of common features with the contemporary and nearby located churches of Zarzma and Sapara such as the typically elongated overall plan and the interior space, rectangular shape with no projections, a dome resting upon the walls of the altar and two cross-shaped pillars, the dome tholobate containing twelve windows with half of them false.
At the same time, Chulevi is an example of decline in Georgian architecture and monumental painting due to two hundred years of Mongol dominance.
After the Ottoman conquest of the area, the Chulevi monastery declined and had been completely abandoned by 1595. The locals, still Christian at that time, saved the bells and some other church items by burying them in the adjacent wood. The bells were accidentally discovered in the 1980s and donated to the Akhaltsikhe local museum but were eventually turned over to the monastery once it was restored to the Georgian Orthodox Church in October 1999.
A team of Russian architects attempted, unsuccessfully, to repair the church in 1935/36 and several architectural details were lost in the process. Another attempt at rehabilitation was made in the 1970s and 1980s but was then interrupted. It was not until 2003 that systematic reconstruction fieldworks were launched and the monastery has largely been repaired since then.


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The Monastery of St. Michael German: Michaelskloster, on the Heiligenberg (Saints' Mountain) in Heidelberg, was a branch of the nearby Lorsch Abbey. The ruined complex that can be seen today was built beginning in 1023. The monastery was occupied successively by several religious orders before it was abandoned in the 16th century.
The first mention of the monastery is in the Lorsch codex, from the 12th century, which dates the founding of the monastery to 870. No remains of an earlier monastery have been found, so this might have been merely an estimate of the founding.


Ninotsminda Cathedral (Georgian: ნინოწმინდის მონასტერი) (c. 575) is located in the village of Sagarejo, in the Kakheti region, Georgia.
Ninotsminda Cathedral is highly significant to the development of Georgian architecture, as it predates Jvari Monastery in Mtskheta, and served as a model for the development of the later tetraconch (four-apse) form. The site is ruins today, with only the eastern apse and a portion of the western wall remaining. The ruined apse is decorated with 16th century frescos of the Hodegetria, severely vandalised with bullet holes from Dagestani bandits in the 18th and 19th centuries. Outlines of the foundations indicate that the church originally had an octagonal center, surrounded by corner niches. Historical records indicate that restoration work was undertaken in the 10th and 11th centuries, and also during 1671 and 1774. However, the cathedral collapsed during earthquakes in 1824 and 1848 and was not reconstructed.
The large brick belltower within the same complex dates from the reign of King Levan of Kakheti (1520-1574). The lower three stories served as a residence, each floor with a fireplace. The staggered placement of bricks on the exterior façade to form geometric patterns indicates the cultural influence of Safavid Persia, as does the pointed arch over the entrance.
The Ninotsminda complex is surrounded by a fortification, with corner towers and a crenellated curtain wall, dating from the 16th-17th centuries. The fortified entrance gate has protruding towers with beehive machicolations.
The complex is currently operated as a nunnery by the Georgian Orthodox Church, and reconstruction work is underway.


Samtavro Monastery (Georgian: სამთავროს მონასტერი) is a Georgian Orthodox Christian monastery complex that combines Samtavro Transfiguration Church and Nunnery of St. Nino in Mtskheta, Georgia. Built presumably in the 4th century by the King Mirian III, and reconstructed in the 11th century by the King George I and Catholicos-Patriarch Melchizedek I, Samtavro is an important Early and High Medieval historical and architectural monument, and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994 along other historical monuments in Mtskheta. Samtavro church is cross-in-square temple, with arches and other decorations typical for the 11th century Georgian architecture. The graves of Mirian III and the famous Georgian Saint monk Gabriel are located in the yard of Samtavro Church.


In 1206, the marriage of King Alfonso IX of León to Teresa of Portugal, daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, was annulled by the Holy See due to consanguinity. She returned to her home, where her father gave her Lorvão Abbey. She chose to have the monks removed and established a community of 300 nuns, who were to live under the Cistercian Rule, with herself as abbess, though she herself was unable to take religious vows until after the death of her husband in 1230. The abbey was rededicated to Our Lady of Life. She died there in 1250 and was buried there, as had been her sister Sancha of Portugal (+1229), who had experienced a similar life story and had died as the Abbess of Celas.
Major renovations of the abbey were undertaken on an ongoing basis during the 16-17th centuries, giving it a Baroque style. The new church (1748-1761) was designed by Mateus Vicente de Oliveira.


The region became Muslim-held soon after the Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula in 711. Under the leadership of King Alfonso III of Asturias and his Castellan, Hermenegildo Gutiérrez, they were driven out of the region of Coimbra in 878, when Gutiérrez was made Count of Portugal. The monastery was dedicated to the Saints Mammes of Caesarea and Pelagius the Hermit. The community initially prospered as a major point of trade between the Christian inhabitants to its north and the Muslim kingdoms to its south. The monastery fell upon hard times when Muslim forces retook the territory in the following century. This lasted until the permanent retaking of the land in 1064 by King Ferdinand I of León.
At that point, the monastery was entrusted to the Benedictine monks of Cluny Abbey in France, who were made responsible for the agrarian development of the surrounding region. During the second half of the 12th century, major renovations of the monastery were undertaken by King Alfonso I. A new cloister and a larger church, with three naves, were erected. Under the leadership of Abbot João (1162-1192) the scriptorium of the abbey became noted for their magnificent illuminated manuscripts. This abbey and the nearby Abbey of Santa Cruz, a community of canon regulars, became the preeminent producers of manuscripts in the young kingdom, in answer to a growing demand. Two major examples of this handicraft still survive, both illuminated by a monk named Egeas. One, known as the Book of Birds, a bestiary, is the illustration of a manuscript by the contemporary canon regular Hugues de Fouilloy and dated 1184. The other, known as the Apocalypse of Lorvão, is an illumination of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana, an 8th century monk, dated 1189.


Altenberg Abbey (German: Kloster Altenberg) is a former Premonstratensian nunnery situated between Solms and Wetzlar, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in c. 1170 and dissolved in 1802. It had a strong connection with the House of Nassau, several of whom were nuns and abbesses, and some family members, including Otto I, Count of Nassau, were buried here; it was also a burial place for the Counts of Solms. The buildings were seriously damaged by a fire in 1952. Those that survive accommodate a meeting centre for the local deanery and since 2018 a small Protestant religious community.


The abbey was founded in 1093 by Count Heinrich the Fat of Northeim so that the members of noble families from the area might be buried in a place with monks permanently in attendance.  Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz participated in the foundation.   The first monks came from Corvey Abbey: a close association between the two foundations would endure. In 1102 the founder, who had been killed by invading Frisians, was himself buried in the abbey church.   The late eleventh century was a period of monastic and ecclesiastical reform, and from the outset Bursfelde was influenced by the new ideas coming out of Cluny and Hirsau.   Although one motive for the abbey's foundation was clearly that the souls of the faithful departed kinsfolk of the founder might be properly prayed for, the founder's dynastic ambitions and the pressures of the church reform movement also played their part.   Emperor Henry IV granted Bursfelde numerous privileges and immunities. Following the Benedictine tradition, Almeric, the first abbot, opened a school, which soon became famous.  Under the next four abbots its fame continued to increase.
The abbey complex was created on the Miminde estate, which the founder had inherited from Albert von Gieselwerder.   The site lay at the confluence of the Rivers Nieme and Weser.   Henry's father, Otto of Nordheim, had previously erected the Bramburg fortress a couple of kilometers upriver, which provided a measure of protection.   In line with the ideals of the still influential monastic reform movement, and with the backing of Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz it was established that abbots should be freely elected.   The same level of trust did not extend to the abbey's more temporal interests however:  bailiffs were to be appointed in perpetuity by the counts of Northeim.   There was to be no political autonomy, given the continuing legal and military dependence channeled through the bailiffs.   The granting of market and currency rights to the monastery nevertheless appears to have been part of the founder's strategy for building up the territorial power of the Northeim family in the area.
It would be wrong to overstate the economic importance of the foundation.   The emphasis in the Benedictine monastery was less on craftwork or agriculture, and more on scientific research and teaching.   In 1101 Henry was killed in Frisia.   His body was returned to Bursfelde and buried on 10 April 1101 in the foundations of what later became the abbey's "west church" ("Westkirche").   Subsequently, in 1115, his widow, the three-times-married Gertrude of Brunswick, founded the Abbey of Saint-Gilles at Braunschweig, which was subordinated to the Abbot of Bursfelde.   Links between the two foundations would remain close.   A further significant development came in 1135 when the founder's daughter, Richenza (whose husband Lothar of Supplingenburg, had become Holy Roman Emperor in 1133) arranged for the construction of the abbey's great "East Choir" ("Ost-Chor").   The Northeims were determined to stamp their mark on Bursfelde.
In 1144 Bursfelde Abbey passed to the control of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony (1139) and later also of Bavaria (1156), following the death of Siegfried IV, a grandson of Otto of Nordheim who had died without male issue.   Henry the Lion confirmed the rights of the Abbey, following the presentation of a falsified foundation record.  The absence of male heirs in the  Northeim family meant that the County of Northeim, including Bursfelde Abbey, now passed to the Guelfs.  Henry the Lion reduced his rights over the abbey to rights of patronage and jurisdiction.
By this time the diminishing impact of the Benedictine reform movement in general and of its inmpct at Bursfelde Abbey in particular meant that control over Bursfelde was of reduced importance in terms of the political power politics of the great families in the region.   After the ending of the Investiture Controversy the Benedictine reform movement had rapidly lost impetus.   During the same period the Cistercian monks had gained in kudos with an ascetic lifestyle which left the Benedictines appearing relatively worldly.   Later on rivalries were complicated intensified by the increased prominence of the Mendicant orders.   Nevertheless, even when Bursfelde features less prominently in the records by the end of the twelfth century, by around 1200 it had major land holdings, with fourteen farming estates, although these were widely dispersed, with holdings as far to the south as Erfurt and as far to the west as Osnabrück.   But the economic focus remained on the region more immediately surrounding Bursfelde.   Management of the farms was in most cases contracted out, but the main estate at Bursfelde was directly managed.
In 1331, under abbot Henry Lasar, monastic discipline began to relax, the school was neglected and the valuable possessions dissipated. From 1331 to 1424 no records of the abbey were kept. When in 1424 the aged Albert of Bodenstein became abbot, both church and school had fallen almost into ruins, and the monastery itself was in a dilapidated condition, housing a single old monk. Albert was too old to undertake the gigantic task of restoring Bursfelde and resigned the abbacy in 1430.
During the 15th century a strong current of monastic and ecclesiastical reform made itself felt throughout the Roman Catholic world. One of the first Benedictine reformers was John Dederoth of Northeim. After carrying out notable reforms at Clus Abbey, where he had been abbot since 1430, Dederoth was persuaded by Duke Otto of Brunswick in 1433 to undertake the reform of Bursfelde. Obtaining four exemplary religious from the monastery of St. Matthias' Abbey, Trier, he assigned two of them to the monastery at Clus, to maintain his reformed discipline there, while the other two accompanied him to Bursfelde. As abbot of Clus, he was able to recruit from that community for Bursfelde. Dederoth succeeded beyond expectations in the restoration of Bursfelde and began the reform of Reinhausen Abbey, near Göttingen, but died on 6 February 1439, before his efforts in that quarter had borne fruit.


Bursfelde Abbey (in German Kloster Bursfelde) is a former Benedictine monastery located in Bursfelde, a hamlet which for administrative purposes is included in the municipality of nearby Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony, Germany.   Today the abbey church and its estate cover a site of approximately 300 hectares which is administered by the Klosterkammer Hannover, a body that operates under the auspices of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Arts and the Sciences to look after reassigned or disused ecclesiastical buildings and other heritage properties in the region.   The legal owner of the Bursfelde Monastery Complex ("Zentrums Kloster Bursfelde") is the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover.


Kreuzlingen Abbey (Stift Kreuzlingen or Kloster Kreuzlingen), in Kreuzlingen in Switzerland, on the border with Germany, was founded in about 1125 by Ulrich I of Dillingen, Bishop of Constance, as a house of Augustinian Canons. In 1848 the government of the Canton of Thurgau dissolved the monastery and took over its property. The former abbey church of Saint Ulrich and Saint Afra, decorated in the Baroque style, is noteworthy.


Saint Conrad, Bishop of Constance from 935 to 976, brought back from Jerusalem a fragment of the True Cross, which he presented to the hospital he had founded in the suburb of Stadelhofen and from which it took the name of "Crucelin" which later became Crucelingen / Kreuzlingen. In 1093 this hospital was burnt down during hostilities between the Bishop of Constance and the Abbot of St. Gall.


Ulrich I, bishop of Constance from 1111 to 1127, restored the derelict hospital of Kreuzlingen in about 1125 by founding, on the eastern edge of the suburb of Stadelhofen, a house of Augustinian Canons (indeed, one of the earliest) dedicated to Saints Ulrich and Afra.


WikiWeb_Monastery of Nuestra Señora de Valvanera_0

The Monastery of Nuestra Señora de Valvanera (Spanish: Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de Valvanera) is a monastery located in Anguiano, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 2003.


Cismar Abbey (Kloster Cismar) was a Benedictine monastery located at Cismar near Grömitz, Schleswig-Holstein, in Germany.
It was founded in 1238 by Count Adolf IV of Holstein as alternative accommodation for Benedictine monks from Lübeck. In the mid-15th century it was one of the six original members of the influential Bursfelde Congregation, a Benedictine reform movement.  After three prosperous centuries, based largely on its possession of a relic of the blood of Christ and a healing spring dedicated to John the Baptist, which made it a centre of pilgrimage, it was dissolved in 1561 during the secularisation brought about by the Reformation. The monastic library is preserved in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen.
The abbey is famous for its carved altar, dating from early in the 14th century, still in place in the church.
The other surviving buildings, after a wide variety of secular uses, now serve as a museum.


WikiWeb_San Francesco Convent (Fiesole)_1

A small hermitage was built in 1399 on the site of the current convent by the Franciscans. At the end of the fifteenth century, the underground chapel was enlarged with an above-ground apse and choir. Between 1905 and 1906, the church underwent restoration by architect Giuseppe Castellucci, returning the church to a style similar to its original one.


WikiWeb_San Francesco Convent (Fiesole)_0

The Convent of Saint Francis (Italian: Convento di San Francesco) is a Franciscan convent located in the western, historic center of Fiesole in the region of Tuscany.
Located on Via San Francesco, it is not far from the Cathedral of Saint Romulus and the former Basilica of Saint Alexander.


WikiWeb_San Francesco Convent (Fiesole)_4

The facade of the church is Gothic in style with a gabled roof. It is constructed of stone blocks and masonry. At the center is a doorway with a porch, the inside of which contains a portrait of St. Francis. Above the door is a rose window.


Kvatakhevi (Georgian: ქვათახევი) is a medieval Georgian Orthodox monastery in Shida Kartli, Georgia, 55 km (34 mi) west of the nation’s capital of Tbilisi.
The Kvatakhevi monastic complex is situated near the village Kavtiskhevi at the end of the gorge cut by a stream in the northern slopes of the Trialeti Range, protected on three sides by the steep mountain slopes. It dates to the 12th-13th century, and resembles the monasteries of Betania, Pitareti, and Timotesubani in its architectural form and decoration, reflecting a contemporary canon of a Georgian domed church architecture. The overall plan is nearly a square, with the dome resting upon 2 freely standing pillars and 2 pillars fused with the ledges of the altar. The internal space of the church is formed by the arms of the cross and the dome which surmounts the crossing point.
The building has two portals, one to the south and one to the west. The façades are covered with finely hewn white stone squares. The decoration abounds in fretwork, especially around the windows and the base of the dome; the eastern façade is adorned with a large ornate cross.
Historically, Kvatakhevi was also a literary center where several manuscripts were copied. It also possessed a treasure with many artifacts of medieval Georgian jewelry, a sizeable portion of which was later acquired by and are now on display at the Moscow State Historical Museum.
The monastery was significantly damaged during Timur's invasions of Georgia in the 14th century, but was subsequently repaired, more completely under the patronage of Prince Ivane Tarkhan-Mouravi in 1854. A belfry was added in 1872.


The rapid growth of wealth of the church-abbey Saint-Michel became an obstacle to its function and nature. The religious used their wealth, coming from the piety of the rich surrounding princes, to satisfy their pleasures. Local nobles tried to obtain the favors of the Mont's religious inhabitants to spend it on meals, travels, and hunting in their company, which became their main occupation.
When Richard 1st, son of William 1st, became duke of Normandy, he tried using his authority to return them to a more monastic life. After failing to do so, and with the approbation of pope John XIII and king Lothair, he decided to replace them with a monastery of the Benedict order, as mentioned in Introductio monachorum ("the installation of the monks"), a treaty written around 1080–1095 by a Mont-Saint-Michel monk trying to defend the independence of the monastery toward the state.
After getting the approval from the local warlords and religious of the Norman abbeys, the monastery of Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Taurin-d’Évreux and Jumièges, Duke Richard I sent an officer and some soldiers to the Mont Saint Michel to announce his order: return to a religious life style and become a member of the Benedict order or leave the Mont. Only one accepted and all the others left, leaving the abbot Maynard 1st, coming from Saint-Wandrille abbey, to establish a Benedict ruling. The installation of the Benedictine monks took place in 966, which is marked as the founding year of the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. Those monks added the double-nave, pre-Romanesque church Notre-Dame-sous-Terre.
William de Volpiano, the Italian architect who had built the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy, was chosen by Richard II of Normandy to build the church of the abbey in 1060. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight, forming the basis for the supportive upward structure that can be seen today.


Engelszell Abbey church, built between 1754 and 1764, is an impressive church in the Rococo style, with a tower 76 metres high. The interior contains notable works of art works by Bartolomeo Altomonte, Joseph Deutschmann and the stuccoist Johann Georg Üblhör. After structural damage in about 1957 the ceiling of the nave was repainted with a contemporary work by Fritz Fröhlich.


The abbey was founded in 1293 by Bernhard of Prambach, Bishop of Passau, as a Cistercian monastery. It was settled in 1295 by monks from Wilhering Abbey, its mother house, and was of the filiation of Morimond Abbey. It suffered a considerable decline, both spiritual and financial, in the period of the Protestant Reformation, and for a time passed into private ownership. From 1618 onwards the intervention and support of Wilhering Abbey gradually restored it.
On Easter Sunday 1699, a disastrous fire plunged the abbey once again into financial difficulties and from 1720 its management was in the hands of administrators. In 1746, Leopold Reichl, the last and greatest of Engelszell's abbots of the Common Observance, was appointed, and soon rebuilt its finances. Between 1754 and 1764, Leopold rebuilt the present-day abbey church.
In 1786, Engelszell was dissolved by Emperor Joseph II and the buildings were subsequently put to several secular uses, including as a factory and as a residence.


WikiWeb_Monastery of Santa María de Mezonzo_0

The Monastery of Santa María de Mezonzo is a Spanish religious building in Romanesque style in the parish of Santa María de Mezonzo, in the municipality of Vilasantar. Although it probably dates back to the time of the Kingdom of the Suebi, the current monastery was founded as a double convent by Abbot Reterico. According to  Antonio López Ferreiro, the monastery was donated to the Asturian-Galician king Alfonso III el Magno in 870. Justo Pérez de Urbel, after comparing the names of the confirmatory of several documents related to the monastery, thinks that the correct date is the one given by Hinojosa, that is, the year 930.


The monastery complex is dominated by the main church. In addition it contains the bell tower from the southwest, with a  chapel, four smaller churches from the east, north and south of the main church.
The main church has the cross-in-square plan. It has two entrances, southern, with portal, and western. The portal is unusually stretched along the wall. The dome tholobate contains twelve windows, half of them false, as common at that time. Another interesting feature can be seen on the interior pillars. Their moulding is made of baguettes, separated by horizontal stripes. The western choirs are false, decorative.
The walls are covered in rectangular quadras. The façades of the church are polychromous, as typical for the period, richly decorated and the interior is frescoed. The exterior decorations, again as typical for the 14th century churches, are made around the doors and windows. The dominant motif is cross. Especially richly decorated is the eastern façade.
Apart from the religious cycles of the murals there are a series of portraits of the 14th-century Jaqeli family as well as of the historical figures of the 16th century. The lower southern wall includes: Sargis I, Beka I, Sargis II, Qvarqvare I. On the northern wall are depicted Bagrat III of Imereti, Serapion Khurtsisdze, Georgi Chorchaneli, two unknown persons named Arab and Kurtsik, and Simon Gurieli of Svaneti.  Catholicos Eufime is depicted in front of the Christ.
A smaller replica of the Zarzma church, known as Akhali Zarzma ("New Zarzma") is located in the same municipality, near Abastumani. It was commissioned by Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, a member of the Russian imperial family, from the Tbilisi-based architect Otto Jacob Simons who built it between 1899 and 1902, marrying a medieval Georgian design with the contemporaneous architectural forms. Its interior was frescoed by the Russian painter Mikhail Nesterov.
The bell tower originally was part of the fortification wall, and its ground floor served as entrance to the monastery. The upper floor is an octagon with eight arches. It holds the belfry.
Other churches belong to the hall type.


The Zarzma Monastery of Transfiguration (Georgian: ზარზმის მონასტერი, zarzmis p'erists'valebis monasteri) is a medieval Orthodox Christian monastery located at the village of Zarzma in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, southwest Georgia.
The Zarzma monastery is nested in the forested river valley of Kvabliani and its tributary Dzindze in the Adigeni municipality, 30 km west of the city of Akhaltsikhe. It is the complex of a series of buildings dominated by a domed church and a belfry, one of the largest in Georgia.


The Voroneț Monastery is a medieval monastery in the Romanian village of Voroneț, now a part of the town Gura Humorului. It is one of the famous painted monasteries from southern Bukovina, in Suceava County. The monastery was constructed by Stephen the Great in 1488 over a period of 3 months and 3 weeks to commemorate the victory at Battle of Vaslui. Often known as the "Sistine Chapel of the East", the frescoes at Voroneț feature an intense shade of blue known in Romania as "Voroneț blue."
The monastery is located to the south of Gura Humorului in Suceava County, in the valley of the Voroneț River. The legend of the origin of the church unites two men central to Romanian history: the founder of the monastery, Stephen the Great, and Saint Daniil the Hermit, the first abbot of the monastery. The tomb of Saint Daniil is located within the monastery.
The church is one of the Painted churches of Moldavia listed in UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.


The age of the monastic site is not known. A legend tells us that Stephen the Great, in a moment of crisis during a war against the Ottoman Turks, came to Daniel the Hermit at his skete in Voroneț and asked for advice. Daniel told him not to surrender the fight. Then, after victory, he must build a monastery dedicated to Saint George. The original entrance above the Church of Saint George, now in the exonarthex, bears the inscription:
I, Voivode Stephen, by the Grace of God Ruler of Moldavia, son of Bogdan, have started to have the monastery of Voroneț built to the glory of the holy and well-known St George, the great and victorious martyr, in 6996 in May on 26, on one day of Monday, after the Pentecost and I had it finished the same year, in September, 1488.
The church was built on a triconch plan (with three apses), with a chancel, a naos with its tower, and a pronaos.
In 1547, the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia Grigorie Roșca added the exonarthex to the west end of the church and had the exterior walls painted. His contribution is recorded on the left of the entrance door:
By the Will of the Father and the Help of the Son and the accomplishment of the Holy Spirit and by the great pains taken by the faithful Kir Grigorie, Metropolitan of the whole Moldavian Country, there was added this title porch and the exterior of the whole church was painted, for the sake of his soul, in 7055 (1547).
The monastery contains tombstones commemorating Saint Daniel the Hermit, Grigorie Roșca, and other patrons of the church and noblemen.
Voroneţ was known for its school of calligraphy, where priests, monks and friars learned to read, write and translate religious texts. The school produced two notable copies of Romanian translations of the Bible: The Codex of Voroneț, discovered in 1871, and The Psalter of Voroneț, found in 1882. These books are now held at the Romanian Academy.
The monastery was deserted soon after 1775, when the Habsburg monarchy annexed the northern part of Moldavia. The monastic community returned to Voroneț in 1991. Since their return, those living in the monastery have constructed housing for the resident nuns, a chapel, fountains, stables, barns, and a house for pilgrims.


Unlike other monasteries, there is no votive inscription at Dragomirna. The year in which it was built and the names of the founders were discovered only after study of the documents of the time. The founders were the same as for the small church in the graveyard, the scholar, artist, and Metropolitan Anastasie Crimca; the high chancellor Lupu Stroici; and his brother, the treasurer Simion Stroici. Born in Suceava as the son of merchant Ioan Crimca and of the princess Carstina, Anastasie Crimca became a monk at the Putna monastery when he was young. There Crimca built his reputation as a prelate, patriot, and scholar and, above all, as an artist, which was expressed through his whole life. He ascended to the highest ranks in the Orthodox Church and became, in 1608, the Metropolitan of Moldavia. During the summer of 1600, he took the oath of faith to Michael the Brave (also known as 'Mihai Viteazu'), who entered the princely seat of Moldavia without fighting and succeeded in joining the three Romanian lands for the first time.
According to the inscription above the bell tower, in 1627, during the rule of Miron Barnovschi, because of the frequent invasions by the Turks and Tatars, the monastery was endowed by the prince with a defensive wall, which made it look like a fortress. In the four corners, there are narrow square towers. On the western and northern sides are the cells, built between 1843 and 1846. They were part of the general reconstruction. Inside the precincts, on the right side of the entrance, is the vaulted refectory, built in the Gothic style. It now holds the Dragomirna museum of ancient art. The large church's plan is a much-elongated rectangle, without side apses. It seems to be built up to defy the heights, to seek the light; it symbolized prayer soaring from the bottom of one's heart towards the holy sky.


The Dragomirna Monastery was built during the first three decades of the 17th century, 15 km from Suceava, in the Mitocu Dragomirnei commune. It is the tallest medieval monastery in northern Moldavia and renowned in Orthodox architecture for its unique proportions and intricate details, mostly carved into stone. It lies among forested hills of fir and oak. The history of the monastery started in 1602, when the small church in the graveyard was built and dedicated to Saints Enoch, Elijah, and John the Theologian. In 1609 the dedication of the larger church was made to the "Descent of the Holy Spirit".


The Zočište Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Зочиште, romanized: Manastir Zočište; Albanian: Manastiri i Zoçishtës) or formally St. Cosmas and Damian's Monastery (Serbian: Манастир Св. Козме и Дамјана, romanized: Manastir Sv. Kozme i Damjana) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery belonging to the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren, situated in the village of Zočište, about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Orahovac, Kosovo. The original church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was built in the 13th century. The graveyard includes tombstones dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries. The monastery was renovated in the 16th century and again in 2008 after being destroyed in 1999. The Church building has been rebuilt on the existing and consolidated foundations using original building material from the ruins of the old church.
The monastery is famous for the relics of the Saints Cosmas and Damian. The shrine at the monastery was said to provide a miraculous cure for eye diseases and mental and psychosomatic disorders. It is said to be "One of the most important cultural places for Serbian and Christian settlements in the Metohija region." It was designated as Cultural Heritage of Serbia in 1954. The monastery was included into the Republic of Kosovo list of "Special Protective Zones" on 20 February 2008.


Glenluce Abbey, near to Glenluce, Scotland, was a Cistercian monastery called also Abbey of Luce or Vallis Lucis  and founded around 1190 by Rolland or Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland. Following the Scottish Reformation in 1560, the abbey fell into disuse.


Dragalevtsi Monastery of the Holy Mother of God of Vitosha (Bulgarian: Драгалевски манастир „Света Богородица Витошка“, Dragalevski manastir „Sveta Bogoroditsa Vitoshka“) is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery on the lower slopes of Vitosha mountain on the outskirts of the capital Sofia in western Bulgaria. Founded in the mid-14th century by Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander, the monastery was abandoned after the Ottoman conquest of Sofia and reestablished in the late 15th century, when it became an important literary centre. The monastery church and some of its frescoes date from this period.


The nave and transept were 100 ft across, broader than those of Paisley, Glasgow or St Andrews. The building wasn't especially long and was unique in Scotland in that it had two western towers, not arising from the building, but standing separately, either side, on massive supporting piers. One of these towers fell at a relatively early date, an inherent weakness being present, probably hastened by reformist action.

The archaeology suggests that the abbey was built around an earlier church that may have been built during the time of Hugh de Morville, circa 1157. A long stretch of walling is suggestive of being the south side of the nave of this earlier foundation. The remnants of the chapter house bordering the cloisters and a passageway may have been built during the 1180s. Richard de Morville may have been responsible in around 1190-1200 for the great processional arch between the gable and the wall; dying in 1189 this may also have been a bequest or gift. Uniquely this arch has a Norman style capital bearing two carved figures, said to be Adam & Eve.
A major development or reconstruction phase took place in the 1230s, possibly completed by one of the de Morville daughters as the male line had died out. Pont states that Dorethea de Morville, daughter of Richard de Morville and wife of Philip de Horssey, 'accomplished' the fabric of the monastery. De Morvilles mound at Dreghorn was supposed to have commemorated a daughter of the family, drowned at the Holm ford; any possible link to the abbey is unrecorded. The two towers and the west transept seem to have been added on in the 1250s.


The Earl had used the old tower as a prison and the bells were rung to gather together the local people for the 'King's service' or in times of war. Bessie Graham was imprisoned in the Tower in 1649 on a charge of witchcraft. During a disagreement with her neighbour, comments were made by Bessie that onlookers interpreted as a curse. Mrs Rankin died a few weeks later and this was taken as sufficient proof to formally accuse Bessie of being a witch. Alexander Bogs, a Witch Finder, was called in to examine Bessie and his verdict was that she was a witch, in league with the devil. Bessie was taken to Corsehill Moor and burned at the stake.
The earl spent a considerable sum of money repairing the tower in 1789, however it developed large rents and fissures the sides in 1809. The one remaining northern tower stood until 1814 when it was deemed unsafe and demolished with gunpowder, just when strengthening works were about to begin; one wall had just collapsed with a mighty crash that shook everything as if there had been an earthquake. The tower had been struck by lightning on 2 August 1809, the considerable damage caused hastening its demise. The bells, the original Kilwinning Bell and a smaller bell donated by the Eglinton family, had been removed a fortnight earlier.
Designs and plans were quickly produced for a replacement tower, the first by John Connell of Dalgarven then a second and third set by the architect David Hamilton from Glasgow. The Heritors approved of David Hamilton's second design, accepted John Connell's estimate of one thousand four hundred and thirty pounds for building the new Tower and John Wyllie of Corsehill, a mason, was appointed as the inspector and superintendent of the building.
On 21 December 1814, the foundation stone was laid by William Davidson Esq., Grandmaster of the Mother Lodge, Kilwinning, in the presence of the Earl of Eglinton and the Heritors of the Parish of Kilwinning. On 12 November 1816 the new 103 feet high clock tower was completed.
A conservation programme was undertaken by the local authority in 1993-95 and the tower is now owned by North Ayrshire Council. The tower houses a heritage centre which opened in 1995 and displays items of local interest, including the history of the abbey and tower; the poets Robert Burns and the "Bard of the Yukon" Robert W. Service.
The Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers, dating back to 1483, are an important feature of the collection. The Kilwinning Archers still meets regularly, including the annual papingo shoot held in the grounds of the Abbey on the first Saturday in June. This event is said to be the oldest archery competition in the World and involves a wooden 'papingo' or 'popinjay', which is suspended from the clock-tower, which the archers attempt to dislodge.
The Heritage Centre in the tower is officially managed by the Museum Services of North Ayrshire Council, but staffed and cared for by volunteer members of Kilwinning Heritage.