The Toplița Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Toplița) is a Romanian Orthodox monastery located at 68-70 Ștefan cel Mare Street in Toplița, Romania. It is dedicated to the Prophet Elijah.
Situated along the banks of a stream within the city limits, the monastery has uncertain origins. It owns a 1677 icon, possibly from the nearby Moglănești Monastery. A monk is recorded as living there in 1763, a year before it was shut down.[1]
The wooden church, with a cross-shaped plan and a polygonal western end, features a portico open toward the south, above which a bell tower was placed. Its style features strong influences from Western Moldavia. It is dated 1847 and reportedly comes from Stânceni.[1]
The church was brought to its current site in 1910. This is considered the date of the monastery's re-founding, by Miron Cristea. The starets’ residence dates to 1928. Early on, the monastery was directly subordinate to the Patriarch of All Romania; it later passed to the dioceses of, respectively, Cluj and Covasna and Harghita.[1]
Repairs and additions were carried out in 1975-1976 and 1985–1990. A museum was established in 1994; it houses church art, old books and Cristea's personal effects.[1] The wooden church is listed as a historic monument by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.[2]
Notes
edit- ^ a b c d Rusu, pp. 270-71
- ^ (in Romanian) Lista Monumentelor Istorice 2010: Județul Harghita Archived 2018-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
References
edit- Adrian Andrei Rusu, Dicționarul mănăstirilor din Transilvania, Banat, Crișana și Maramureș. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2000, ISBN 973-8095-70-0
46°55′49″N 25°20′35″E / 46.93035154227816°N 25.343107319050507°E