The monastery is located on Mount Pietrosu, at 650 m altitude, 12 km from Piatra Neamt. Access is by car on DN15, Piatra Neamt – Bicaz. Starting from Piatra Neamt, after about 7 km, on the right, way, up, (5 km) is paved, has many switchbacks and leave the traveler`s eyes to admire the exquisite beauty of Bistrita Valley.
Bisericani Monastery, founded by Bogdan Voda III, Prince of Moldavia (1504 – 1517) was built between 1508 -1512 on the foundation of a wooden church, dedicated to the Annunciation, built by the hermit Joseph and his disciples came from the Jordan desert. The wooden Church of Joseph (hermitage Bisericani) was burned and plundered in 1498 by the Tatars. After burning the church, Joseph and his disciples have decided to go to Mount Athos, but the departure to Athos was stop by a miraculous event by the appearing of Holy Mother of God, in an oak. In the reign of Stefanita Voda (1517-1527), grandson of Stephen the Great, the monks at Bisericani succeedes, with its help, to raise a more enduring sanctuary of stone. . The monastery church has the footprint of changes made by Petru Rares (1527 – 1538 and 1541 -1546) in the year 1535. The flowering that hermitage had reached in the eighteenth century, did it to become a convent. After Cuza’s land reform in 1864, the monastery enters a decline decreasing the number of its inhabitants. In 1885, King Charles I (1866- 1914) transforms it into a prison.
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