The place of childhood remains forever in our hearts. When life takes us away from that special place, we are always nostalgic for it and for childhood!
Between the place where I live now and the place where I was a child is a distance of 400km. A distance that I travel a few times a year to quench my longing and nostalgia for the most beautiful part of my existence, childhood.
I grew up in my grandparents' house, somewhere in the north of Romania, in a province called Moldova. The grandparents, of course, are no more. Neither are my parents, but fortunately, my brother, much younger than me, stayed to live in my grandparents' house. That's why I have someone to go to when I miss the place where I grew up.
Moldova is a province that has something special. A tradition in monastic life. There are many monasteries in Moldova, most of them built more than 500 years ago. They have something specific to that place and that time in the past. Beyond a special architecture is the fact that they are painted both inside and outside with religious scenes. Some of them are part of UNESCO, i.e. part of the universal cultural heritage. Monasteries like Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita, Humor, Rasca...
The monastery I like the most is Rasca, built in 1540, which is about 20 km from my grandparents' house. Rasca Monastery is not among the most known and appreciated. It is somehow off the tourist trail. That's what I like best. It's almost deserted. Apart from the few monks who live there, we don't see many people and tourists.
Rasca Monastery
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.
It was a short three-day holiday that also had something special, totally unexpected and unforeseen. My brother told me that I had chosen the best time for my visit because the new monastery called Sihastria Rasca, which had been under construction for five years, was finished and the consecration ceremonies were to take place on the very day we arrived.
I had heard of this new monastery but knew nothing about it, only that it was situated in the middle of a forest.
We felt that our arrival there, just at the time of the inauguration, was a not-so-coincidental coincidence and we were delighted to go. Not at the main ceremony, because tens of thousands of people were going to attend and it would have been very complicated and tiring to get there. We went in the evening when it wasn't so crowded.
Access to this monastery was quite difficult, almost 10km on a forest road, at night through the forest. Difficult, but very beautiful!
The new monastery... Sihastria Rasca
When I saw the monastery I was shocked. I didn't expect this.
The church inside the monastery was entirely painted on the outside walls! Just like the churches of the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
I didn't think this would be possible. To build like in the Middle Ages. This gave me the opportunity to understand what the old monasteries looked like when they were built and painted. Now all those monasteries, and historical monuments, no longer have all the exterior painting, which has deteriorated due to climatic factors. Rain, wind, snow, and frost.
Since we are talking about monuments that evoke the past, I felt that I had to use only black-and-white images. As I was putting up the photos I remembered a superb film by Andrei Tarkovsky titled Andrei Rublev. Andrei Rublev was the most important icon and church painter in Russia.
The film, made in 1966, had a black-and-white image. Only at the end were Rublev's icons painted in color. This also leads me to put some color images at the end.
For me, it's easier to choose color or black and white. When I shoot in older places, places that remind me of the past, memories, and nostalgia, I like to change the photos to monochrome, especially black and white!
