Călărăşeuca Monastery
The Călărăşeuca Monastery ( Romanian Mănăstirea Călărăşeuca , Russian Каларашовский монастырь ) is a monastery of the Moldovan Orthodox Church in the Ocnița Rajon in the east-northeast of the Republic of Moldova, founded in the 18th century .
location
Coordinates: 48 ° 24 ′ 34.4 " N , 27 ° 50 ′ 10.8" E
The Călărăşeuca Monastery is located on the right (western) bank of the Dniester (Romanian Nistru) about six kilometers southeast of the city of Otaci . On the southern outskirts of Otaci, a side road branches off from the expressway (R8) towards Soroca to the east, which leads through the municipality of Călărășeuca, also Calaraşovca, along the river bank. Călărășeuca is a sprawling rural settlement consisting of one to two-story single-family houses with hipped roofs, which are surrounded by large gardens with fruit trees. The municipality of Călărășeuca (Calaraşovca) consists of the village of the same name, the center of which is reached after three kilometers from the junction at a bus stop and the new building of a church. According to the 2004 census, the village has 1725 inhabitants, of which around 90 percent are Ukrainians , 6 percent Moldovans and 3 percent Russians . The village of Berezovca with 567 inhabitants (2004) also belongs to the municipality of Calaraşovca a few kilometers south, across the road to Soroca. The entire municipality has 2292 inhabitants (2004).
The flat bank area is a maximum of 150 meters wide and is bordered by a steeply rising, densely forested range of hills that has been declared a landscape protection area. The village of Unguri lies nine kilometers south of Otaci on the border with Dondușeni Rajon . A bridge over the Nistru connects Unguri with the Ukrainian side (no international border crossing). Before the hill rising up directly on the river at the end of Unguri, the side road leaves the river valley and leads to the R9. The approach to the Călărăşeuca monastery branches off one kilometer after the last houses of Călărăşeuca and two kilometers before Unguri at a chapel. The closest monastery is the Rudi nunnery ( Mănăstirea Rudi ) founded around 1777 on the slope of a side valley of the Nistru. It is six kilometers south of Unguri as the crow flies, but cannot be reached along the river bank, but only via the R9 and the village of Rudi (on the Struve-Bogen ).
The flat, undulating wide landscape in the north of Moldova with heights between 300 and 400 meters, which is called forest steppe with grasses, bushes and low trees because of its original vegetation, offers natural retreats only along the rivers and side valleys of the Nistru and the Răut , in which therefore In the 17th and 18th centuries, monasteries were preferred. The oldest structures go back to late medieval caves of hermits, such as from the 11th century at the Țipova monastery ( Mănăstirea Țipova , in the Rezina district ), the venerated pilgrim monastery Saharna on the Nistru (Rezina district) and in Orheiul Vechi on the Răut.
The monastery is located in a small basin and is surrounded on three sides by steep hills that rise around 200 meters, except for the access from the river level. While the few forest islands in the country consist predominantly of oak and beech, a dense forest with a high proportion of conifers thrives on the hills of Călărășeuca. A hermit cave with a cross in front of it is located in a rock wall above the monastery. Several agricultural outbuildings and tractors show that the inhabitants of the monastery are busy cultivating the surrounding grain fields. The two large churches dominate the upper part of the complex, the center of which is a large water basin fed by three springs.
history
The monastery was built in a place where hermit caves had existed for a long time. A wooden church may have been built in the late 16th or early 17th century. The monastery was founded in the 18th century. In 1780 the old church could no longer be used and Hagi Marcu Donici, an abbot from Moghilǎu on the left bank of the Nistru, had the first stone church built, which was consecrated to the Assumption of Mary in 1782 . The Bessarabia region has belonged to the Russian Empire since 1812 . Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza , founder of the Principality of Romania in 1859, expropriated the Moldovan monasteries west of the Prut , which is why many monks moved east and the monasteries in the Russian sphere of influence gained popularity. In 1853, the noblewoman Elena Cantacuzino donated part of her property to the monastery. The construction of the second church lasted from 1854 to 1911. It was consecrated to Saint Mitrofan of Voronejului. There was now a larger summer church and a smaller winter church .
In 1916 the previous monastery was converted into a nunnery. The monks were distributed among other monasteries and nuns who fled Poland came during the First World War. In 1919, 120 nuns cultivated 50 hectares of arable land, 40 hectares of forest, 3 hectares of vines and orchards. With the annexation of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union in 1940, members of the Orthodox Church were exposed to aggressive atheist propaganda. The nuns were evicted from the monastery but gradually returned until their number reached about 100 in 1943.
At the time of the Moldavian SSR, Călărășeuca suffered the same fate as all monasteries that were closed in the early 1960s. After its closure on June 8, 1961, the Călărăşeuca monastery initially served as a home for people suffering from tuberculosis , later as a children's hospital, until the buildings were finally left to their own devices. With the establishment of the independent state of Moldova, nuns reopened the monastery in 1991. In 1999 the restoration of the main church was completed, the smaller church was re-plastered in 2006.
literature
- Frieder Monzer, Timo Ulrichs: Moldova. With Chișinău, all of Bessarabia and Transdnestria . Trescher, Berlin 2013, p. 157
Web links
- Mănăstirea Călărășeuca. moldovenii.md (Romanian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Calaraşovca, district Ocniţa . moldovenii.md
- ↑ Berezovca, raionul Ocniţa. moldovenii.md
- ^ Wilfried Heller, Mihaela Narcisa Arambașa: Geography . In: Klaus Bochmann, Vasile Dumbrava, Dietmar Müller, Victoria Reinhardt (eds.): The Republic of Moldau. Republica Moldova. A manual. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2012, p. 161, ISBN 978-3-86583-557-4
- ↑ 50 lei 2000. Călărăşăuca Monastery . Romanian coins (The monastery complex is shown on a silver coin from the year 2000.)
- ^ Orthodox Church . In: Andrei Brezianu, Vlad Spânu: The A to Z of Moldova . The Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland) / London 2010, p. 270