Old Orhei - at the Crossroads of Seven Centuries

The tourists after the visit "beloved Butucheni". The citizens of the capital run from the noisy streets outside the town to the bank of the river. Persons working in film-industry shoot movies and pop-celebrities make clips here. Even the secluded monk chose the rocky cloister as a habitat in Old Orhei. If you have ever been here, it would be impossible to dislike this place where the histories of seven centuries met.

The New Town.

The Cloister

In Old Orhei - we got used to call the territory between the villages Butucheni and Trebujeni is situated in the unique rocky cloister above the river Reut. The walls in the cloister are always cold it is cool here even in hot weather. Going down the staircase inside the cloister you have to bow and hold to the icy stone of the walls. How could you survive in this "stone sack"? Yes, it is nearly impossible. But even today the cloister is inhabited like seven centuries ago. It is clear that at the beginning people hid in the rocks from enemies. But why do they do it today?  

 - I think I was born to be a monk in this sacred place, - says the monk Efim ( he was Nicolai Babich before the monastic tonsure).Why this place the monk can't explain. It keeps him well, I can say, with stranglehold so, that he can't imagine himself without this place. You can hardly imagine but there are no conveniences here even the fountain is far away! The heating is nowhere near! The room where are the altar and the monk's couch and also few empty monastic cells. The monk Efim talks to tourists answers their questions and doesn't refuse to take pictures of him.

In a cave not far from the rocky cloister on the same river bank were revealed parts of the temple, which was here for some time. The stone inscription runs that there was a cloister here built by Orhei's pircalab Bosii. According other documents - the Moldavian charters - the cloister existed here long ago.            Not far from belfry, which is situated above the rocky cloister, is another surface monastery. The walls of Uspensky Church built in the 19th century are painted in nice yellow color.

The life in museum.

The native people living in houses built in the 15th century receive tourists hospitably. The lifestyle as well as the house-decoration underwent changes within a century or so. That is why it is necessary to visit the house-museum to understand the Moldavian peasants' way of living 150 years ago. It is situated at the foot of the mountain where the rocky cloister is built. The atmosphere of the peasant's house of the 19th century is recreated in the museum. Every thing is genuine here taken from one ancestor to the other in all small villages- furniture, implements, carpets, icons, dishware.

Another Archeological Museum is at the entrance of the town Old Orhei. You can see fragments of walls from the times of the Golden Horde. The hotel and restaurant  are also in the town. It is possible to finish your visit  with great dinner where you can taste the Moldavian national dishes and the good Moldavian vine. You can stay and live enjoying the silence of rocks...

Moldova Turistica 2008