Bistriţa Monastery – Costeşti

Founded by the Craioveşti boyar (Romanian noblesmen), Barbu and his brothers Pârvu, Danciu and Radu, Bistriţa Monastery is dated to the year 1490. The present Church is neo-gothic, with generous dimensions, similar to a cathedral. It has a big tower, cylinder-shaped up on the nave and two smaller, parallel piped-shaped on the pro-naves, an apsis flanked by two lateral apsidioles and two triangle gables on the sides. The interior is impressive by dimension and the eye used to the Byzantian style will remain confused by the iconostasis in gothic style, done in Vienna. The painting of the Church, in oil, was done by the Romanian painter Gheorghe Tătărescu in 1850, and it is a realistic, monumental painting with large perspectives. The painting is modern, presenting on the walls at the entrance the portraits of Barbu Craiovescu and the prince Voyvod from 1855, Barbu Ştirbei. Inside, there also is the tomb of the founder.

One of the valuable decorations inside the monastery is the six faced icon, painted by a monk in 1833, representing Jesus Christ, Saint Mary and Saint John, on one side, and Saint Basil, Gregory and John, by ingeniously placing perpendicular panels on the main faces of the icon.

There also are the holy remains of Saint Gregory the Decapolite (lived in Asia, around 780 A.D.), brought here by Barbu Craiovescu, shortly after the founding, placed in a silver coffin, richly decorated, that came as a gift for the monastery from Lady Bălaşa, wife of prince Constantin Şerban-Vodă, in 1656.