Ceahlău Monastery

The settlement named after "The Change of Face" and "The Good Faithful Voivode Stephen the Holy and the Great" was built on a plateau of the Ceahlău Massif, being surrounded by large rocks. The small monastery is located in the immediate vicinity of the Dochia Hut. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

From the most remote times, around Mount Ceahlău there were numerous hermitages or caves with hermits, monks and nuns. Some were consumed by fire, snow avalanches, or rocks falling on top of them. Only Durău Monastery survived the times.

The toponymy of the mountain and the places around it shows the presence of hermits and monks since ancient times and is recorded by documents since the 15th century. It is difficult to know when the first hermits came to these places and what was their origin. We can easily believe that they were native monks returned from Mount Athos or monks from the great monasteries of Moldavia. Some toponyms that remind us of them have been preserved, others have changed or disappeared. We remember: "The Foot of the Hermit", "The Pit of the Hermits", "Gideon's Cave", "At the cells", "Vucol's Cave", "Iosaf's Cell", "Mothers' Meadow", "Panaghia" (from the Greek, "The one in all Holy" - in honor of the Virgin Mary), "Monk Stream", "Ghenadie's Meadow", "Seraphim's Foot, "Gherman's Cave", "Altar Stone", "Gideon's Wide Stone", " Martin's Creek",  etc. There is also another kind of toponymy: "Shepherd's Stone", "The soldier’s hat", "Budu's Tower", "Pharaoh", "The Great Enclosure" ‒ also called "Throne of the Gods".