Cercul Gospodinelor (The Circle of Housewives Restaurant))

Within the parish is also the former hermitage of St. Apostles Peter and Paul'', which belonged to the Bistrita Monastery, but which until 1989 was a myrrh church. The church "Saints Apostles Peter and Paul" (Doamna hermitage), is also called "the hermitage across the valley". Among the old churches that adorn the Piatra-Neamţ municipality today, there is no doubt the Doamna Church, whose immaculate walls guard a small plateau to the right of Bistriţa, under the forested foothills of Cernegura. The building impresses at first sight with its small dimensions and its simplicity, a sign that it was built to serve the needs of faith and piety of a monastic community with a small number of inhabitants. The strong walls, which sometimes exceed the thickness of 1.5 m, rise according to the usual flat plan, with well-contoured apses and which on the outside present three flat faces joined at an angle. The gabled roof, slightly flared above the apse of the altar, unfolds uniformly up to the short belfry that rises at the western extremity, above the original entrance" (M. Dragotescu - 2003). At the time of the first consecration, the church had only one room, and much later the porch on the longitudinal axis of the nave and the vestry on the southern side, next to the apse of the altar, were added.   The narrow porch is covered with a star vault supported by four pairs of ribs, which contrasts with the stylistic purity of the semi-cylindrical vault of the nave, which extends even above the altar. The lateral apses are hollowed out in the thickness of the walls, and above the exit from the nave there is a small cage that provides access to the belfry. Restored in 1991-1993, a porch was added on the southern side. The Doamna Church had no painting either inside or outside. The interior was made between 1995-1998. Above the entrance to the porch, two mosaic medallions with the portraits of the Saints Apostles Peter and Paul were recently executed. On the other hand, the tapestry, made of three cabinets of impressive proportions, showcases the entire range of sculptural motifs characteristic of a neo-Byzantine style somewhat autochthonized through the massive presence of decorative elements taken from the folk art of the Bistriţa Valley. The upper registers contain icons painted directly on the boards and the ones at the base removable icons, separated by miniature columns, artistically carved. Stylized plant motifs dominate with authority the fields between the icons and a large part of the surface of the royal doors, and the faces of the saints, painted by Mihai Zugravul, stand out through expressiveness and a happy combination of colors.   The following inscription found right on the iconostasis provides the chronological precision necessary to date this creation with undeniable artistic qualities: "This holy iconostasis was made through the diligence of His Holiness Kir Kalestru, hieromonk and priest of this hermitage, at 1802". Regarding the dating of the monument, it is difficult to specify the year of construction, given the lack of any epigraphic or documentary mention to remember it. Of great help in the approximate dating of the Doamna Hermitage is the inscription on the stone cross that has been preserved as a heritage document in the endowment of the church: "Here rests the servant of God Hieromonk Mitrofan, by whom this Holy Church is made" which indicates the date of the founder's death on December 6, 1790. It follows that the church was built before this year, probably 1789 (?), the iconostasis being installed later by the hieromonk Kalistru, the successor of the founder Mitrofan. Historian Marcel Dragotescu (2003), shows that "taking into account the specifics of Romanian hermit life and the evolution of other monastic places in Moldova and in the area, we believe that the Doamna Hermitage was built since the middle of the 18th century as a small wooden church, and later, between the years 1788-1790, the current brick church was built". In favour of this point of view are the liturgical books that have been preserved, the oldest dating from the 1760-1785 period: a Gospel printed in the 1762 period with a note written in Cyrillic letters on several pages, an Octoih edited at Bucharest in 1774 and a Triod appeared in Râmnic in 1784.  Foto & text  credit: www.monumenteneamt.ro

"This holy church was built through the effort and expense of Ioil, hegumen of Bisericani, 1776 - / s - Hs - Nika. " The "Assuption of the Mother of God" church in Vânătorii Pietrei is built of fir beams on a stone foundation, in a specific Moldavian style, with a cruciform plan, the side apses and that of the altar being slightly pronounced. The south porch and the pronaos that extends the nave of the church to the west are later additions, as is the blind spire with a bulbous cover, which still gives more suppleness and amplitude to the whole building. The gable roof in two pitches, with flared edges, is rounded at the apse of the altar and above the western extremity. All the apses have a pentagonal covering of boards on the outside, the spaces between the lateral sides and the apse of the altar closing at right angles. Inside, the vestibule and pronaos have a flat roof, but the nave rises through an elegant semi-cylindrical longitudinal vault, which extends to the iconostasis. The lateral apses are covered in an arch and the altar is dominated by a transverse supporting vault, towards which the ribs of a sphere segment converge. The current wooden strucure is of recent date and attracts attention through the vivacity of the colors and the expressiveness of the icons that compose it. On the other hand, the original tapestry, made together with the church in the 18th century and preserved in the Văratic Monastery Museum, is a piece of great artistic value and extraordinary beauty. Made of linden and oak wood, the old temple from Vânătorii Pietrei strictly respects the hierarchical and spatial arrangement specific to Orthodox Christian iconography, but what is striking at first sight in these paintings is the combination of different but not eclectic stylistic elements, from which resulted in a unitary assembly of certain originality. The psychology of the biblical characters emanates a certain Byzantine hieratism, the chromaticism used has that specific Renaissance inner glow, and the frequency of locally inspired secondary plans insistently refers to the frescoes from Voroneţ and Suceviţa. The wooden Church of the "Assuption of the Mother of God" in Piatra-Neamț is listed as a historical monument. The assembly has the code NT-II-a-B-10559 and consists of the following components: - The "Assuption of the Mother of God" wooden church (code LMI NT-II-m-B-10559.01) - Bell tower (LMI code NT-II-m-B-10559.01)

The Ivaşcu wooden house was built at the beginning of the 19th century from shaped beams over which successive layers of plaster were later applied. The high foundation, made of river stone fixed with mortar, was executed with great care, thus becoming the most important element in the aesthetics of the facade and the building as a whole. The asymmetric body of the construction is fragmented by an open porch, supported by 5 wooden columns and with its own covering. Moreover, this porch, which is the characteristic element of constructions of this type, appears as a southern development of the porch with braced arches, which stretches along the entire length of the facade. The sense of asymmetry of the construction is also maintained by the entrance located on the left segment of the porch and the facade, although the main door has a central position. Finally, under the porch, the elevated entrance to the cellar opens in an arch, with doors that evoke the old medieval gates and provide the entire building with a particularly picturesque touch. Although the reed roof has been modified and the excess of plaster fades the naked beauty of the wooden walls, the Ivaşcu wooden house remains, at least as a memory, a true island of the past in the effluvium of the city's current modernization.

The "Stejarul" Biological Research Centre is a branch, without legal personality, of INCDSB Bucharest and was founded in 1957 by the decision nr. 2271/1.11.1956, as a branch of the Faculty of Biology and Geography from the A. I Cuza University, Iasi, Romania. The current headquarters is in a house on the list of historical monuments in the city, built at the beginning of the 20th century.

The "Buna Vestire" church in Piatra-Neamţ, located on 1 Decembrie 1918 street, has a rich history of three centuries. The history of this place of worship begins in 1719, when the boyar Iordache Dărmănescu, together with his wife, Safta, built a church in the area, which originally belonged to Gârcina. Since then, the neighborhood took the name of Dărmănești. But, as a boyar church, until 1930, it was led by monks. Both founders are commemorated annually, in the Annunciation service. A lesser-known thing from this old church should be mentioned: here is the icon of the Mother of God with the Child, dressed in silver, whose first mention dates back to 1661. However, the icon is much older, and the year 1661 appears as the year in which it was performed the first miracle mentioned in the eight medallions that are on the edge of the icon. On this small icon, there was also a small medallion, which may have been made of precious metal, because it is also found written: "Imagination and measure of the holy and miracle-working icons of the Most Holy Mother of God from Caplunpvschie". Photo & text credit: www.viatanemteana.info

The Annunciation Church in Piatra-Neamț was built between 1779-1787 from wooden beams, arranged horizontally and "ended" in a dovetail, on a stone foundation and covered with thatch. In 1999, the church was relocated from Bistrița (a neighboring locality), under the care of Archimandrite Ciprian Zaharia, the abbot of the Bistriţa Monastery, on the Cozla hill, to a place where the "Draga Hermitage" was located in the past, but which burned.

 The house was built in 1898 by Dimitrie Corbu (former mayor of Piatra-Neamț in 1899, 1905, 1907 and 1913). The columns, capitals, ornamentation, tall rooms, the shape of the building itself and the shape of the roof betray an architect conquered by the Baroque style.   Luminița Moscalu, the director of the "Victor Brauner" High School in Piatra-Neamț, described the beautiful building as follows: "L-shaped ground floor building". The main entrance has a large portico, two Ionic columns, capitals with volutes, two massive pillars with two engaged columns, connected by arches in full girdle. The ornamentation of the stucco cartouches is done in roroco style. It specifies eclectic architecture with a dominant baroque". Photo & text source: www.mesagerulneamt.ro

Built in 1929, in the center of the city of Piatra-Neamț, and registered in the National Heritage list, the beautiful building of the Military Center is known among the residents of Piatra as the "Gendarmerie". In the past, the location served the two institutions. Unfortunately, it is currently unused and in an advanced process of degradation. But even so, many details can still be admired on the main facade and the street facade.

In the northern part of the city rises the Cozla hill, with altitudes of 657m at the point called "Trei Coline" and 679m at the point "Trei Caldări" (close to the village of Gârcina). Mount Cozla has the shape of an elongated peak from north to south and is made up of layers of different marls, clay shale, layers rich in fish fossils and algae, also represented at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Piatra Neamț. From the point called "Trei Coline" start tourist routes that lead to Dărmănești, to Cârloman or to the area of stone marmites called "La Trei Caldări" by the locals. It is good to know that this route is approved and is very accessible to the general public. You will find here, in an isolated rock, three round hollows with a diameter of approx. 60cm, whose origin has not met the consensus, considering that we are either facing a karst phenomenon, or periglacial, or with the character of aeolian marmites formed by the long action of the winds. On the Cozla hill, springs of chloride-sodium and sulphurous mineral waters were discovered in 1882, characterized by the analyzes made at the time by Petru Poni, and which were used in the treatment of digestive and circulatory ailments. Over time, irrational exploitation led to their clogging. The viewpoint on the Cozla hill plateau is one of the most impressive. You will be able to admire the whole city, the valley of Bistrița, but also the imposing Ceahlău Massif. On foot or by gondola, this place is not to be missed! Remember that the view is even more impressive at sunset.