The Valley of the Twelve

Located in Piatra Neamţ, AAB Studio Central is a recently renovated accommodation, 33 km from Bicaz Dam and 35 km from Văratec Monastery. Among the facilities at this property are a lift and a minimarket, along with free WiFi throughout the property. The property is non-smoking and is set 41 km from Agapia Monastery. The apartment features 1 bedroom, a flat-screen TV with streaming services, a fully equipped kitchen with an oven and a fridge, a washing machine, and 1 bathroom with a shower. Towels and bed linen are provided in the apartment. For added privacy, the accommodation features a private entrance. Guests can also relax in the shared lounge area. Neamţ Fortress is 41 km from the apartment. 

Augbsurg Apart is located right in the center of Piatra-Neamț, in a beautiful historical building. It was built in 1919 by a businessman from Bucharest. After only two years, in 1921, he sold it to an important miller from Grumăzești. He lived in the house on the street, and his staff lived in the annexes behind. After the communist period, the property returned to the heirs, and in 2019 Mrs. Matasă, the owner of the Augsburg knitting factory, bought it from them. The new owner started an extensive restoration process in May 2021, finished in the spring of 2023 by reopening the main body. On the back side of the building and in the attic, but also in the annex at the back of the property, seven accommodation spaces have been very elegantly arranged - only apartments, with different compartments and sizes. On another side of the historic house, opening onto the boulevard, is the boutique store nadia & julia (by Augsburg). And on the other side Haute Bistro Cuisine & Cafe.  

The Cnejilor Palace is a ruined palace located in the village of Ceahlău in the commune of the same name (Neamț county). It was built in the 17th - 18th centuries by the boyars from the Cantacuzino family who owned the surrounding estates within the former Hangu hermitage. Obtaining the property right in 1839, the Cantacuzins transformed the monastic settlement into a fortified manorial courtyard, modifying the cells, building annexes, strengthening the enclosure wall. This is how the Cnejilor Palace was born, in fact a noble residence on the border between the manor and the palace, built according to all the feudal rules. Even if the palace has not (yet) been restored, the location is worth a visit due to its rich and interesting past.

The Durău Resort is a mountain resort, located at the foot of the Ceahlău Massif, on the territory of Neamț County, at a distance of approximately 100 km from Piatra-Neamț and 9 km from the Izvorul Muntelui (Bicaz) reservoir.

The Styrcea mansion, from Văleni Commune (Neamţ), has in recent years regained its splendor that it had at the end of the 19th century, thanks to a restoration project initiated and supported by the owner of the ensemble, Michael Edward David of Styrcea. Moreover, the restoration project won the first prize at the 2018 edition of the National Architecture Biennale. Descendant of an ancient noble family (Stîrce, Stîrcea or Styrcea), Baron Michael Styrcea (British and Romanian citizen) recovered his property in Văleni commune in 2009 (property confiscated by the communists in 1948) and, starting from 2012, started the restoration project of the mansion, according to archive images from the beginning of the 20th century. IMPORTANT: The location is currently not open to the general public, but it can be admired and photographed from the outside.

The Ancuței Inn is a well-known tourist inn located along one of the main European roads crossing Romania (E85), at a distance of 27 km from the Roman municipality and 40 km from the Piatra-Neamț municipality. As for location, it is in Tupilați commune. The inn was built at the beginning of the 18th century (year 1718, as it is written on the plaque placed at the entrance to the inn). It offered a stopping place for merchants traveling to Roman, Suceava or Iași. The Ancuței Inn became famous by placing here the action from the volume Hanu-Ancuței (composed of 9 stories), published in 1928 by the great Romanian writer Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961). Currently, the Ancuței Inn is one of the most visited restaurants in the county. It is also good to know that there are accommodation spaces here, but also that various private events or for the general public are organized.

The Catargi mansion in Tupilați was built in 1842, on the site of an older one. The area of ​​10,400 square meters of the manor, which included, in addition to the manor itself, a series of outbuildings (caretaker's quarters, stables, cellars and barns) was surrounded, following the model of the fortifications of the great feudal residences, by a rough stone wall with circular towers of defense at the corners, dating from the medieval era. Local tradition attributes both the towers at the corners of the enclosing stone wall and the secular oak next to the mansion to the reign of Stephen the Great (1457-1504). The mansion has one floor, its facade being divided by a vertical pavilion with a window into two unequal bodies. The mansion has an vault like shaped entrance with pillars and arched openings. The mansion and the outbuildings were part of a unitary architectural ensemble together with the "St. Voievozi" Church in the same village, which was founded in 1811 by the boyar Ștefan Catargiu (1789-1866), a high value member of the Principality of Moldavia.  Also, the church is a historical monument.  After the establishment of the communist regime in Romania in 1948, the mansion was expropriated by the state and transformed into the headquarters of an agricultural cooperative. It was used for many years in a row without any repairs or even maintenance. No longer cared for, it began to decay. In a 1978 report, the mansion is shown as dilapidated, with the beams and roof about to collapse. After the overthrow of the communist regime, the mansion passed into the administration of the Tupilați City Hall, which did not concern itself with its rehabilitation, its legal situation being uncertain. Over time, the degradation of the mansion increased. Unfortunately, part of the roof and east wall with the ceilings collapsed and warning plaques were installed on the building and walls. The resolution of the case dragged on and only in June 2008 did the Prefecture release the decision for the possession of the mansion with its dependencies and 35 hectares of land from the former estate to the heirs of the Strâmbeanu family.

The Secu Monastery is a hearth of spiritual life whose age is almost 500 years. On the feudal domain of the Neamț Citadel, on the valley of the Secu river, around the year 1500, a group of hermits settled who, in time, founded in 1530 under the leadership of Hieroschimonach Zosima, a monk from the Neamț Monastery, the hermitage with the same name: Zosima's Hermitage . Ruler Petru Rareș built the church of the Zosima Hermitage on the site of the current church of the monastery cemetery. The hermitage was fenced with a stone wall in 1550 by Elena, the voivode's wife, and her sons, a small part of which is still preserved at the entrance to the monastery, next to the current church of the cemetery, where the entrance gate to the hermitage was and its bell tower. The same ruler Petru Rares, in his first reign, strengthened his control over the lands that belonged to the estate of the Neamț Fortress, donating these lands for the use of the monks from the valley of the Secu river. Bishop Melchisedec Ștefănescu, speaking about the beginnings of the Secu Monastery, recalls that until 1910 there was on the wall of the monastery bell tower, in the niche where there is now a fresco of St. John the Baptist, the original painting from the church built by Voivode Petru Rares, painting which was damaged by grinding due to the harshness of the times. During the time of voivodes Alexandru Lăpușneanul (1552-1561 and 1564-1568), Petru Șchiopu (1574-1579) and Aron Tiranul (1591-1595), the Zosima Hermitage received some donations for the use and maintenance of the hermit monks from these places. Towards the end of the 16th century, the Hermitage of Zosima experienced a special development, especially from an economic point of view: private grants are now supplemented with royal grants and confirmations, and the name of Abbot Dosoftei, one of Zosima's disciples, is often mentioned in the reasons for being close to the oldest and most powerful monks from the Neamț Monastery.

Sihăstria Monastery is located in the northern part of Neamț county, approximately 22 km from Târgu-Neamț.  The first foundation took place in 1655 by Metropolitan Varlaam Motoc, being carried out by the hermit Atanasie together with seven of his disciples. The church was destroyed over time and rebuilt in 1734, when Bishop Ghedeon of Roman rebuilt it in stone, on the site of the old one. In 1821 it was burned by the Turks and was rebuilt in 1824, with the support of Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi. The monastery attracted visitors from all over Romania who came to Father Archimandrite Cleopa, who was and is one of the most appreciated Romanian priests of all time. He died in 1998 leaving 16 volumes of teachings in a collection entitled "Father Cleopa is speaking to us". His tomb is in the premises of the Sihăstria Monastery and can be visited, next to the hermitage of Saint Cleopa.