Humor Monastery: the painted church that glows in red
Humor Monastery (Mănăstirea Humor) is a convent about 5 km north of Gura Humorului in Suceava County, Romania, and one of the painted churches of northern Moldavia on the UNESCO list. Its church, built in 1530 and frescoed in 1535, is known for the reddish-brown tone that unites its paintings, a good reason for a detour in Bucovina.
In one fresco at Humor, a horseman hurls a spear at an Ottoman commander, and the rider is said to wear the face of the painter himself, Toma of Suceava.
The history of Humor Monastery
The story of Humor starts a little away from today’s church. According to old tradition, in the early 15th century, under Prince Alexander the Good, a nobleman named Ivan built a stone church by a stream near its meeting with the river Humor, where a small community of monks already had a wooden one. A charter of 13 April 1415 gave this monastery villages and lands. Later princes added precious objects and manuscripts, among them a Gospel book given by Stephen the Great in 1473, with a miniature that is regarded as one of the first lay portraits in Moldavia. The old church collapsed in the early 16th century for reasons unknown, and its ruins can still be seen some 500 metres from the present one.
In 1530 the great chancellor Toader Bubuiog, a leading official under Prince Petru Rareș who had been sent on missions to Transylvania, the Ottoman world and Poland, began a new stone church further to the north-west. The Slavonic inscription on the south wall names him and his wife Anastasia as founders and mentions the prince’s support. In 1535 he brought a team of painters, including, it seems, Toma of Suceava, who called himself a court painter of Petru. Their work covers the church inside and out, and it is dominated by shades of red.
The monastery continued to grow. In 1641 Prince Vasile Lupu surrounded it with stone walls and added a massive tower of four levels. In 1653, Cossacks led by Timuș Khmelnytsky looted and burned the site. After Bucovina passed to the Habsburgs in 1775, an imperial decree of the 1780s closed the monastery; the church became a parish church, and the monastic buildings served as a school and later as a store. After the union of Bucovina with Romania in 1918, the church was opened to visitors for its artistic beauty.
Major restoration came in the 1960s and 1970s. The paintings of the pronaos and the tomb chamber were restored in 1971–1972 with UNESCO’s help, and the roof was rebuilt with wider eaves to shield the outer frescoes. UNESCO inscribed the church in 1993 as part of the painted churches of northern Moldavia. Nuns returned at the beginning of the 1990s, and the community today combines prayer with work in painting and sewing workshops.
Curiosities about Humor Monastery
- The dominant colour of the frescoes is a reddish brown, and Humor is regarded, together with Voroneț, as probably one of the best preserved of the painted churches.
- In the scenes of the Siege of Constantinople, the attackers are shown as Turks even though the story is about the Persians in the 620s, a device used on several painted churches to speak to the dangers of the painters’ own time.
- Humor has no tower above the nave, and it was the first church in Moldavian architecture to have an open porch instead of the usual closed one.
- A narrow stair from the tomb chamber leads to a secret room, the tainiță, where the church treasury was hidden in times of danger.
- The wall paintings include local details: Moldavian musical instruments such as the cobza, animals like the wolf, the bear and the squirrel, and traditional woven cloths.
- The founder Toader Bubuiog prepared his own tombstone while still alive, and he is buried in the tomb chamber of the church.
Tours near Humor Monastery
Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:
Visiting Humor Monastery: what to see
- Look first at the outside: the Last Judgment on the west wall, the better preserved south wall with the Akathist Hymn and the Siege of Constantinople, and the broad shingled eaves that protect them.
- Inside, find the votive portraits of Petru Rareș and his family, and of the founder Toader Bubuiog and his wife Anastasia in the tomb chamber.
- Next to the church stand the square tower built by Vasile Lupu in 1641 and a 19th-century wooden bell tower at the entrance, while the ruins of the monastic cells survive on the south and east sides.
- The convent is still a place of worship and the nuns’ workshops are part of daily life here, so dress and behave respectfully.
- Arbore Church (about 17 km), Moldovița and Sucevița (about 23 km each) and Bogdana (about 28 km) are the nearest places on this site, and the area also lies on the Via Mariae route. Check the current opening hours before you go.
Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.
Map: where Humor Monastery is
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors
Photos of Humor Monastery
Questions
Where is Humor Monastery?
It lies about 5 km north of the town of Gura Humorului in Suceava County, in the historic region of Bucovina in northern Romania.
Why is Humor Monastery famous?
Its church is covered with 16th-century frescoes, painted in 1535, whose dominant tone is red. It belongs to the painted churches of northern Moldavia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
Who built Humor Monastery?
The present church was started in 1530 by the great chancellor Toader Bubuiog, with the support of Prince Petru Rareș. An earlier monastery from the 15th century stood a few hundred metres away.
Is Humor Monastery still active?
Yes. It was closed under Habsburg rule in the 1780s and revived as a convent for nuns at the start of the 1990s.
What is the tower at Humor Monastery?
It is a square tower built by Prince Vasile Lupu in 1641, with a ground floor and three upper levels, where defenders and the monastery’s treasures could take refuge.
What else can you see near Humor Monastery?
Arbore Church is about 17 km away, Moldovița and Sucevița monasteries about 23 km, and Bogdana Monastery about 28 km.
Also nearby
Arbore Church
Suceava · small painted church built in 1502
17 km away
Moldovița Monastery
Bukovina · fortified nunnery with UNESCO frescoes
23 km away
Sucevița Monastery
Bukovina · fortified convent with a UNESCO painted church
23 km away
Bogdana Monastery
Rădăuți · oldest church in Moldavia, princely tombs
28 km away