page_title: Văratec Monastery
section_title: The Transfiguration Church
hierarchical_section_title: Văratec Monastery / Other churches of the monastery / The Transfiguration Church
caption_attribution_description: Română: Mănăstirea Văratec
context_page_description: Văratec Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox women's monastery located in north-eastern part of the country, in Văratec village, Agapia Commune, Neamţ County. It is situated at 12 km from Târgu Neamț and 40 km from Piatra Neamț. It is the largest community of nuns in Romania, with more than 400 nuns living there.
  The monastery was founded in 1785 by Schema nun Olimpiada, with her confessor, Father Iosif. In this work, mother Olimpiada was guided by Father Paisius Velichkovsky, hegumen of Neamț Monastery. The monastery was set under the guidance of Agapia Monastery, which was close by, and afterwards the Monastery became an independent monastery in 1839.
  Massive stone walls enclose the main church, "The Dormition of the Virgin Mary," the abbot's building and the administrative buildings and the monastery's Museum, where the "Queen Mary" workshop used to be. The monastic precinct is surrounded by the monastery village, made up of rural traditional houses, where the nuns live, and which lie along narrow alleys.
context_section_description: The Transfiguration Church was built during 1845-1847, through the assiduity of mother Eufrosina Lazu, and it was consecrated on 2 November 1847. The construction of this church took place as an extension of the monastic settlement towards south and south-west. The titular saint is the Transfiguration, celebrated every 6 August.
  On the south wall of the edifice is an inscription in Romanian with the following text: "This church was built on the expense of the well-doers and through the assiduity of Her Holiness mother E(u)frosina Laz(u) superior mother of Varatecul, and was consecrated in 1847, November 2".
  The church has a rectangular shape, with a wooden porch in the south-western corner. On the church's roof there are three tall wooden steeples. It was initially segmented in narthex, nave and altar but they added a wooden porch later, to protect the south-west entrance. The iconostasis is old, dating from the middle of the 19th century. The church was painted in 1965 by Eremia Profeta (1914-2002).
  A bell tower was built at the entrance of the church's yard, containing a bell from the time of mother Olimpiada (1838) and another one from Eufrosina Lazu (1851).
  Today the courtyard of the church is the entrance to the actual monastery graveyard, situated in the north-west of the monastery.
caption: "The Transfiguration" Church, consecrated in 1847
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