Terra Mirabilis
Wonderful Earth

      The readers of this site are faced whit a series of images significant for the treasures of Orthodox sacred art created along the history of the Romanians.

         The paintings, sculptures in wood and stone, the miniatures, embroideries, goldsmithery articles, the printings, the great architectural ensembles, the sceneries the later are sited in, however reveal something existing beyond them, infinitely more complex and important than each particular work of art. It is the Romanians` relation with sacredness, archetypal Divine Beauty, generating order, balance, harmony and spirituality.

         There exists a natural relation between the spiritual identity of the human being and the space, where it asserts itself. Space makes its contribution to the achievement of the resistance structures of the being. That is why place and the antic are so tightly interconnected.

         The Romanian space is humanized, spiritually transfigured by the familiarity, the love and the steadfastness of those inhabiting it from times immemorial. However transfiguration transcends the immanent aspects and relations of nature and history, of the determinations conditioned by them. This transfiguration is structured by the pancosmic, pancallic and phillocalic outlook, which has been avowed and promoted consistently by Orthodoxy. Transfiguration places people into dialogue with God. It enhances the relationships between the reason of things and their meaning, between the Romanians' character and communion with God.          

        Viewed from this angle, Romanian world reveals itself in a permanent dialogue and communion with the people and peoples from everywhere.

        The aesthetical originality and splendor of Romanian art of Orthodox sacred inspiration is the outcome of happy synthesis. The prevailing autochtonous substance, whose roots are traceable black to prehistory, the local traditions and their unique atmosphere were associated in sacred creation, on the one hand- with Byzantine and eastern influences, and on the other one- with west- European suggestions, selected by the creators preeminently from the stylistic range of Romanic, Gothic and Baroque art.

         Those who behold, thrilled with emotion, at present, the elegance, robustness and variety of church buildings, which jointly configurate the Moldavian style in 15^th- 17^th century architecture, are able to find out a significant fact. In these constructions there coexist, completing harmoniously and supporting one another, most different constructional elements, such as the trefoil plane and the vaulting systems erected on arcades in console, which utilizes the succession of curving segments from a concave to a convex line, such as in the west- European architecture of the late Gothic but also the median stringcourse, taken over by artists from the immemorial traditions of wooden constructions, specific for the Romanian ethnic space, and which appears as an ornament in relief, which runs along the façade of edifices, diving them into two tiers, which enhances their stateliness and balance. The Moldavian style in architecture is one of the loftiest and most complex expressions of the Romanian artistic genius. It is a profoundly original style and simultaneously a style of synthesis.

        The mural painting from the 15^th-17^th centuries, which has been preserved in the Romanian monasteries from northern Moldavia, impressive through monumentality, clarity, the superlative quality of the old paint (the famous blue of Voronet is widely known throughout the world), chromatic harmony and the vigorousness of drawing, is also a phenomenon of synthesis. The autochthonous traditions of the miniatures on parchment, especially those imposed upon by the Neamt and Dragomirna monasteries, served as models to the muralists, who painted the monastic ensembles from Moldovita, Humor, Sucevita and many others from northern Moldavia. At the same time, important elements of Byzantine tradition and certain influences of west European art are discernible in treasures of Romanian mural painting from the 15^th-17^th centuries.

   With good reason, experts state that Romanian  sacred art of Orthodox inspiration, structured in its decisive constituent parts, by the age-old autochthonous essence, is simultaneously a brilliant synthesis, profoundly specific, of European culture.

       At present, more than ever, the Orthodox Church is called upon to carry out her decisive role of ”mater et magistra ” of the Romanian people. And she will succeed in achieving this, because the Romanian people has always identified itself with its Church.