Monasteries are where Romanian medieval art has survived best: princely and boyar foundations from the 14th to the 18th century, with painted churches, fortress-like precincts, museums of icons and embroideries, and the tombs of voivodes. The most visited are the painted monasteries of Bukovina, built under Stephen the Great and Petru Rareș and listed by UNESCO; the Neamț area gathers the largest communities of monks and nuns in the country, Oltenia has the foundations of Constantin Brâncoveanu, and Transylvania the pilgrimage sites of Nicula and Prislop. Almost all are working monasteries: visitors are expected to dress modestly and keep quiet, and some offer a bed for the night in their guesthouse. Parish churches, cathedrals, wooden churches and fortified churches are listed under Churches.
In Bukovina, Voroneț Monastery, Sucevița Monastery and Putna Monastery, with the tomb of Stephen the Great, can be seen in a single day. In Moldavia, Neamț Monastery and Agapia Monastery lie a few kilometres apart. Oltenia offers Horezu Monastery, founded by Constantin Brâncoveanu, and the Hațeg Country Prislop Monastery, with the grave of Arsenie Boca.
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Top 20The church founded by Stephen the Great in 1488, painted on the outside with the Last Judgment on a background of "Voroneț blue"; a UNESCO site near Gura Humorului.
Top 20Constantin Brâncoveanu's largest foundation, officially Hurezi Monastery: the model ensemble of the Brâncovenesc style, built in 1690–1693 and a UNESCO site since 1993.
Top 100Stephen the Great's foundation of 1466–1469, the site of his tomb, with the Treasury Tower of 1481 and a museum holding one of the richest collections of medieval embroidery.
Top 100The Movilă family's fortified monastery, built in the 1580s among the hills of Bukovina, with a church painted almost entirely inside and out and the famous "Ladder of Virtues"; a UNESCO site.
Top 100The church built in 1530 by chancellor Toader Bubuiog under Petru Rareș, painted outside in shades of red, with an open porch and Vasile Lupu's tower; a UNESCO site.
Top 100Neagoe Basarab's foundation of 1515–1517, with the twisted towers and stone lacework of the legend of Master Manole, and Romania's royal necropolis, from Carol I to Michael I.
Top 100Founded by Petru Rareș in 1532, with a church painted on the outside in shades of yellow and blue and the famous Siege of Constantinople fresco; a UNESCO site in Bukovina.
Top 100Mircea the Elder's foundation on the banks of the Olt, consecrated in 1388: the Holy Trinity church, with stone-and-brick façades, a Brâncovenesc porch and the prince's tomb in the narthex.
A princely monastery on an island in Lake Snagov, with the exposed-brick church raised by Neagoe Basarab in 1521, paintings from 1563 and the grave that tradition attributes to Vlad the Impaler.
A monastery for monks right beside the DN66 in the Jiu Gorge: the painted old church of 1812–1817, the two-level new church and the relics of St Irodion.
The monastery built by the sword-bearer Mihail Cantacuzino in 1690–1695 that gave the town its name: the old church with Pârvu Mutu's frescoes, the great church rebuilt for Carol I and a museum holding the Bucharest Bible.
The ruins of the only surviving Cistercian abbey in Romania, built around 1200 in the Early Gothic style, with its choir now serving as an Evangelical church.
The largest Baroque pilgrimage church in western Romania, its 67-metre towers rising above the Mureș, with a miracle-working icon and corridors covered in votive paintings.
The former metropolitan cathedral of Moldavia, built in 1514–1522 in the centre of Suceava and home to the relics of St John the New; its church of St George is a UNESCO site.
The Baroque Franciscan church of Șumuleu Ciuc (Csíksomlyó) holds a 16th-century statue of the Virgin Mary and is the goal of Romania's largest Catholic pilgrimage, at Pentecost.
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