The Arbore Church
Being a historical monument of Romanian medieval popular art, in the artistic and tourist world, the church deserves to be known by lots of believers and this is the reason that made us present it. It is situated on a branch of the national road that connects Suceava with Radauti and is build in the middle of the village surrounded by very old trees.
The place got its name from the landowner Luca Arbore, Suceava's gatekeeper in the time when waivode Ştefan cel Mare ruled. On the 7th of March 1502, Luca Arbore bought the place from the descendents of landowner Harman, the buying act being recognized by Ştefan cel Mare and also by his descendents: Bogdan the Third and Ştefaniţa the prince. Luca Arbore started building on the 2nd of April 1502, the church here, which had been finished by the 29th of August 1503.
The only thing part of the whole complex that cone existed that still remains is the church. Having an important role in his family, Luca Arbore prepared the tomb above and raised a baldaquin in 1503, with an inscription of the heraldic sings of the family. Because of an unproved betrayal, Luca Arbore and the prince Ştefaniţa were decapitated in 1523, and are buried together with Juliana, Luca Arbore’s wife in the church.
The church’s architecture consists of a massive construction, tall, build in rock, on a boulder foundation, the walls being over 1 meter thick. The construction blueprint is three-conical, with the interior divided into the altar, naos and pronaos. The altar, with the semicircular apse, is lightened by a window situated in the East. The altar screen or catapetesma is made from sculpted wooden. The naos consists of a rectangular space, widened at the Nord side, and two recesses disposed in a circle, dug in the thickness of the side walls.
The Arbore Church is lightened by a window on each side. The pronaos has a one of a rectangular shape, narrowed by a system of multiple-stage arcs, for longitudinals and transversals, forming a square at the top side that, by the help of pendentives, was covered with a semispherical cap. Light comes from a southern and northern windows.