RECEA Orthodox Nunnery (Mures County, Transylvania, Romania)

Please turn ON English subtitle! - Vă rog să activați subtitrarea în românește!
Recea, the Orthodox nunnery dedicated to "The Nativity of the Mother of God", is located about 14 km southwest of Targu Mures, near the airport. It is a relatively new monastery, but which soon gained great recognition, being visited by believers from all over the country.
The history of the monastery began in 1991 when, at the request of the Most Reverend Andrei Andreicut, who wanted the revival of monasticism in the Diocese of Alba Iulia, Mother Abbess Stavrofora Cristina Chichernea and the worthy of remembrance spiritual father Ioan Iovan, considered the founders of the monastery, came here from Bucharest. The first years were extremely difficult until two older constructions started in the 1980s, namely a church and a two-story building, were completed. The monastery becomes known and expands rapidly, in the years 1993-1995 the body of cells (with the actual cells, the abbacy, the refectory, the kitchen, annexes), the guest house, the entrance gate with gazebo and a beautiful multifunctional building (library, church and ethnographic museum, doctor's office, tailoring workshops) being built. The church becomes too small and with the consecration of the cells, in 1995, the foundation stone of the new grandiose church is laid, which will be erected in a single year. The new church has a cross plan, it is divided in the classic Byzantine style (Altar, naos, pronaos and porch), and from an architectural and ornamental point of view it is built in an eclectic, rustic Romanian style with Wallachian, Moldavian, Byzantine and Brancovenian elements. The great value of the church is the interior painting, which is actually not a painting, but a mosaic. The "painting" of the church in Murano mosaic was a titanic work carried out over four years by the painter Viorel Maxim, helped by nuns and volunteer believers. It would be the only church in Romania and in Europe "completely made in mosaic". At the completion of the painting, the church dedicated to the "Nativity of the Mother of God" was consecrated on November 7, 2003.
Father Ioan Iovan, the best-known confessor personality in the spiritual space of Mures, passed to the Lord in 2008, being buried in the small cemetery located behind the cells. For his faith, during the communist period Father Ioan was investigated and imprisoned between 1955-1964.