Icoana Noua Hermitage in Neamț County

Icoana Noua Hermitage is administered by Neamț Monastery (the oldest monastery in Neamț County) and stands in a place called “Valea Icoanei”, on land used for grazing cattle. The hermitage dates back to 1941. Protosyncellus Vasian Iosub initiated the construction of this hermitage at the edge of the glade, where the Nemțișor river meets the stream beside Rusu mountain, and was appointed its abbot in 1946.

By the time Icoana Noua Hermitage was consecrated, a new building with a chapel, monastic cells and a refectory had been built here. The consecration service took place on 6 May 1951, and the chapel was dedicated to the “Transfiguration” and the “Nativity of the Mother of God”.

The chapel’s iconostasis is made of wood and was painted by the artist Procenco. His attractive, distinctive icons impress with the originality of their composition. The chapel’s interior was not painted until 1990, by the artist Dumitru Gabor.

Icoana Noua Hermitage on Google Maps

Despite repeated attempts to build a church here as well, the hermitage’s abbot was prevented from doing so by the communist regime. In 1972, however, he managed to build a bell tower with three towers and a central passageway. A small chapel dedicated to “Saint Dimitrie the Great Martyr” was built on the upper floor of the tower and painted in 1984 by Archimandrite Bartolomeu Florea.

The chapel’s interior is distinctive for its chandelier, made from deer antlers gathered by the monks in the forest, and the lamps on the iconostasis, also made from deer antlers. In the passage beneath the bell tower, directly below this chapel, lies the tomb of Protosyncellus Vasian Iosub, the founder of Icoana Noua Hermitage.

Photos of Icoana Noua Hermitage, Neamț County

It was only in 1991 that work could begin on a new block of monastic cells and the main church at Icoana Noua Hermitage. The hermitage’s main church was built between 1994 and 2001, using brick with stone cladding on the exterior. Built in the Moldavian style of Stephen the Great’s era, with a tower above the nave, the single-nave church comprises a porch with two entrances and a dividing wall, a narthex, a nave and a sanctuary.

The exterior walls are light in colour and built from river stone, with decorative elements separating the façade from another, plastered section containing recessed niches painted with images of various saints. The interior frescoes were painted between 2000 and 2005 by the artist Ciuhureanu Tudorel, while the choir stalls and iconostasis were made by the sculptor Mihai Croitoru.

The building has an upper floor and includes a chapel, a refectory, monastic cells for the monks and several rooms for pilgrims.

Icoana Noua Hermitage currently has 4 resident monks who live as a monastic community and maintain the daily order of worship; in winter, Matins is held at midnight. Many worshippers come to this hermitage for services, prayer and tranquillity, and their contributions made it possible to build the new church and the other buildings in the courtyard.