About 40 kilometres from Chișinău, tucked away in the oak forests of the Codri, Căpriana Monastery is one of the most beloved and revered places in Moldova. Founded in the days of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, it is one of the oldest monasteries in the country and has been linked from the start to the great voivodes, beginning with Stephen the Great. Getting here, along roads that wind through villages and forests, is also a small journey into the rural and spiritual heart of Moldova.
The complex brings together three churches from different periods —one of them, the Church of the Dormition, is considered the oldest still standing in all of Moldova— along with the monks' cells, a monastic cemetery where notable figures of the country are buried, and well-kept gardens. Closed and looted during the Soviet period, Căpriana was among the first monasteries to reopen with 'perestroika' in the late 1980s, and it was restored as a symbol of the revival of Moldovan identity.
This practical guide tells you what to see in Căpriana, how to get there from Chișinău by public transport or on an excursion, what to expect when visiting a working monastery (including its dress code and etiquette) and how to combine it with the nature of the Codri. It's a quiet, free and very authentic getaway, ideal for getting to know rural Moldova beyond the capital and the wineries.
The history of Căpriana goes back to the first half of the 15th century, in the heyday of the Principality of Moldavia. The first major documentary mention dates from 1429, when the voivode Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun) granted it the rank of royal monastery. Shortly afterwards, Stephen the Great (Ștefan cel Mare) took it under his protection, and around 1545, under his successor Petru Rareș, the stone Church of the Dormition of the Virgin was built; it is considered the oldest surviving church in Moldova. For centuries, Căpriana was one of the most important monastic centres in the principality, with lands, a valuable library and a prominent role in Moldovan religious culture, although it also went through periods of decline and was tied to monasteries on Mount Athos. In the 19th century, under the Russian Empire, the other two churches of the complex were built: St Nicholas (1840) and, in the early 20th century, St George (1907). The hardest blow came in the Soviet period: like so many monasteries, Căpriana was closed, religious activity was banned for decades, and the grounds were used for other purposes. With the national awakening at the end of the USSR, the monastery reopened in 1989 —one of the first to do so— and since then it has been restored and has once again become a major pilgrimage centre and a symbol of Moldova's spiritual and national revival. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The heart of the country: the capital, Chișinău, surrounded by the Codru forests, ancient monasteries and villages whose churches hold centuries of history.
Read the history of Chișinău and the centre →A local guide tells you in half an hour what no sign at the site will ever explain. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. There are not many in Chisinau, but the ones there are worth it. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Tap the cards below and have a look.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
In the heart of the Codri, the dense oak and beech forests that in the Middle Ages covered central Moldavia and gave its people a place to shelter, one of the oldest and most revered monasteries in the country was born: Căpriana. Tradition places its origins at the beginning of the 15th century, when that wooded spot, then called Codrii Lăpușnei, was home to hermits and small religious communities drawn by its solitude and silence.
The first significant written mention dates from 1429, in the time of Voivode Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun), who ruled the Principality of Moldavia from 1400 to 1432 and was one of its great organisers. In a document from that year, Căpriana appears raised to the rank of royal monastery, meaning it was protected and supported directly by the prince. That link with the court meant that, from very early on, the monastery was more than a simple spiritual retreat: it became an institution with lands, income and a role in the life of the principality.
The Principality of Moldavia was then a young but thriving state, squeezed between great powers — the Kingdom of Hungary, Poland, the Tatars and the growing Ottoman Empire — and with a strong Orthodox identity. Monasteries like Căpriana were centres of faith, culture and economic power, and many were personally tied to the voivodes, who founded or protected them as an act of piety and also as a way of asserting their authority. Căpriana was born into that world, and owes its importance to it.
The name that gives Căpriana its greatest prestige is that of Stephen the Great (Ștefan cel Mare), the voivode who reigned from 1457 to 1504 and became Moldavia's great hero. Stephen won dozens of battles defending the principality against the Ottomans, Hungarians and Poles, and over the course of his reign he founded or endowed an impressive number of churches and monasteries — tradition speaks of almost fifty — many of them as thanksgiving after his victories. Căpriana came under his protection and care, which strengthened its standing and its wealth.
The monastery's most valuable building, however, went up under one of Stephen's successors: his son Petru Rareș. Around the middle of the 16th century (roughly 1542-1545), the stone summer church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Adormirea Maicii Domnului) was built, and today it is considered the oldest church still standing in all of Moldova. With its thick walls, compact plan and sober silhouette, it is a beautiful example of medieval Moldavian religious architecture and the treasure that keeps drawing pilgrims and visitors.
Over the following centuries, Căpriana was one of the most influential monastic centres in the principality. It built up lands and donations, had a valuable library of manuscripts and religious books, and took part in the cultural life of the Moldavian Orthodox Church. Like many monasteries of the period, it also went through times of decline and was looted in troubled years, and at one stage it was attached — as a 'metochion', or dependency — to monasteries on Mount Athos, which connected it to the wider Orthodox world while also reducing its independence.
In 1812, after the Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire ceded to Russia the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia, the region between the Prut and the Dniester that came to be called Bessarabia. Căpriana, like the rest of the area, ended up inside the Russian Empire, and its life became subject to the church policy of St Petersburg, which sought to integrate and control the local Orthodox Church within Russian structures.
During the 19th century, the monastery was gradually transformed and enlarged. In 1840 the winter church of St Nicholas (Sfântul Nicolae) was built, a church with more classical lines designed for services in the cold season, reflecting the taste and administration of the Russian period. At the start of the following century, in 1907, the third church of the complex went up, dedicated to St George (Sfântul Gheorghe). This completed the trio of churches visitors walk through today, each from a different era: the medieval Moldavian one, the 19th-century Russian one and the early 20th-century one.
The monastery remained a spiritual landmark for the rural population of the area, mostly Romanian-speaking and deeply Orthodox. After the First World War, with the union of Bessarabia with the Kingdom of Romania (1918), Căpriana became part of the Romanian Orthodox Church. That Romanian period, however, would be relatively short: the great upheavals of the 20th century were still to come, and they would hit monastic life hard.
The Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in 1940 and, after the interlude of the Second World War, the consolidation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1944 onwards marked the hardest chapter in Căpriana's long history. The Soviet regime was officially atheist and hostile to organised religion: over the following decades, most of Moldova's monasteries and many of its churches were closed, their communities scattered and their buildings turned over to other uses or simply abandoned.
Căpriana did not escape that fate. Religious activity was banned, the monastic community was dissolved and the grounds were put to uses unrelated to their original purpose, falling into decay and neglect. Much of its heritage was lost or dispersed. For decades, one of the oldest and most symbolic monasteries in the country stood silent, like so many other places of worship silenced by Soviet rule.
The revival came with the national awakening of the late 1980s. With 'perestroika' and the resurgence of Romanian and Orthodox identity in Moldova, Căpriana became a symbol of that recovery: it reopened in 1989, one of the first monasteries in the country to return to religious life. Since then, and in independent Moldova after 1991, the complex has undergone major restoration work that has given back dignity to its three churches, its cells and its grounds.
Today, Căpriana is once again a fully working monastery and one of Moldova's great pilgrimage sites. On its patronal feast days and at the major Orthodox celebrations, the grounds fill with worshippers who come from Chișinău and from all over the region to attend the liturgy, light candles and venerate what they consider one of the holiest places in the country. Its value is not only religious: as a cradle of Moldavian culture and keeper of centuries of history, it has also become an emblem of a recovered national identity.
For travellers, Căpriana offers a different experience from the capital and the wineries. There is no hustle and bustle here and no big crowds of tourists, just the silence of the Codri forests, the sound of the bells and the unhurried rhythm of monastic life. Walking through its three churches — starting with the venerable Church of the Dormition, the oldest in Moldova — strolling around the grounds and taking a look at the village and the nearby forest is a way to get close to the heart of rural, Orthodox Moldova.
The surroundings complete the appeal: the Codri, with the oldest nature reserve in the country, and emblematic trees such as the oak associated with Stephen the Great, create a landscape full of symbolism. Many tours combine the monastery with nature or with a home-cooked meal at a rural guesthouse, where you can try the local food and wine. In this way, Căpriana sums up in a single place much of what makes Moldova special: its Orthodox faith, its medieval history, its peaceful nature and its winemaking and farming traditions, all just forty kilometres from Chișinău.
