October 13, 2016

2818 ROMANIA (Prahova) - Ghighiu Monastery


Ghighiu Monastery (located at 5km from Ploieşti), is one of the few dedicated to the Life-giving Spring. The oldest testimonies about it dates from the late 16th century, when was mentioned in these places a skete of Logothete Coresi and his wife. In 1817, Măriuţa Râfoveanu and her mother Ana donate a plot of land and a part of their wealth to raise a hermitage (a wooden church and a few cells). The present church was built between 1858 and 1866.

Its architecture relates to the Brâncovenesc style: the clubs shape, a single tower on the nave and a porch open at the front. The painting was made by Gheorghe Tattarescu in 1864. The monastery was set on fire on several occasions, and in 1922 was burned its valuable library. During WWI, the German army destroyed some of the cells, banished the monks, and converted the monastery in a cannery. The monastery will be bombed for the second time in 1944. Patriarch Justinian Marina restored from scratch, in the 1950s, the entire monastic ensemble, turning it into a nunnery (1952).

Besides the main church, there is in the cemetery a stone and brick chapel built between 1832-1833, which is dedicated to Resurrection of Lazarus and which was damaged by the bombing in 1944. From the original painting remained only the iconostasis and the entrance wall. In the monastery we find valuable things, among which we can admire the icon of the Virgin and Child - miracle-working icon - coming from the Syrian Christians in the 16th century.

About the stamp
The stamp is one of the two issued by Romania on May 5, 2014 for Europa stamps 2014, with the theme National Music Instruments. The designer Victor Telibaşa conceived this topic as an artistic illustration shaped around the main idea of the intertwining between religion and secularism. The issue illustrates images of musical instruments that can be found in the iconography of Orthodox churches in Moldavia, as well as pictures of traditional music instruments such as: the lute, the cobza, the fiddle, the flute, the tulnic.
• the tulnic (2.10 RON)
• the lute (14.50 RON) - It's on the postcard 2818

References
Ghighiu Monastery - Romguide
Ghighiu Monastery - Visit Prahova
Mănăstirea Ghighiu (rom) - Wikipedia

Sender: Denise
Sent from Bucureşti (Bucureşti / Romania), on 03.10.2016

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