Bukovina

Bucovina, the "land of beech trees," is the north-eastern corner of Romania where spirituality took the form of colour. Here stand the painted monasteries — masterpieces of medieval Moldavian art from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, their exterior frescoes glowing in a deep, unmistakable shade, the famed "Voroneț blue," that has survived five centuries of weather. Voroneț, Sucevița, Moldovița, Humor and Arbore are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list and stand like open Bibles beneath the open sky.

Landscapes and craft

Beyond the monasteries, Bucovina unfolds in wooded hills, smooth pastures and villages of tidy, well-kept houses, guarded by the mountains. The Rarău massif, crowned by the Pietrele Doamnei crags, offers sweeping views over the ridges, while forests of beech and spruce shift dramatically with the seasons. Suceava, once the capital of Moldavia, still keeps its Princely Citadel, a medieval fortress watching over the town.

Tradition and reason to go

Craft remains vividly alive here: black-pottery workshops at Marginea, hand-painted eggs, weaving and woodcarving handed down through generations. The cuisine is warm and honest — hearty tochitură stew, sour soups, wild mushrooms, smoked meats and homemade plum brandy. A traveller comes to Bucovina for the deep stillness of the place, to meet the gaze of saints painted on walls half a millennium ago, and for the genuine hospitality of a rural world that still breathes to the rhythm of the seasons.