Baia de Aramă Monastery

Sfinții Voievozi monastery - Baia de Aramă
An outside shot of the monastery
45°00′01″N 22°48′16″E / 45.000287°N 22.804473°E / 45.000287; 22.804473Coordinates: 45°00′01″N 22°48′16″E / 45.000287°N 22.804473°E / 45.000287; 22.804473
Location	Baia de Aramă, Mehedinți County
Country	Romania
Denomination	Eastern Orthodoxy
History
Founded	1699-1703
Architecture
Status	Monastery
Style	Romanian architecture

Baia de Aramă monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Baia de Aramă) is a monastery in Baia de Aramă, Romania, located in the north-west area of Oltenia, in the Mehedinți Plateau, sheltered by a small depression, surrounded by the Dochiciu, Dealu-Mare and Cornet hills, it communicates through national roads with Târgu Jiu, Motru, Strehaia and Turnu Severin, but also with the Băile Herculane and Bala resorts.

The monastery has begun its activity already in the year 1703, and the church wall painting features fresco decorations, entirely conserved in their original form. The painting is specific to interior decorations of the late 17th century, beginning of the 18th century of the Romanian territory in between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube.

Initially inhabited by monks, the monastery was restored by the decision of the Metropolitan Synod in 2008, when it was reestablished as the Mănăstirea Sfinții Voievozi of the Baia de Aramă town, a nun monastery, under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Severin and Strehaia. Its abbess is nun Mihaela Păiuș (as of 2013).

Built at the bridge between the 17th century and the 18th century, the monastery church reflects the stylistic features of the previous times of cultural and artistic development and founder act emphasis, during the reign of Matei Basarab (1632-1654), registering in an artistic movement by which the Romanian County's architecture evolves into the new directions and visions of the Brancoveanian period. The influences of this historic and creative convergence area extend to the period after the reign of the great ruler, when the monuments from Oltenia in the beginning of the 18th century largely retains the stylistic features of the previous century, organically integrating themselves into the prior constructive era, while taking innovative elements from the opening and decorative variety of the Brâncovenesc style.