Mănăstirea PERI (Săpânța, Maramureș, Romania)

Please turn ON English subtitle! - Vă rog să activați subtitrarea în românește! The Sapanta-Peri Orthodox Monastery is situated on the outskirts of Sapanta (Maramures, Romania), 2 km north of the famous Merry Cemetery. Although it is a new monastic ensemble, it actually revives the old Peri Monastery built by the grandchildren of Dragos Voda Voivode in 1389 in Peri, now in Ukraine, on the site of an older hermitage. All the places have the same patron: St. Archangel Michael. The old Peri Monastery was famous for the title (in 1391) of Stavropighie (a church directly subordinated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople in order to not be submitted to the kings of Hungary), through the Pahomie and St. Joseph Stoica parents, through theological school here and as a cultural center where religious books were translated and printed in Romanian. It was also the oldest Romanian monastery, and for 312 years it would have been the headquarters of the Romanian Episcopate of Historic Maramures (now about one third in Romania). The old Peri Monastery was destroyed in the troubled times of the 18th century, in its place remaining just stones. The old monastery was rebuilt not in the original place, but at a short distance here, in Sapanţa, the place of the future church being sanctified in 1991, exactly 600 years after the foundation of the old Peri Monastery (1391). Works began in 1997, but are not yet completed (for example, the main church at first floor). However, the monastery is active, the church from the demisol being sanctified in 2003, and in 2005 the nunnery community led by Mother Abbot Agnia Ciuban was installed. The monastery's complex, built in Maramures style, includes the Church, the Monastic House, the Summer Altar, the Pangar (church store), in a beautiful ambience given by Livada dendrological park. Must underline that the church, with its 75 m (78 m?) Height, is the highest wooden church in the world. Only the cross (object of art) on the top of the tower is 7 m high and is wrapped with 4 kg of gold leaf.