Mănăstirea Hangu-Buhalnița

The Hangu Monastery, also called Buhalnița, was a royal founding, one of the oldest monastic places of worship at the foot of Ceahlău. If its beginnings are shrouded in legend, the “barnovschian” building begun to compete with the great monasteries of Moldavia, thanks to the wealth in estates, slaves, villages, assemblies of monks. The conflicts with other monasteries, with boyars, with the inhabitants of the region or even with the reign regarding the borders was numerous. The first Phanariote ruler of Moldavia, Nicolae Mavrocordat, gave the monastery to the Greek Patriarchy of Alexandria with all its wealth. A difficult period has followed for the people from the estates administrated by the Greeks, with numerous petitions and complaints, but few resolved, the administration could not involve in the internal issues of the monastery. Until the secularization in 1863, the situation remained the same, despite some commissions that have done many investigations. It has become parish church, as it is today. It escaped from demolition once with the appearance of the lake by rebuilding. The history of this worship place, founded by martyr-ruler Miron Barnovschi, is presented with the support of archive documents, collections of documents, books and magazines of the period, recent studies dedicated to the monastery or to the “movilean” ruler’s reign.