Secluded on the left bank of the Olt River, sheltered by Cozia Mountain and located nearly 2 km away from Cozia Monastery, Turnu Monastery was, for centuries, a very remote and unreachable place. Its name comes from a massive tower, located on a rock called "Teofil`s Peak", which was built by the Roman legions of the Arutela Roman Camp, in the 2nd century. The monastery was first called "the convent behind the tower", then "Turnu Convent" and finally "Turnu Monastery".
History tells us that, in the 15th and 16th centuries, some monks left Cozia Monastery and lived isolated, in completely poverty. Among those hermits the most renowned were Daniil and Misail, whose caves lasted until today. At the middle of the 16th century, more hermits built, on today's location of Turnu Monastery, a small wood made church. In 1676, after being promoted as Bishop of Ramnic, the Father Superior of Cozia Monastery, Varlaam, gives very special attention and care to the hermits from Turnu.
Becoming Metropolitan Bishop of Vlach Region, he builds another church, made of stone and brick. Here he sheltered the relics of Daniil and Misail and since that time, Turnu Convent became a settled monastic place, protected by Cozia Monastery. Between 1893 and 1901, after the railroad was built nearby, Gherasim Timus, Bishop of Arges, decided to build a summer residence at Turnu. This would have a double functionality: a spacious church and habitable rooms.
The church was built at the first floor and its dedication day was on the 6th of August. The drafts of this construction were made by Anton Grigorievici Lapinscky, a Polish established on Romanian lands; therefore that group of houses has a total different style than the one of the Romanian church.At 28th of October 1901, when the new establishment was sanctified, Turnu Convent became Turnu Canonical Monastery. Unfortunately a fire degraded badly the complex.
Later on, the church, the belfry and 2 houses have been reconstructed thanks to Bishop Nichita Duma and to the donations of the believers. Painter Belizarie remade the painting and the whole reconstruction was finished in 1935-1936. In 1959, under the communist regime, the monastery was closed and transformed, in 1961, in Resting House for the personnel of the Ramnic and Arges Diocese. In 1975, the monk Teoctist Dobrin the Resting House was reestablished as a convent.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the series Holy Easter 2016, about which I wrote here.
References
Turnu Monastery - Wikimapia
Sender: Dănuţ Ivănescu
Sent from Călimăneşti (Vâlcea / Romania), on 11.08.2016
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