Voroneț is known as the Sistine Chapel of the East, and it earned the name with a colour. The little church of St George, built in 1488 by Stephen the Great, prince of Moldavia, is covered inside and out with frescoes, and the outside, especially, glows with a deep blue that has never been exactly replicated and is now called Voroneț blue. The west wall carries a vast Last Judgment, added in 1547, in which rivers of fire pull the damned toward the pit while saints, angels and a procession of animals look on. Legend says that Stephen built the church in three months, three weeks and three days after a victory over the Ottomans.
It is one of the painted churches of Bukovina, in northern Moldavia, which UNESCO listed in 1993. Others in the group are Humor, Moldovița, Suceviţa and Arbore, and they are all different, with their own colours and stories. The paintings were meant to be read by people who could not read, and the exteriors are full of saints, scenes from the Bible and sieges, set under wide overhanging eaves that protect them from the rain. The church sits in a small village in a green valley, with the nuns' dwellings next door, and is run today as a convent.
For a rider, Bucovina is a joy. The roads around Gura Humorului, the nearest town, wind through forested hills and valleys with well-kept villages, wooden houses and haystacks, and they climb to passes such as Mestecăniş, at about a thousand metres, with open views and a good surface. Traffic is moderate, though lorries and horse-drawn carts appear at times, and the weather can change quickly in the mountains. May to June, when the meadows are in flower, and September, when the beech woods turn gold, are the best months. Not far away, the Slătioara primeval forest is one of the oldest and best-preserved stands of beech in the Carpathians.
Gura Humorului, three kilometres away, has fuel stations, restaurants and plenty of guesthouses, and Bucovina is known for hospitality, with homemade food that includes sarmale, cabbage rolls, and cornmeal mush with sour cream. Women are asked to cover their heads and legs at the monastery, and men to wear long trousers; photography inside is restricted, so ask first.