Green is the colour that defines Suceviţa, and it is a green you have to see to believe. The monastery, in the Bukovina hills of northern Romania, was built at the end of the sixteenth century by the Movilă family, princes of Moldavia, and its church of the Resurrection is covered, outside as well as in, with frescoes that run in unbroken bands over every wall. Where the neighbouring monasteries of Voroneț and Moldovița are known for blue and yellow, the dominant tone here is a deep, mossy green, and the effect in the shade of the surrounding spruce is almost underwater.
The painted churches of Moldavia, a group listed by UNESCO in 1993, served a practical purpose. Most of the congregation could not read, so the walls told the Bible and the lives of the saints in pictures, and the outer paintings faced the weather on a wide overhanging roof. Suceviţa is famous for the Ladder of Virtue, a huge fresco of the soul's climb to heaven, in which a line of tiny figures ascends a ladder while demons drag the sinners off the rungs. Look for it on the north side of the church. The monastery is also fortified, with high stone walls and corner towers, because this was frontier country and the Ottomans and Poles were never far away. Nuns live here today, and visitors should dress modestly and keep voices low.
The ride to the monastery is a pleasure in itself. The valley is lined with traditional wooden houses with carved gateways, hay meadows, and slopes of spruce, and the road up from the Moldovița side crosses a forested pass with curves, short climbs and a surface that is generally good. Expect farm vehicles, horses and carts and families walking to church on Sundays. Fog and cold rain can arrive quickly even in summer, and winter brings snow.
Suceviţa is a village of about two and a half thousand, and fuel is better found in larger towns such as Rădăuți or Câmpulung Moldovenesc. The small guesthouses in the village serve home cooking, with polenta, sour cream, cheese, smoked meats and sarmale, stuffed cabbage, and the nuns' stall sells honey, icons and jam.
Go in the morning on a weekday, before the coaches arrive from Suceava.