CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN

This church could have been built in the 15th century when Căuşeni was founded in 1455, or during the reign of Vasile Lupu (1634-1653), or even later. Its present form dates from renovations initiated between 1763 and 1767 by Grigore Callimachi. The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin is of great cultural and historical importance. Its walls are very low (about 2 m). The Ottomans had imposed limits on the height of the churches so that they did not compete with the mosques and this semi-buried architecture was a way of gaining a few meters. The height of the outer walls had to be less than or equal to a soldier on his horse. The church has an elongated shape, with a single semi-cylindrical vaulted nave and a large apse in its eastern part. Its portal is decorated with heraldic bas-reliefs representing lions. The interior frescoes were painted in 1763-1767 by Stanciul Radu and Voicul. They are a synthesis between the traditional techniques of Byzantine frescoes and those of the Romanian regions of the Middle Ages. These wall paintings correspond to the final stage in the development of medieval frescoes in Moldova. The interior walls of the church also preserve inscriptions made in 1763. On the west wall of the church, there is an inscription made by the founders in Romanian language but in Cyrillic letters. Three other inscriptions in Greek are visible.

Since 2016 restorations have been launched.