On the hill near the Dobruşa Monastery, I noticed three crosses. I later found out that among the people the place is called "Golgotha", where three heroes of Prince Stephen the Great had fallen in battle.
From the history of the monastery, he quoted: “In addition to the monastery, there was a tile production workshop, several mills and an oil factory. Starting from the 70s of the century. In the 19th century, there was even a school for 30-35 children from the neighbouring villages. In 1924 the school of singers was founded.
In 1908 the monastery had 1,872 ha of arable land, located in different places. Next to the church, there were large areas of orchards and three vineyards, and several houses had been built in Chisinau, Telenesti and Balti. The monastery had a rich library and printing house.
During the time of Bishop Visarion Puiu, the monastery experienced a period of both spiritual and material flourishing. There was also a choir and a seminary in the monastery.
Dobruşa Monastery, as the university professor I. Simionescu once stated in the Diocesan Bulletin Episcopate of Hotin (from 1928) had not only a picturesque view, a high and effective economic organization but also represented a true centre of Romanian spirituality and culture. he held one of the leading places in Bessarabia. In 1919 the monastery had over 2,000 ha of land, in 1940 it was in full bloom.
In 1959 it was closed, being transformed into a hospital and warehouses. The hermitage on the hill became a pioneer camp, the old cemetery of the monastery being levelled with bulldozers and transformed into a sports field. The crosses on the hill of "Golgotha" were also destroyed. An auxiliary boarding school was organized in the buildings of the monastery, whose students, after a very short time, destroyed the icons and scattered the library. The monastery was reopened in 1993 and is now partially restored.
Since 1994, with the blessing of Metropolitan Vladimir, Archimandrite Damian and Hieromonk Nectarius, together with the faithful, the monastery returned to active life, repaired all the churches, decorated them with paintings and icons and completed the repair of the hermitage. The monk Sofian Boghiu, a refugee during the occupation from 1940, is today the abbot of the St. Antim Ivireanul Monastery in Bucharest and he donated 4,000 books on the Dobruşa Monastery with a religious subject from his library. In these more favourable times, the three crosses that remained only in the memory of the people were reinstalled on the hill "Golgotha". The monastery with its surroundings has once again become a place of attraction for believers and tourists.
Dobruşa Monastery can also serve as an example of the beneficial influence of the Polish Baroque style on Moldovan architecture. The whole monastery is located on a rectangular platform, with the gate and the bell tower located in the north corner. In the centre of the courtyard rises the summer church dedicated to St. Nicholas, the most imposing building of the complex. She is
of the longitudinal plane having three towers located one after the other, on an axis also longitudinal. The elongated eaves of the building thus accentuate its originality. The part of the nave is delimited by three semicircular apses. The octagonal drum of the tower is decorated with cornices and flat pilasters, located at the corners. However, the murals were not kept inside, but the original atmosphere of the room was preserved.
The bell tower is placed near the gate; it may have previously been located just above it, as its first level has a penetrating passage with two arches. The upper part of the bell tower, rigidly fixed, however, creates an impression of gravity. The dome is small and embossed, taking the shape of a curve, a typical element for Moldovan bell-type churches.
The church of the cathedral is interesting by the location on a single longitudinal axis of the three well-lit drums, with majestic towers. Although it has an original composition and contains elements of foreign influence, it remains in many respects the peculiarities of Moldovan architecture of the century. XVII- the beginning of the sec. XX. The massive volumes of the church are simply and elegantly decorated. For decoration, the well-fixed and rounded corners, the slender pilasters, the friezes with flat denticles and cornices in small graduated steps were chosen. The facades of the bell tower are also very well decorated. The weight of the main forms determines the construction of an architectural character similar to that of the cathedral.
Today, Dobruşa Monastery has three churches: the summer church of St. Nicholas, the winter church of the Transfiguration and the church above, in the cemetery, built on the site of the old wooden church. The dimensions of the summer church are length 37 m and width 15 m, with a coefficient of proportions of 2.47.
In general, the architecture of the Dobruşa Monastery, but especially of the Saint Nicholas Church represents a model of architectural stylization of the national-romantic direction. Traditional plastic forms (the plan with three successive rooms, having an elongated and trilobate character) are intertwined volumetrically with the elements of order in the decoration of the facade. The church is oriented on the axis of the east-west plan. The part of the altar is delimited by three semicircular apses. The summer church, as a result of the synthesis process, also preserves some elements of the Moldavian style from the 15th century. XVII, for example, the decoration of pilasters and cornices. The niche windows are oval in shape. After the altar, the orientation of the church is east with a deviation of 3º to the north.
The churches have buttresses to the left and right of the apses. Dobruşa Monastery, in general, has its Moldovan style with influences of Baroque architecture."
(Source of old photographs and historical information - Daniel Siegfriedsohn)
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