Distance from Chişinău: 211 km (3 hours 5 minutes) Location: Calaraseuca village, Ocnita district, MD-7114 Church of the Assumption monastery Founded in the period of 1648 to XVIIIth-XXth centuries. Abbot: hegumeness Eufrosinia (Pesterean) When did the first hermit appear on these territories? No one knows the answer. It is only known that a hermit monk turned one of the caves he was living in into the “house of God”. The people who were living in this halidom were changing one after another - then monks came, and in the nineteenth century – the nuns. Over time, the sanctuary was extending and beautiful churches began to appear on the same territory. A few ancient documents indicate that this monastery - in the beginning of the eighteenth century - was a hermitage of Saint Sava monastery, dedicated to the Holy Sepulcher. Among the founders of the monastery, Maria Cantacuzino was identified when, in 1747, she offered a part of her territory to the foundation of the sanctuary. In 1780, the old church could no longer be used, and Hagi Marcu Donici, from Moghilau (from the other side of the Nistru river), has built a church and a bell tower, and sanctified them in 1782, these being dedicated to the Assumption. After 1961, the Calaraseuca monastery was converted into a hospital for mentally disabled children. The winter church was converted into a club and the summer one into a deposit for the hospital. In 1989, because of the degradation of the Monastery, the hospital was evacuated, so the monastery was taken over by a local agricultural enterprise. On 3rd of May 1991 the Calaraseuca monastery of nuns was reopened.
