Research Bucovina. Outside detail of the church from Arbore village and some parishioners at a table (1980)

Ioan George Andron · 1980

The church was built on the site of an ancient hermitage and was intended to serve as a cemetery of the Arbore family. The construction works began on April 2, 1502 and were completed, in the same year, on August 29, as the Pisania testifies. It was built of raw stone and brick was used at the vaults. The outer walls of the western part were extended by about 2.5 meters and joined to the upper part by an arcade, thus obtaining a semideschis space, delimiting to the outside, on the facade from the west, a large niche, apparently intended for the loft of the bells. The place of worship is free of peat, having a roof in four waters rounded to the east as a result of the curvature of the apse, high, oblu, with ample lap. Under the roof is a carved stone cornice. The church is famous by the mural painting in fresco, which adorns both the interior and the exterior. The exterior walls of the church were painted in 1541, with the partial restoration of the interior painting. Part of the frescoes deteriorated as a result of the fact that the place of worship was uncovered for a long time. The mural painting was no longer preserved at all on the north wall and only partially on the altar apse. It was preserved, with some damage, on the south facade and entirely on the west one. The low arches, without spirals, slopes and the Moldavian arches system, all give the church elegant proportions, proving a construction of great value.