Sinaia Monastery Photo

Photographer’s Note

The "Great Church" of Sinaia Monastery, Romania.

The Sinaia Monastery was founded by Prince Mihai Cantacuzino in 1695 and named after the great Sinai Monastery on Mount Sinai. As of 2005 it is inhabited by 13 Christian Orthodox monks led by hegumen Macarie Bogus. It belongs to the archdiocese of Bucharest.

The monastery consists of two courtyards surrounded by low buildings. In the centre of each courtyard there is a small church built in the Byzantine style. One of them - "Biserica Veche" (The Old Church) - dates from 1695, while the more recent "Biserica Mare" (The Great Church) was built in 1846.

Here is buried Take Ionescu, former Prime Minister of Romania.
Prince (Spătarul) Mihai Cantacuzino founded the monastery upon his return from a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. It took five years to complete the first buildings from 1690 to 1695. It was supposed to serve as a Monastery as well as a fortified stronghold on the way from Brasov to Bucharest.

During the Russo–Turkish War, 1735–1739 the Monastery was deserted and the valuables hid inside a bell and buried. During that war the Turks have fought a battle with the troupes stationed within the walls of the Monastery and won. The ottomans had burned the area and broke the wall in two places.

The Great Church was first built during 1842-1846 as a smaller building. The Board of Civil Hospitals did rebuild parts of the church from 1897 to 1903. The nowadays appearance is created by George Mandrea, an architect who combined the Moldavian style with thick walls with the brâncovenesc style from Walachia. A green enamel belt encircles the building with three intrerupted lines. It is said this is the symbol of the Unity of Holy Trinity in one God and the Unity of the Three Romanian Kingdoms in one country.

tempocativo, darek1978, asajernigan, s_lush, saylan-cb, brano14, kermit350, bukitgolfb301, AiresSantos, jafadabret, Jonathan_Tree, faubry has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

tempocativo (439) 2009-02-01 4:15

Bela igreja e bela fotografia. Gostei muito. Bonito enquadramento

Aviller (3086) 2009-02-01 4:41

Nice composition from a good low angle. The colors are richly saturated and the level of sharpness is good aswell. Maybe I'd have tried to correct the lens distortion but I suppose it works either way.

darek1978 (11143) 2009-02-01 5:42

Hello Paul,
This is a well composed shot a piece of wonderful architecture. I really like these strong colours and great contrast between beautiful, cloudy sky and very interesting church. Well done!
Regards,
Darek

asajernigan (13921) 2009-02-01 5:52

Paul,
This is a nice Papagolfade for the Sunday morning. The lighting and colors are great with excellent sharpness and detail. The angle of the shot is fine giving the scene a good sense of depth and detail. You have a bit of lens distortion here (barrel effect) which can be improved in PP.
TFS,
Asa

jonathan_hart (22564) 2009-02-01 6:21

beautiful architecture, the wide angle distortion is well managed, indeed it's a fine framing
jc

sacavem (8092) 2009-02-01 8:01

Olá Paul,

You found a great POV for this photo. The architecture of Monastery of the Sinaia is fantastic and different of my country. TFS,
Well done...

Best regards
Filipe

dta (4432) 2009-02-01 9:10

Hello Paul ,
A very beautiful chuch , well framed , and with nice colors . But what a pitty that you don't have taken a closer shot of the wonderful cross .
Regards
Denis

s_lush (1904) 2009-02-01 9:39

Hello Paul,
This is a very successful capture of this well-proportioned Orthodox church. Its style is different from that of Russian or Ukrainian churches, but it is beautiful too. The shot shows that ornamentation and paintings, traditional for external walls of Romanian churches, are here too. Perfectly well captured, with all details visible!
Best regards,
Sergiy

[workshop] [compare]

saylan-cb (12726) 2009-02-01 9:40

Hi Paul,
This is a very beautiful compositions with great colours and good POV.The light,details all excellent.
TFS/Regards

brano14 (1848) 2009-02-01 10:00

Hello Paul,
Very interesting place with a great story. Well composed photo, nice colors and sharpness.
Thanks!
Brano

pazufferey (2412) 2009-02-01 10:00

Bonjour Paul,

Magnifique bâtisse, une très belle architecture mis en valeur par ton excellent cadrage.
Une bonne luminosité pas trop forte qui rend les couleurs très douce.
Amicalement
Patrick

kermit350 (8988) 2009-02-01 13:50

Good evening Paul, a beautiful sight on this building made imposing by this framing taken of a rather low point, the color that revêt the monastery of Sinaia is melted well in its environment, all present, visible, or is suggested by the complete note of the photographer in this image, he emanates from this photograph an impression of cleanliness, in spite of the wars Russo-Turkish L `building with found his size passed, or all with the image appears with its place and balanced, sincerely .....................
Bonsoir Paul, Une belle vue sur ce bâtiment rendu imposant par ce cadrage pris d’un point assez bas, la couleur que revêt le monastère de Sinaia se fond bien dans son environnement, tout est présent, visible, ou suggéré par la note complète du photographe dans cette image,
il émane de cette photo une impression de propreté, malgré les guerres Russo-Turque l‘édifice à retrouvé sa grandeur passée, ou tout à l’image paraît à sa place et équilibré, bien amicalement

delpeoples (5410) 2009-02-01 20:36 [Comment]

Show Comment

bukitgolfb301 (4433) 2009-02-02 5:28

Hello my dear Paul

Yes, I like very much this photo, as the color combination and unique angle. you use wide focus lens but focus from the low to up. So perspective effect has much impact. Great Job !

Best regards

Takero

Graal (57292) 2009-02-02 23:44

Hi Paul,
nice presentation, an interesting architecture of monastery. Fine Your remembrance from journey in Romania. Well done photo. I like it.
Gr., Aleksander

AiresSantos (41418) 2009-02-03 1:26

Hi Paul
Wonderful colours and POv in this excellent picture fo Sinaia Monastery.
Lovely sky and fine light management
TFS and have a nice day
Aires

jafadabret (38997) 2009-02-03 10:17

Bonjour Paul.
Ce monastère est superbe. J'aime cette architecture et les couleurs. Il y a un petit manque de netteté dû à la compression pour TE. Avec un logiciel comme PhotoFiltre c'est facile d'y remédier en prenant le filtre netteté, faire plus net et corriger ensuite avec Édition "Atténuer plus net".
Bonne soirée,
Jacques

[workshop] [compare] +

hdl (6735) 2009-02-03 12:29

Dag Paul. Mooi klooster; goed onderhouden ook blijkbaar. Da's iets anders dan onze kerken; heel mooi genomen. Hij staat er perfect op.

danyy (68040) 2009-02-03 22:47

Bonjour Paul,
un excellent placement pour prendre cette basilique assez déformée, j'aurais tenté un reressement au moins léger.
Excellente lumières.
Bien à toi.
daniel.

Jonathan_Tree (4052) 2009-02-18 10:10

Hi Paul!
Interesting monastery, very interesting. Good POV and very good capture. Nice light and colors.
Cordially!

faubry (32197) 2009-02-21 8:01

alors tu connais la Roumanie aussi, quel beau pays et quels gens délicieux!!! y retourne tu de temps en temps? sais tu que nous organisons avec mon association, des voayges solidaires dans les maramures et Bucovine, en juillet?
superbe monastère!
à plus
francine

adramad (3300) 2009-03-08 14:38

Hello Paul.
A good composition and a nice architecture.Good balance of the color.
Regards.
Luis.

Bianconeri78 (643) 2009-04-04 3:04

Hi Paul,
Really nice architecture that I had never heard of. Thanks for putting this on my map! As for the example it shows how great a tilt and shift lens is if you take a lot of architectural shots. Converging verticals have always bothered me and here you might have included more sky to be able to correct them in Photoshop later on.
Best,
Jeremy

Uhu (7334) 2009-05-20 0:34

Oh wow - that's the proper way of making a photo of the churchies!!!
Great one - and a name is the same, Mare, Great church.
Very good photo - I like it very much!