Part 2

The Romanians were very receptive to the values of the Western European culture. Even in the XVth century, Moldavian students, natives of Iasi, accomplished their studies in European centres, such as Krakow and Liov, Prague and Vienna. These universities had a large humanistic profile, and Latin was used in teaching. Western humanities to which influences of Eastern-Slavonic culture were afterwards added (influences based on affinities and traditions), as well as of Hellenism, have been creatively assimilated in the Romanian culture. In contact with the foreign values, the Romanian culture did not lose the distinctive mark of its originality and creative power.

The visitor to Iasi nowadays is fascinated and surprised (like those who passed by these places before) by monuments of religious art, with their varied architectural styles, a mark of superior artistic taste, the result of a prosperous economic situation and of an undeniable need of manifestation on the spiritual level. Some of the monuments continued the tradition of the Moldavian style (Galata, Cetatuia, The Three Hierarchs); others, such as St. Sava, preserved the architectural characteristic of Oriental style, while Frumoasa was built in the architectural style characteristic of the Russian churches. In its turn, the Golia Church, foundation of Vasile Lupu, a harmonious blend of styles, is a monument full of beauty and novelty. Visiting Iasi in 1711, on the occasion of the campaign against the Turks, Czar Peter the Great admired the church, and according to chroniclers, he was deeply impressed by the blend of styles, which give the monument a distinctive note of originality.

The most imposing monument, whose fame has passed far beyond the frontiers of Romania, is the church of the former Three Hierarchs Monastery, the one so richly adorned in its stone and marble walls that it seems a real embroidery, minutely carved, of perfect artistic taste. The Gothic, traditional Moldavian and Oriental elements, blend together in a perfect ornamental unity.