According to tradition, initially, a
small wooden church built by Bogdan I, the founder
of Moldavia, was brought here from the village of
Bogdanesti. In 1542 Petru Rares erected over the foundations
of this church a stone church, which has been preserved
until today and to which a series of modifications
were brought throughout the centuries. As it stands
today, the church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is of
trefoil plan, and it comprises the following divisions:
a porch of large dimensions, the narthex, the nave,
and the altar. On the outside, on the southern side,
it has a porch of small dimensions which is open and
which belongs to a more recent epoch. The church has
two bell-towers; one is situated on the nave, with
an octagonal base, ascending to the sky, while the
upper base is surrounded by a row of niches. On this
base stands the bell-tower, which has the same octagonal
shape, with a window on four of the eight sides. The
second bell-tower, which is placed above the porch
built by the minister of the interior Costea Bacioc,
has obvious similarities with the bell-tower from
the time of Petru Rares. Throughout the centuries
the church underwent a series of alterations. Two
stages can be distinguished: the first stage is that
of the reign of Petru Rares and the second, that during
the time of Costea Bacioc, who ordered the building
of a large porch near the old church. The church is
covered by the paintings made by the Greek painter
Stamatelos Kotronas in 1552. The most appreciated
iconographic themes in the outer mural paintings of
Risca are Judgment Day and The Scale of Virtues, an
iconographic transposition of the principles mentioned
in the fundamental book of ascetic monachism written
on Mount Sinai at the beginning of the 7th century
by John the Hermit, who was the first to apply the
scale of virtues. The votive picture has a doubtless
historical value among the inner mural paintings.
In this picture, Petru Rares is depicted offering
Jesus Christ a church with three bell-towers, although
he built a church with only one tower on the nave,
so this picture must have been painted later, after
Costea Bacioc enlarged the old church, adding a wooden
tower and a brick one. More than that, this votive
picture was placed in this particular location, the
old place of the portal in the northern wall, after
Costea Bacioc built the two doorways from the northern
and southern walls. The votive picture was made after
the doorway in the wall to the old porch was closed,
because the remains of the old doorway can be well
seen even today in the same area as Petru Rares is
presented. The Monastery of Risca was a powerful cultural
center. Here Macarie, Bishop of Roman, wrote his chronicle,
and he is buried inside the church. Among the graves
that can be found here there is also that of Anastasia,
the mother of Alexandru Lapusneanu. The church is
surrounded by a high trapezoidal wall made of stone,
with two towers, one on the northwestern side, the
other at the entrance to the south, tall, massive,
with a chamber above, where the bell-tower is situated.
In this tower was exiled, in 1844, on the order of
Mihail Sturza, Mihail Kogalniceanu, the great statesman,
historian, and patron of the arts.
