Carol Szathmari
1866 (ca)
Monastery Church of the Three Hierarchs, Iasi, Romania

Albumen print
3.9 x 4.3 ins
 
Archive Farms
The Patrick Montgomery Collection, Object No. 2013.282
 
The church was erected between 1637 and 1639, in the Moldavian capital, in honour of three saints (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom), and was blessed by Bishop Varlaam. In 1640, Prince Vasile Lupu, the renowned defender of the Orthodox Church, set up here the first printing press in Moldavia and the Vasilian College, a higher education institute. In 1643, the first volume ever printed in Moldavia was issued in Ia?i. The Trei Ierarhi Church was dedicated by Vasile Lupu to the 20 monasteries on Mount Athos.
 
After Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was elected Prince Carol I of Romania in the year 1866, Szathmari accompanied him on his first reconnaissance journey throughout his new homeland, and the photos he took were published in the "Romania Album" conceived as a documentation of the ruler's new kingdom.
 
LL/65130