Old Bricks In The Wall Of The Bodrog Monastery, Arad County, Romania. Stock Image

The Hodos-Bodrog Monastery is one of the oldest monastic institutions in Romania. It was originally a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery, built before 1177 and destroyed before 1293. The present monastery, which belongs to the Romanian Orthodox Church, was built near the ruins of the first monastery in the late 14th or early 15th century. the monastery is located inside Mure? Floodplain Natural Park, near the village of Bodrogu Nou. The church underwent several restorations throughout the centuries. The original structures were altered to some extent. After the 17th-century restoration, a baroque helmet was added to the dome. The frescoes in the monastery date from the first decades of the 17th century. Several sacred objects dating from earlier centuries add new values to the artistic treasure of the monastery, including the skull of a bull that found an icon of the Virgin Mary at the current site of the church. Since then the monastery has added a new church, an outdoor summer chapel, and other buildings. Arad, Banat,Romania, Europe.