Nativity of St. John the Baptist Church, Piatra Neamț

About

Stephen the Great, Prince of Moldavia, was the ktitor of the church, built between 1497 and 1498. It originally formed part of the Piatra Neamț Princely Court, with the royal residence built from 1468 to 1475. The interior is divided into a vestibule, nave and altar.

The vestibule has two domed ceilings, one in front of the other and divided by a large stone transverse arch. Originally, a sizable wall separated the vestibule from the nave. Later, when the interior space was enlarged, a large opening featuring a pronounced transverse arch was made in the wall.

The nave is divided into three sections, separated by a pair of transverse arches. There are two apses built into the thick nave walls and visible from outside, accompanied by buttresses and covered in a cut stone structure as high as the springers. The altar apse has the typical semicircular shape, made up of quarter-sphere vaults.

It has a single central window along the nave's axis. The eastern wall does not have characteristic tiny engravings, and the traditional niches of the Diaconicon and the Proskomedia are missing. The church is entered through a Gothic-style stone portal that combines elements common to its day…