I recently had the wonderful opportunity to visit the National Museum of Bukovina (Muzeul Naţional al Bucovinei) in Suceava. The city is located in the northeastern part of Romania, which is off the usual beaten path of tourists that focuses on traveling between Bucharest, the capital in the south, to Braşov, a city nestled in the Carpathian Mountains in the center of the country. Nevertheless, the up-to-date museum, which includes a constellation of subsidiary museums, historical sites, and memorials in the region mean that it is well worth the time and effort to visit. Dr. Constantin-Emil Ursu, the director of the museum, invited me to Suceava to launch the recent Romanian translation of my book Romania’s Holy War: Soldiers, Motivation, and the Holocaust (published in English by Cornell University Press in 2021 and in Romanian by Editura Corint in 2024). My three-day visit included touring the fabulous painted churches of medieval monasteries, the Siret History Museum, the fortress that was the princely seat of the medieval rulers of Moldavia, and finally the main museum in Suceava.
While not part of the museum, I want to briefly describe my first day when I visited the painted churches of Bukovina. I first visited Suceava in 2011 to interview Romanian veterans of the Second World War. I decided to take a day to go to see the Voroneț Monastery, constructed in 1488, and it took most of a day to arrive by bus and on foot. Therefore, I was thrilled this time to visit Voroneţ, Moldoviţa, Suceviţa, and Dragomirna in one day by car.
Renting an automobile is more than worth it to be able to see not just the monasteries and their churches but also the gorgeous countryside on the way. The area is mountainous, which is one of the reasons that the monasteries were built there, for physical security and spiritual isolation. I learned that the first small churches built by Ştefan the Great were later expanded upon and embellished by Petru Rareş who we have to thank for the gorgeous medieval murals on the interior and, uniquely, on the exterior of these religious edifices. The colors remain vibrant despite the centuries. While the churches depict many of the same religious scenes, each one has one that stands out: the Final Judgement at Voroneţ, the siege of Constantinople at Moldoviţa, and the Prayer of all Saints at Suceviţa. I had the privilege of eating lunch and dinner prepared by the nuns of the monasteries at Moldoviţa and Dragamirna, respectively.
The food, prepared from fresh produce grown on the premises, was scrumptious! Sour soup (ciorbă), stuffed cabbage rolls (sarmale), grilled pork, vegetable spread (zacuscă), sauteed mushrooms, spicy sausage, and other dishes. The abbess at Dragomirna was younger and had studied art history, so we had a wonderful conversation during the tour and the meal. Medieval history and contemporary worship make these monasteries and their churches a must-see part of any visit to Suceava. If you do not want the stress of driving, and more information than just the signs with the basic historical information, there are package excursions with local tour guides to visit any number of the monasteries.
The second day of my visit to Suceava focused on the Jewish history of the city and surrounding region. My first stop of the day was to the Gmilut Hasadim Synagogue, which is the only surviving Jewish house of worship in a city that once boasted a large Jewish community. In 1930, nearly a fifth of Suceava’s residents were Jews. In 1941, the authoritarian, pro-Nazi regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu ordered the deportation of Jews from southern Bukovina, joining those who had already been deported after surviving massacres and pogroms perpetrated by Romanian soldiers and gendarmes, as well as German troops and SS-men, during the retaking of northern Bukovina – which had been occupied by the USSR in 1940. While many of the Jews survived the hell of Transnistria (the part of Ukraine under Romanian occupation and administration) to return to Suceava, where they were joined by other survivors, waves of communist persecution targeting Jews, anti-Zionist campaigns, contributed to surges of Jewish emmigration. Later, the communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu engaged in stated-directed human trafficking, agreeing to allow Israel to purchase exit visas for local Jews. Concurrently, during urban renewal projects, the communists demolished all the other synagogues, which had fallen into disrepair as the Jewish community steady shrank in size. Thus, the communists erased most of the physical evidence of the once vibrant community in the city. Today, there are only about 30 Jews still living in Suceava and most are elderly. While the synagogue is not among the most impressive that I have visited, it is special because it is still standing. There is a small display about local Jewish history and the Holocaust in the entry way. One must call ahead of time to set up a visit because it is still privately owned and used for worship. Yet, the Jewish community is welcoming and often hosts school groups to learn about local Jewish history.
From the last synagogue in Suceava, the director of the National Museum of Bukovina and I drove less than an hour to a new museum and Holocaust memorial in Siret. There is also a bus that can take the curious visitor out to this small border town on the frontier with Ukraine. In a more peaceful time, there was also a bus that crossed the border to Chernivtsi, also known as Cernăuţi in Romanian or Czernowitz in German, formerly the capital of Habsburg, and then later Romanian, Bukovina; before the Soviets annexed the northern part of the region in 1940, and permanently in 1944. The drive is gorgeous. Soon the mountainous terrain around Suceava turns into rolling fields. Upon arrival, the Siret History Museum (Muzeul de Istorie Siret), a newly renovated former residence, is obscured from view by a wall surrounding it on three sides. Upon entering the courtyard, it becomes apparent that this wall is the Memorial to the Holocaust of the Jews of Bukovina, in other words, to all those Jews from north or south of the current border who were deported by the Antonescu regime when the entire region was again under Romanian control following the start of the Nazi-led invasion of the Soviet Union. The wall is made of red bricks but interspaced among these are gold bricks etched with the names of all the Jews (at least all those so far identified with help from Yad Vashem in Israel) deported by the Romanians to Transnistria.
Dr. Ursu told me that the inspiration for this wall of remembrance was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. It made me think of another Holocaust memorial project, the Stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” that started in Germany and spread to other countries. These are gold cobble stones with the names of Jews and the dates of their deportation placed on the streets from which they were seized for people to stumble across and recall the tragedy of the Holocaust. The fact that the golden bricks in Siret list a family name and then all the given names of the people in that family, creating familial groups, struck me as especially poignant because I could see how entire families suffered. The memorial wall creates a space in the courtyard of somber reflection. Once the visitor has absorbed the impact of this place of memory, the museum beckons.
The entrance fee is 12 lei (about $2.50). The museum covers the pre-history and history of Siret and boasts interactive digital displays. Nevertheless, the fate of the Jews of Bukovina is the museum’s central focus. After wrapping around one half of the square building, the central room in the back is designed to look like the interior of a railroad car. There is a wall screen with a short film filled with images of the Holocaust and testimony of survivors that one watches while sitting on benches shaped to look like luggage. A couple of other smaller interactive screens in the back corners of the room provide additional information. After exiting this room, the visitor turns down a hallway to stairs leading to the basement where there is another exhibit focused on communist persecution of Jews. There are chairs to sit a watch a television with recent recordings of the children of Holocaust survivors speaking of the wartime horrors and death followed by postwar discrimination and emigration. Thereafter, the museum resumes its focus on local in the rest of the main exhibit. Finally, a temporary exhibit is located in the front of the building. When I was there, there was a charming display of antique but functional radios, restored and brought to life by a local radio lover who appeared to share his passion with me. The museum staff were welcoming and clearly enthusiastic about their mission. There is a steadily growing number of school groups coming to visit to learn about local history and the Holocaust. While the Siret History Museum is small and out of the way, it is well worth a visit!
With night approaching, we rushed back to Suceava to visit what is perhaps the crown jewel of the National Museum of Bukovina, the Seat (Throne) Fortress of Suceava (pictured at top). The rulers of Moldavia constructed this castle in the 14th century when the city was the princely residence to resist attacks by the Ottoman Empire. I had visited the site thirteen years earlier and I was simply astounded by the change. When I first visited, there was just dirt and weeds in the courtyards and graffiti and trash in the empty chambers. On this visit, I discovered an almost totally renovated fortress (the outer moat wall is still being worked on) boasting rooms with displays of weapons or heraldry, mannequins of medieval soldiers and rulers, and interactive digital displays. Some of the collapsed ramparts have been rebuilt, giving the visitor an impressive panoramic view of the surrounding cityscape. This view was particularly impressive at night with a near full moon in the evening sky. The entry is only 20 lei. I also discovered that every summer the museum helps to organize the Suceava “Ştefan the Great” Medieval Festival at the fortress, which is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and attracts participants from across the continent and even from Turkey. I immediately began thinking about how I needed to come back to experience that! It was sadly too late to visit the nearby Bukovina Village Museum. This is an outdoor museum with examples of village architecture from the region, including homes, barns, large estates, and even churches. The fortress is the most visited part of the National Museum of Bukovina.
On my third, and last, day in Suceava, I visited the History Museum, the central part of the National Museum of Bukovina. The museum dates back to the Habsburg era when in 1900 a group of local intellectuals and notables formed the Museum Society to begin collecting and preserving local history. The museum had many homes before it was moved into the classical style building – although it has a recent modern extension – in which it resides now downtown. It is a bustling place because it holds the main offices for the museum. Additionally, it temporarily houses municipal administrators because the town hall had recently caught fire. The interior has been totally renovated. There is art, models, and small exhibits. Lots of creativity and passion on display. The permanent exhibit costs 16 lei. Visitors are treated to modern rooms. A line of lights was installed in the floor to help those with impaired vision to follow the route wrapping around the building. The narrative begins with pre-history. There are wonderful finds but also excellent displays simulating archaeological digs and strata of earth – a reflection of Dr. Ursu’s training as an archaeologist. There are also recreations of ancient homes. The visitor then encounters ancient and medieval periods, showing the emergency of the principality of Moldavia with its seat in Suceava. As a military historian, I am partial to weapons and armor, which there is plenty to be seen here. There are multiple interactive displays. One that was particularly memorable was of the different nomadic tribes that conquered their way through the region over the centuries. The early modern period had some amazing clothing in styles influenced by the Ottoman Porte in Constantinople. Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush because the event for my book was soon to begin, so I did not get to fully enjoy the entire exbibit. I took some extra time as I went through the modern galleries, especially those rooms covering the royal dictatorship of King Carol II from 1938 to 1940, the military dictatorship of Marshal Ion Antonescu from 1940 to 1944, and the communist period from 1947 to 1989.
There were striking large dioramas of the Fântâna Albă Massacre in 1940, when Soviet border guards fired on a crown of people trying to cross the new border into Romania, and postwar torture cells of the Securitate (communist secret police). The color scheme of the rooms changes from black and white to grey in the rooms covering the communist era to suggest that the events are too close to be seen objectively as of yet. A visitor can pay an additional 4 lei to tour the Princely Council Room that recreates the court of Ştefan the Great who is considered Moldavia’s greatest medieval ruler due to all of the battles that he won, and churches that he built (one for each victory according to legend), although less is said about his many affairs or his enslaving of Roma (Gypsies) during his campaigns against Poles, Hungarians, and the Ottomans.
During my short stay in Suceava, I was only able to visit a small part of the National Museum of Bukovina. For a full description of the entirety of the museum system, check out its website: https://muzeulbucovinei.ro/en/home-english/. Nevertheless, I was really impressed by the quality of the exhibits and especially the liveliness of each museum or historical site. I have traveled a lot of Romania and seen many other museums, even national level ones, that are little changed from the 1980s and seem uninterested in attracting visitors. In addition to the museum, there is so much else to discover in the region around Suceava from monasteries to synagogues to nature. I hope that this piece encourages others to visit Bukovina, and the rest of Romania, which is full of exciting adventures, good people, fun discoveries, and delicious food!
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Dr. Grant T. Harward is a native of southern California. He completed his BA in history at Brigham Young University in 2009, his MSc in the Second World War in Europe at the University of Edinburgh in 2010, and his PhD in history at Texas A&M University in 2018. He is a former Auschwitz Jewish Center fellow, a former Fulbright scholar to Romania, and a former Mandel Center fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was a historian for the U.S. Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio from 2018 to 2021. He now works as a historian for the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Cornell University Press published his book, Romania's Holy War: Soldiers, Motivation, and the Holocaust (2021), which was translated into Romanian earlier this year. Osprey recently published his new volume Romania 1944: The Turning of Arms Against Nazi Germany (2024).