Saint Anne Nunnery (Orșova, Mehedinti County, Romania)

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Located on Moșului Hill, which dominates the city of Orșova, with a particularly beautiful perspective on the Danube downstream from the Cazane Gorge, the Orthodox Nunnery of Saint Anne stands out for its unusual history. The beginnings are represented by the autumn of 1918 when the future renowned interwar journalist and deputy in the Romanian Parliament, Pamfil Șeicaru (1894-1980) fought on this hill against the German army during the First World War. The explosion of a shell buried him alive with his friend and Pamfil Șeicaru made a promise to build a monastic settlement here if he escaped alive. For almost 20 years he raised the necessary money and the construction of the monastery began in 1935 with the construction of the access road from Orșova to the site of the future nunnery. The road was guarded by seven roadside crucifixes accompanied by oak rest benches, representing the regiments that fought here, the roadside crucifixes disappearing by the 1960s. The monastery was built of wood between 1936 and 1939, consisting of a church in position central, bordered laterally, in the shape of the letter "U", by two long buildings that housed the cells. The founder wanted to name the monastic settlement after his mother, Ana (Anne), but the bishop at the time refused the request, on the grounds that the bishopric had not given its consent and had not consecrated the location of the monastery. Also, the monastic settlement was dedicated to all the heroes who sacrificed themselves for Greater Romania, including those who fell in this place. The monastery functioned for a few years until 1945, when the new communist authorities practically confiscated the monastic complex, turning it, in turn, into a TB sanatorium, a children's camp, then a hotel with a restaurant and a discotheque right inside the church and accommodation in the former cells. Pamfil Șeicaru, in exile, had become an "enemy of the people" and condemned, but at his insistence the communist authorities apparently freed the church by building a motel located right next to the monastery in the 1980s. After the fall of communism, the monastery was taken over by the rightful owner, being consecrated with the patron saint "The Assumption of Saint Ana" on December 2, 1990. In the years that followed, the nunnery was renovated and a belfry with a summer altar was built , the Pamfil Șeicaru Memorial Museum, the library, the refectory, a tailoring workshop and the accommodation space for pilgrims who arrive here in large numbers, especially on the day of the patron saint (July 25), has been expanded. In the church there is a miracle-working icon of St. Anne. Inside the monastery is the tomb of the founder, Pamfil Şeicaru, whose remains were brought from Germany and reburied in 2005 at the entrance to the church.