Tour Details
The Manuc Bei or Manuc Bey Mansion (officially - Manuc Bey Historical-Architectural Complex) is located in the city of Hincesti in the central-western part of the Republic of Moldova; and includes the following buildings: the Manuc Palace, the House of the Bailiff, the Countess' Building, the Castle of Hunting, the Watchtower, etc.
Place of Departure & Return
33 Circus Street (Circus of Chisinau)
Starting Time
08:00
Price Includes
- Tour-return transport
- All excursions indicated in the program
- Licensed guide
Price does not include
- Entrance to Manuc Bei's Palace (adults - 100 lei, students, pupils, pensioners - 80 lei , children up to 7 years old - Free )
- Access to the Ostrich Farm - 40 lei
- Feeding for the animals - 20 lei (optional)
- Table
Programme
- Departure from Chisinau at 08:00
- Arrival in Hincesti
- Visiting the Manuc-Bei Complex
- The hunting castle where the Museum of Ethnography and Natural
- History is located (Interior)
- The Princely Palace or Versaille of Moldavia (Exterior)
- House of the Vechilului (Outside)
- Ostrich farm at Bardar
- Monastery "Sf. Gheorghe", Suruceni (nunnery)
- Arrival in Chisinau at 16:00 - 17:00
Description
Monastery "Sf. Mc. Gheorghe", Suruceni
Built in 1785 by the nobleman Casian Suruceanu, on the advice of the hieromonk Iosif, today it is considered one of the places "with much sanctity", even if in the Soviet era everything was destroyed and defiled. In 1992 the place was reopened and became a nunnery.
Holy relics: here we find a part of the relics of the Most Rev. Antipas of Calapodesti, donated in 1999 by the Monastery of the Transfiguration - Valaam (Russia); parts of the oldest relics in the Danubian-Pontic area of Saints Epictetus and Astion. These were brought from Constanta, in Dobrogea; two unique icons preserved by the last abbot. They are currently in the nuns' chapel: Mother of God with the Child" from Suruceni, brought from Jerusalem, etc.
The ostrich farm at Bardar. In the 1990s Silvia and Igor Borjicov brought 5 African ostriches from Germany with the intention of establishing an ostrich farm. Since then the population has been enriched with other animals: wild horses, ponies, peacocks, pheasants, black swans, miniature deer, (the world's smallest) ducks and falcons.
Manuc Bei's mansion in Hîncesti is one of the pearls of 19th century Moldovan architecture, being a luxurious residence with a winter orchard, a roofed swimming pool with underground exits, beautiful havuzuri and a small lake, glass galleries linking the adjacent buildings with the palace. It was built according to the design of the architect Bernardazzi. The architecture was resolved in the spirit of French classicism. The palace had terraces with balusters and friezes in the thickness of the walls completed with various statues, it had a high roof that emphasized the axis of symmetry.
Did you know?
- It is said that many catacombs, underground galleries, are dug under the Palace, which have not yet been studied. Now, when they started digging for the restoration, they found some underground entrances.
- The Manuc Bei Complex is supposed to have been decorated inside in four styles: Armenian, Turkish, Moldavian and European.