Moldova
Țipova
Hermit cells climb a Dniester cliff where legend buries Orpheus in a nook of a waterfall.
The cell doorways open out of a limestone wall some ninety metres above the Dniester, dark and small as swallow holes. Rock-cut steps join them, level upon level, and the river's sound climbs the cliff on the wind. In the gorge below, a stream breaks into waterfalls.
Țipova's monastery is dug into the cliff itself: cave churches, cells and galleries on several levels, joined by stairways in the stone, with chambers dated from the eleventh century to the eighteenth. Legend gives the place two famous guests. The Moldavian prince Ștefan cel Mare is said to have married Maria Voichița here, and Orpheus is said to have lived out his last years in this gorge and to lie buried in a nook of a waterfall. The Soviet decades closed and wrecked the monastery; the state protected the ruins from 1975 and services resumed in 1994. The stone paths to the cells and the Răușor falls are steep and slow, and that is much of the point.
Solo
Take the rock-cut steps unhurried and give the cell chambers the time they ask for; the descent towards the river absorbs the day's remainder.
Couple
Pair the cliff with a table at the Dniester-bank inn at Lalova nearby, booked before you set out.
- The cave monastery occupies a limestone cliff about 90 metres above the Dniester, its levels linked by steps cut in the rock.
- Chambers here are dated from the eleventh century to the eighteenth, and services resumed in 1994 after the Soviet closure.
- Local legend holds that Orpheus spent his last years in this gorge and lies buried in a nook of a waterfall.
- The Răușor waterfalls drop through the same protected gorge, keeping the walk wet-edged and loud in spring.
Book a table at Hanul lui Hanganu on the riverbank at Lalova: dwarf sarmale, zeamă with homemade noodles and bread hot from the oven.
The inn's cellar keeps more than twenty homemade fruit brandies, țuică steeped with orchard fruit and herbs.
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