The dedicatory inscription in the narthex mentions that rebuilding works continued under Gheorghe Ștefan and Eustatie Dabija’s reigns, until 1662. The rebuilt church closely follows the plan and the proportions of the one built by Stephen the Great, but the original painting was lost forever.

The extensive works made to the princely church during Metropolitan Jacob of Putna (†1778) included rebuilding, roofing and decorations.

Further restoration works were made in the following centuries. Especially worth mentioning is Austrian architect Karl Romstorfer’s attempt to restore, between 1901 and 1902, the severely deteriorated traditional aspect of the church, which had been significantly altered after 1775.

Like many other churches in the region, Putna is built in the well-known Moldavian style, which borrows some Gothic elements that it adapts to the forms and needs of the Byzantine tradition. The church retains the traditional Orthodox architecture, with porch, narthex, tomb chamber, nave and altar.

Painting

Unfortunately, we can only resort to the chronicles for information on the initial pictorial ensemble of Putna.

Chronicler Ion Neculce describes Putna as following: “And he made the monastery so beautiful, gilded entirely with gold, the painting more gold than paint, on the inside and the outside, and covered with lead.” From this, it can be concluded that, initially, Putna’s church was adorned with paintings not only on the interior but also on the exterior.

Unlike all the other funerary monuments in Putna, the canopy sheltering the tomb of Stephen the Great, as well as the sarcophagus and the tombstone, were made of marble. Of course, the material was not randomly chosen.

In the Middle Ages, marble was the “privilege of the Byzantine Empire”, while outside the empire “it was to be used as a reference to the Empire, marking the user either as a faithful subject or as a legitimate heir.”

It is obvious that, by commissioning a marble sarcophagus as his final resting place, Stephen the Great did not only wish to adorn his necropolis but also to express his personal political view.

On the pavement, by Stephen the Great’s tomb lies the tombstone of Maria Voichița, his last wife.

Iconostasis

The iconostasis of Putna Monastery’s main church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, is unique among Moldavia’s templons by height and number of icons.

The iconostasis was “most exquisitely renewed” in 1773 – as it is written in the 1796 monastery inventory – “on the monastery’s expense and with the help of Metropolitan Jacob of blessed memory.”

The Putna templon is the most extensive among the 18th-century iconostases in Moldavia.

Sculpted in linden tree wood, in high relief combined with the à jour technique, tempera-painted and gilt, 7.4-meter-wide and approximately 10 meters high, the Putna iconostasis is a lofty work of art, probably made in a Galician studio, and shows Metropolitan Jacob’s wish to revive Putna’s former prestige.