Varatec monastery is located in Agapia commune, at 12 km to Targu Neamt and 40 km to Piatra Neamt in a small valley at the foot of Stanisoara mountain , at an altitude of 460 m.
Mother Olimpiada was a nun from the former Topolita Hermitage and between 1781 and 1785 settles in this place and creates the foundation for a monastic settlement in the plane called Varatec.
The construction was finished in the year 1812. In the year 1821 Varatec Monastery was plundered and the nuns killed. Mother Olimpiada hardly make it alive and retreat at the Secu Monastery.
The church combines elements of the old Moldavian style of the 15th and 16th centuries with foreign influences of the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The church is rectangular, with a single apse at the east end. The two lateral apses of the naos are carved out of the thickness of the wall, and do not show on the exterior.
The grave of poetess Veronica Micle, Mihai Eminescu’s great love, lies within the monastery walls. She committed suicide on August 1889, two months after Eminescu’s death. The monastery has a museum that hosts many valuable religious objects and books mostly made by the nuns. Apart from museum, Varatec has studios for carpet waving, embrodery and icon painting.
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