„Saint Nicholas” Wooden Church of the former Orgoeştii Noi (Negomireştii Noi) Hermitage Monastery, Căpuşneni Village, Lipovăţ Commune, Vaslui County (code LMI 2004: VS-II-m-A-06773)

It was built during 1792 – 1798 by Safta Bogdan (daughter of the chancellor  Ioan Bogdan, widow of the commander Constantin Costache), as a hermitage monastery on her manor, the Negomireştii, at the descent of the Horieta river. Even from its foundation, the hermitage was devoted to Neamţ monastery and starting with 1908, to the Bishopric of Roman. In order to be maintained, Safta Bogdan and her daughter, Casandra Costache endowed the monastery with the manor of Ciorăştii from Bârlad, 4 stalls (at Podul Vechi, the Old Bridge) and a place in Iaşi on the Nemţească/German Alley, two gipsy abodes and 500 lei (1816, 1831). There were also added the parts of the Sârbii manor, donated by monk Pantilimon (1820), and Vlădeştii manor from Tutova County by boyar Dimitrie Jora (1828). The monastery benefited also from some privilegies from the part of Lord Alexandru Calimah (1817-1818). After the secularization of the monastery estates from 1863, the hermitage stopped its activity and the church became a parish.

It outstands through the accuracy of the technical executions, the harmony of the volumes, the monumentality and beauty of the background the spatial management and the arching system.

Having a three-apse plan, polygonal apses, three octagonal steeples (pro-aisle, aisle and altar) and threshold to the west (supported by engrailed pillars), the church is built from oak drift mandrels fastened in “straight loops”, on stone foundation and wooden bases. The altar and the aisle have polygonal sectioned domes with simple arch ribs. The dome of the aisle relies on four consoles decorated with lugs. The facades are richly ornamented with median cordons “in rope moulding”, “saw teeth” over the dado, “solar disks” and “wolf teeth” under the cornice. The frameworks of the doors and windows are decorated with vegetal (spindles) and geometric (in “X” form, rhombi) motifs. The Cyrillic inscription on the beam illustrates the year of the foundation and the initial name of the hermitage: „1798 Gavria Hermitage”. It shelters the iconostasis of oil on wood from the 18^th – 19^th centuries, belonging to the Russian school and having anonymous author. The old church book is deposited at the rural Museum of Huşi.