“Exaltation of the Holy Cross” Church, code SV-II-a-A-055811487. A monument of international importance located in Pătrăuți, 11 km away from Suceava.
Church with a triconch (trefoil) plan built by Stephen the Great in 1487, considered by specialists to be the oldest church built by Stephen the Great preserved in its original form.
The architects of this church consciously or unconsciously used the “golden section” or the “golden number” (φ 1.618033) – the ratio between the dimensions of a piece of art or architecture in its construction.
The most important interior fresco from Pătrăuți is the “Cavalcade of the Holy Cross” or “The Cavalcade of Emperor Constantine the Great”, painted on the western wall of the narthex. This scene, in which the emperor leads the cavalcade of 16 military saints, with obvious reference to the battle of the Milvius Bridge (312), no longer appears in the painting of Orthodox countries, in Moldova appearing only at the church in Arbore.
The symbolism of the frescoes in Pătrăuți was interpreted by the Byzantinologist born in Kyiv, André Nikolaevich Grabar (1896-1990), in the sense that as the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) defeated the pagans, so he will defeat them “the new Constantine” (Stephen the Great).
