​    Curchi Monastery, dedicated to the "Nativity of the Virgin Mary", is one of the most significant monuments of Moldavian architecture in Bessarabia. It is located in Orhei County on the Vaticiu River valley, 12 km from the city of Orhei and 55 km from Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. The monastery is located on the right side of the Vatici Valley at the foot of the forest called "Codru", which is at the same time an extension of the Orhei Forests where Stephen the Great's archers passed.

Curchi Monastery is a monastery of monks in the Republic of Moldova, one of the most significant monuments of Bessarabian architecture. It is located in the Orhei Forests, on the territory of the village of Curchi, Orhei district.

As an architectural ensemble, it was established in the 18th - 19th centuries. It consists of five churches, two buildings with cells, a priory, several auxiliary rooms, an orchard, a hermitage with an abbot located 500 m from the monastery and a stone pool. The whole complex is surrounded by a high stone wall. During the Soviet period, the monastery was transformed into a psychiatric hospital.

In 1868, the hermitage was transformed into a monastery, the year 1868 being declared the year of the monastery's founding. The building of the winter church "St. Dumitru", built in 1775 by Iordache Curchi, is a very successful example of the neo-Byzantine style, while the church dedicated to the "Nativity of the Virgin Mary" (1808-1810) is built in the best traditions of classicism with Baroque elements. The stone church "Nativity of the Virgin Mary", with a beautiful bell tower located next to it, was the first church on the territory of the monastery, called the summer church.

The winter church "St. Dumitru" was built much later

, next to the cells of the abbot. Also here in the monastery premises, 9 more cell buildings were built, two refectories with kitchens, a cellar, a stable and a shed. The third church, designed in the Byzantine style, remained unfinished. The monastery had a very rich library, a mobile power station, a water pipeline, a school, a hotel and a workshop.

The Curchi Monastery is of rare beauty, thanks to the orchards and forest that surround it, giving it a green tone, from which the churches and white buildings appear like shining dots, attracting the eyes of all passers-by and visitors who remain enchanted by the beauty of the place, whose image is deeply imprinted in their souls.

With a cultural and religious past of over two centuries, the Curchi Monastery qualifies as one of the most significant monuments of Moldavian architecture. This sacred place has always been a hotbed of culture and spiritual life. The difficult years of trials mean that in 1944 about 40 monks took refuge in Romania, at the Cernica and Căldărușani monasteries.

However, in 1958 the Soviet power expelled the remaining monks, destroyed numerous icons, burned about 4 thousand volumes of religious and artistic literature. The churches on the territory of the monastery were transformed into warehouses, or auxiliary rooms with a purpose other than the Christian one. The history of the Curchi Monastery since the beginning of the 60s of the last century, like that of many other monasteries in Moldova, has a sad history.

In the period from 1959 to the second half of the 90s, the Monastery did not have a real owner. In 1959, it was forcibly alienated by the Church and in its buildings, as well as in the churches of the Curchi Monastic Complex, indifference found shelter. During the time when the psychiatric hospital was located on the territory of the “Nativity of the Mother of God” Monastery in Curchi, the 5 churches of the monastic complex, as well as the buildings that once served the smooth running of a monastic life, were left to chance.

On August 27, 1999, being ruined and almost destroyed, the management of the monastery was entrusted to Father Archimandrite Siluan Şalari, the current Bishop of Orhei, vicar of the Metropolitanate of Moldova. Moreover, at that time, in the “All Saints” church, in the monastery cemetery, a morgue was set up, from the time when the psychiatric hospital was located here, and there were still human corpses inside the church. Initially, the Saint Nicholas church was repaired.

The firm desire of the monastic community that came to the monastery at that time was to restore the Curchi Monastery to its former appearance and to make it what it was – one of the richest monasteries both from a spiritual, material, architectural and organizational point of view as well as from that of monastic life. At the time of its closure in 1958, the number of monks at the Curchi Monastery far exceeded 100.

The monastery represents not only an important spiritual center, but also a place of tourist attraction. Here, centuries-old oaks grow to this day, whose age is estimated at 200-350 years. A dendrological park of rare beauty was arranged in the courtyard of the Monastery and in the adjacent territory.