Nicula Monastery: pilgrimage, a weeping icon and glass icons
Nicula Monastery (Mănăstirea Nicula) is one of the great pilgrimage centres of northern Transylvania, in the village of Nicula in Cluj County, close to the town of Gherla. Its story combines a legendary weeping icon, a stone church with two tall spires, and a workshop tradition that brought glass-painted icons to Transylvania.
In 1699 Austrian officers recorded that a painted icon of the Virgin wept for almost a month. Today tens of thousands of pilgrims still walk to Nicula every 15 August.
The history of Nicula Monastery
The beginnings of Nicula are disputed. Oral tradition says the village took its name from a hermit called Nicolae who lived here in the 14th century, but no document confirms it. Some authors mention a wooden church on a hill near the village in 1552, while many Greek-Catholic historians date the first pilgrimage church to the years after 1700 and credit the Transylvanian governor Sigismund Kornis. Which version a historian prefers has often reflected the later claims of the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches to the site.
The heart of the story is an icon of the Virgin and Child painted in 1681 by the priest-painter Luca of Iclod. According to a report drawn up by Austrian officers, it wept between 15 February and 12 March 1699 in the old church of the village. In 1713 Kornis took the icon to his residence at Benediug, and it later reached Cluj. A small wooden church was raised on the wooded hill south of the village to receive pilgrims. Which icon is the original, the one in Cluj or the one honoured at Nicula, has been argued for generations.
In 1767 Pope Clement XIII granted a plenary indulgence to Greek-Catholic pilgrims who came on the feasts of 15 August and 8 September. A stone church was built beside the wooden one between 1875 and 1879 at the expense of the Gherla diocese, and two spires of 25 metres were added in 1905. In 1928 Pope Pius XI gave the monastery the status of a Marian sanctuary. Nicula was also the seat of a school of icon painters: through it, the technique of painting on glass, known in Bohemia, Austria and Bavaria, entered Transylvania. Emil Weiss, Moritz Hachmann and Karl Müller are among the named artists.
Basilian monks settled here in 1936. In 1948 the communist regime banned the Greek-Catholic Church, arrested the monks and handed the monastery to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which still holds it. The old wooden church burned in the early 1970s and was replaced by an 18th-century wooden church moved from another village. In 2020 Nicula was added to the Via Mariae, a Marian pilgrimage route of about 1,400 km. The question of ownership between the two churches has never been settled, and every 15 August the Orthodox liturgy is held in the monastery while Greek-Catholics celebrate outside it.
Curiosities about Nicula Monastery
- The Austrian officers’ report says the icon wept between 15 February and 12 March 1699, nearly four weeks, which is what made Nicula a place of pilgrimage.
- The painter of the famous icon, Luca of Iclod, was a priest of Ruthenian origin, and the icon is dated 1681.
- Glass painting, a craft with roots in Bohemia, Austria and Bavaria, reached Transylvania through the icon painters’ school at Nicula.
- The two spires of the stone church, each 25 metres high, were added in 1905, some 26 years after the church was finished.
- Nicula has been part of the Via Mariae since 2020, a pilgrimage route that links Mariazell in Austria with Șumuleu Ciuc, about 1,400 km long.
- On 15 August tens of thousands of believers are reported to travel to Nicula, with services held both in the monastery and in the village parish church.
Tours near Nicula Monastery
Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:
Visiting Nicula Monastery: what to see
- The pilgrimage is the main reason to come: the monastery is busiest around 15 August and 8 September, the Marian feasts.
- The stone church of the 1870s, with its two spires, stands next to the older monastic buildings, including the old cells and the wooden church moved here after the fire.
- The icon of the Virgin and Child by Luca of Iclod is the centre of devotion. Its present appearance is the subject of long-running debate.
- Bonțida Bánffy Castle, about 15 km away, is the nearest other place of interest on this site.
- This is a working religious site, so dress modestly and check the current opening hours before you go.
Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.
Map: where Nicula Monastery is
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors
Photos of Nicula Monastery
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Questions
Where is Nicula Monastery?
It stands near the village of Nicula in Fizeșu Gherlii commune, Cluj County, in northern Transylvania, close to the town of Gherla.
Why is Nicula Monastery famous?
It is known for an icon of the Virgin and Child that, according to Austrian officers, wept in 1699, and for a school of glass-painted icons.
Who runs Nicula Monastery today?
Since December 1948 it has been in the hands of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Before that it was a Greek-Catholic sanctuary, and the two churches still dispute ownership.
When is the pilgrimage to Nicula?
The main pilgrimage is on 15 August, the Assumption, with another feast on 8 September, the Nativity of the Virgin.
What is glass painting at Nicula?
It is a technique of painting icons on glass, brought to Transylvania from Bohemia, Austria and Bavaria through the icon painters’ school at Nicula.
What can you see near Nicula Monastery?
Bonțida Bánffy Castle is about 15 km away, and Gherla lies right next to the monastery.
Also nearby
Bonțida Bánffy Castle
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Rogoz · UNESCO wooden church with 1785 murals
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Porolissum
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