In the Anonymous Chronicle of Moldavia, it is said that, after the Fortress of Chilia was conquered in January 1465, Stephen the Great came back with his army to Suceava, ordering the archbishop, the bishops and the rest of the priests to ‘thank God for the victory that was bestowed on him…”. On 10th July 1466, Stephen the Great laid the foundations of Putna Monastery, with the dedication day of “The Holy Virgin Mother of God”.
The church was finished at the end of 1469, but the campaigns that the voivode undertook in Transylvania, as well as the raids of the Tartars from 1469 and 1470 prevented him from dedicating it until 3rd September 1470. At the ceremony the founder himself and his family were present, as well as the squires of the great Council and a large congregation of the faithful.
The beginnings of Putna Monastery, the most important religious, cultural and artistic centre in mediaeval Moldavia, take us back to the year 1466 when, upon the initiative of Prince Stephen the Great (1457-1504), a church of impressive dimensions was built on a patch of forest cleared for the purpose. The edifice was erected among 1466 and 1469 and consecrated in 1470; to it was added a few more buildings: a princely home standing on the southern side, outer walls and defence towers; all of them completed in 1481.
The only carved element preserved from the 15th-century church is the monumental porch which links the pronaos to the burial vault; it is rectangular in shape decorated with crossed moldings characteristic of Stephen the Great's epoch.
The iconostasis richly carved in wood, dates from 1773 and belongs to the period of constructive upsurge- characterizing Metropolitan lacov Putneanul's pastorate
