Galata Monastery Galata Monastery The Galata Monastery () is a Romanian Orthodox monastery for nuns, founded at the end of the sixteenth century by Moldavian Voivode Petru Şchiopul, in the west of Iaşi, Romania. The monastery is located on the top of Galata Hill, and can be easily observed from different locations of Iasi. The church, surrounded by walls with loopholes and provided with a bell tower at the entrance, looks like a fortress, often serving as a place of defense and sometimes as a royal residence. Near the church on the hill, are places that provide panoramic views over the city.
Saint Gregory the Illuminator Church of Galata church. Historian Kevork Pamukciyan believes that the current church was built on the location of St. Sargis, an Armenian church in Galata, mentioned in two Armenian manuscripts from 1360 and 1361. The church and an Armenian quarter around it are recorded in an Ottoman survey from 1455 which indicated the "continuation of the Byzantine Armenian presence into the Ottoman period." In 1635 Patriarch Grigor Kesaratsi (Gregory of Caesarea) was buried at the wall of the church by Shahin Çelebi, a wealthy Armenian. The church was often damaged by fires. It survived the Galata fire of 1660. It burned almost entirely