The princely church of Bistrița was built on the site of a church founded in the 15th century by the Craiovescu boyars. Only the infirmary, on whose walls one can still see the portrait of Barbu Craiovescu, the founder of the monastery, has been preserved from that period, as well as a bronze bell offered to the monastery by Stephen the Great. The bell is displayed in the monastery museum. The first historical document about the lives of Moldavian princes, the “Bistrița Diptychs”, was printed here.
The larger church was rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century and the inside frescoes were painted by Gheorghe Tăttărescu between 1846 and 1856.