Formerly a rich Orthodox Metropolitan church with large estates, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin was founded by Stephen the Great at the end of his reign, together with a handful of other churches in the Moldavian style built in Transylvania at that time. During the reign of Petru Rare║, one of Stephen the GreatÆs successors (1527-1538/1541-1546), when the influence of the Moldavian princes in Transylvania became stronger the importance of the Metropolitan Church of Vad also increased. The church has a triconch plane and includes a narthex and two lateral apses, in the fashion typical of Moldavian churches. It also includes a Gothic polygon-shaped altar. One of the treasures of the monastery, the icon of Saint Nicholas, is now on display at the National Art Museum in Bucharest. The Moldavian monks opened a school in this church which functioned up to 1761.
