Things to do
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Baal Shem Tov Wooden Synagogue
A wooden synagogue of 1766, its prayer hall sunk below street level under a painted wooden dome. The former women's gallery is a small museum of objects saved from the town's other synagogues. Individual visitors are taken on weekday mornings, with tours in English; weekends are for groups.
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Ceahlău National Park
Start early from Durău and you can reach the Duruitoarea waterfall in about two hours, or push on to the Toaca peak for the view over Lake Bicaz. Walk it between May and October.
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Church of St John the Baptist
Stephen the Great's court church, finished in 1498, stands beside the bell tower in the old princely court in the centre of town. Its stone walls carry bands of green glazed ceramic discs, and it is still a working parish church. Entry is free; shoulders and knees should be covered.
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Agapia Monastery
A large working convent in a wooded valley about 40 kilometres north of town by road, with the nuns' houses strung along the lane below the walls. Inside the church, the young Nicolae Grigorescu painted the saints as lifelike portraits with real faces, not as flat icons. Dress modestly, and photographs are not allowed inside.
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Bâtca Doamnei Lake
A reservoir on the Bistrița at the western edge of town, with a lakeside path, cafés along the shore and kayak and pedalo hire in summer. A marked path climbs the wooded hill above it to the earthworks of a Dacian hill fort in 30 to 40 minutes. Evenings are the busiest and coolest time on the shore.
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Bistrița Monastery
Stop on the road to Bicaz: the monastery is eight kilometres west of town, and inside its walls you can see the tomb of Alexander the Good, the prince who founded it, and a small museum of manuscripts.
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Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum
Around three hundred pieces of painted pottery and clay figures from the Cucuteni culture, the farmers who lived in this region more than five thousand years ago, laid out on two floors. The spirals and bands are painted in three colours, and the panels have English. It is closed on Mondays.
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Lake Izvorul Muntelui
One of Romania's largest artificial lakes, about 35 kilometres long, filling the Bistrița valley behind the Bicaz dam under the eastern face of Ceahlău. Boat trips leave from the port at Bicaz, and boats, kayaks and pedalos can be hired there. The dam is about 30 kilometres west of Piatra Neamț.
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Pângărați Monastery
A monastery 15 kilometres west of town, three kilometres off the main road to Bicaz, on a wooded slope above the Bistrița valley. Its church is built in two storeys, one sanctuary stacked above the other, each with its own entrance. It sits on the same road as Bistrița Monastery, so the two make one morning.
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Princely Court Bell Tower
See it from the courtyard, then step into the church beside it, which is open. The tower was shut inside after a 2022 lightning strike, so check before you go if you want to climb it.
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Telegondola
A gondola that lifts from beside the railway station, over the apartment blocks and up to the forested top of Cozla in about eight minutes. The ridge looks over the town, the lake at Bâtca Doamnei and, on a clear day, Ceahlău. Every November the line goes into maintenance and runs at weekends only.
