The church of the Holy Cross of Pătrăuţi is situated not far from the town of Suceava, on the right side of the road leading northwest towards Rădăuţi, in the valley of the Suceava River. Once hidden deep in the woods, Pătrăuţi village was chosen as the location for the single convent of nuns founded by Stephen the Great. The church was built in 1487, as stated in the commemorative inscription above the entrance. Although it is only a small church among far grander constructions, it is of special importance: it is the oldest surviving ecclesiastic foundation of Stephen the Great. Stephen endowed the convent with everything necessary, but it could not withstand the vicissitudes of the centuries, and was at some point abandoned. In 1711, the Bishop of Rădăuţi re-founded the monastery, but in 1775 Bucovina became part of the Habsburg Empire, and soon after the church became a parish church. Of the whole compound, only the church is still standing. A wooden bell tower stands just to the left of the church. The church of the Holy Cross is small but well proportioned, consisting only of a pronaos, a naos and a chancel. Its plan is triconch, that is with three apses, and there is a tower above the naos. The frescoes inside the church were painted in part soon after construction finished, in part about ten years later, during the last decade of the 15th century. They are not restored, and are very dark and covered with dirt and candle soot, but what is visible is dominated by golden light. The frescoes are the work of a fine artist and many of the saintly faces seem actual portraits.It is believed that, either the artist came from Byzantium, which had been conquered by the Turks only a few decades earlier, or he had been trained in the Byzantine way of painting.