Ciolanu Monastery, Orthodox monastery in Haleș, Romania

Ciolanu Monastery stands on the southern slope of Ciolanu Hill above the Nișcov stream in Tisău commune, Buzău County. Its two churches lie about 100 metres apart: the old Church of Saint George, dating from the second half of the 16th century, and the larger Church of Saints Peter and Paul, built 1823–1828. The photograph shows two tall white bell towers with red domed caps and crosses, long white buildings with steep red tiled roofs, a wooden gallery on the left, and a wooden fence with a low stone wall in the foreground.

The monastery is first documented on 15 January 1600, when monks and hegumen Vasilie witnessed a boundary survey; archaeological research in the 1970s dated the old church to the second half of the 16th century. A later tradition attributing its founding to Lady Neaga is contradicted by documents. The brick church was built on the Gorgescu estate by Dumitru Grecu and Sorești boyars from Vernești.

The monastery holds three imperial icons — Christ, the Virgin and St John the Baptist — commissioned in 1886 from Gheorghe Tattarescu by the abbot Ioanichie Nichiforescu. The painter Nicolae Teodorescu decorated the large church between 1828 and 1831 and again after the 1855 fire; several monks, including Elisei and Ghimnasie, learned church painting from him. Teodorescu is buried in the monastery cemetery with his family.

The monastery lies on the southern slope of Dealul Ciolanu, near the Nișcov stream in Tisău commune, Buzău County. The two churches stand about 100 metres apart, with a summer altar in the compound. The open-air sculpture exhibition of the Măgura camp occupies the monastery's glades close by.

The monastery's cemetery holds the grave of painter Nicolae Teodorescu, who painted the large church between 1828 and 1831 and again after the 1855 fire; he is buried there with his family. Several monks, including Elisei and Ghimnasie, learned church painting from him.