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In the morning, after breakfast,
we move on to Targoviste, 80 km away from Bucharest,
where we’ll visit Curtea Domneasca (The Princiary Court) and
Turnul Chindiei (The Sunset Tower”).
Former capital of Wallachia, Targoviste has been a
royal seat for over 240 years, and in this period of time no less
than forty voivodes occupied Curtea Domneasca. This is a place where
Vlad Tepes’ figure is ever present. Here is the place where
he gathered the boyars who killed his brother, Mircea, and, inviting
them to a pompous dinner, he impaled many of them and the strongest
were sent on a long march to Poienari fortress. But I’ll mention
more about this later.
We’ll also visit the Princely Church and also Chindia Tower
(15th century)
A small town counting about 100,000 inhabitants, Targoviste used
to be for many centuries the Capital of Wallachia. Being positioned
where the hills and the mountains meet the planes, Targoviste had
and still has a very important role in trading goods. The name itself
(deriving from “Targ” = Market) suggests the importance
of this trading center.
Targoviste has also a very interesting minority of Bulgarians, although
strangely called “Serbs” by the locals. Their centuries
old activity of cultivating vegetables is still done today. We can
meet them selling their produce in the majority of the surrounding
towns, reaching as far as Brasov.
Leaving Targoviste we head for the town Curtea de Arges, passing
through the beautiful valleys in this up-land area. We'll get the
chance to see nice villages, scattered in these very picturesque
surroundings.
Passing trough Campulung
we'll take a short break at Mateias Mausoleum, an impressive monument
build to commemorate the heroes fallen during the World War I.
The main attraction of
Curtea de Arges are its famous church and monastery
build in 1514 by Neagoe Basarab. The stone and marble decorations
together with the beautiful interior 14 century frescoes make this
monastery a masterpiece of early Byzantine style. Every Romanian
can tell the legend of this beautiful monastery
Negru
Voda hired the best mason from his time, Manole, along with
his team of 9 masons, to build the most beautiful monastery.
Negru Voda has also chosen the place where the monastery had
to be built: on the place of some time-forgotten ruins. Manole
and his workers began to work on the foundations, but what was
build up during the day crumbled down during the night. After
a few unsuccessful attempts to build the foundations, Manole
had a dream in which he was told that, in order to build the
most beautiful monastery, he had to wall in someone very beloved
by him or by his masons. On the following day he told the dream
to his masons and they decided to wall in the first wife who
was to come to bring food or water for her husband the next
day in the morning. When the morning came, they all sat and
waited for the first woman to come. It was Manole's wife. Manole
tried to make her return by conjuring terrible weather, ravaging
winds and unleashed rains, but all in vain. His faithful wife,
Ana, kept on going up the mountain to bring food for her man.
Manole couldn't do anything to stop her. When she arrived, she
was told that they wanted to play a
little game, building walls around her. Trusting her husband
and wanting to please him, she accepted "the game"
and they quickly began to build a wall around her. She soon
realized that it was not a game she was dealing with and she
began crying and asking for mercy for her and for her unborn
child. Manole kept his promise to his masons and did not give
in. Long after they walled her alive did the moanings end. Nevertheless,
Manole's dream came true: the skilled masons have built what
was to become the most beautiful monastery of its times. On
the final day, Negru Voda came and admired the beauty of the
work and asked the masons if they were able to build another
monastery, even more beautiful than this one. They said that
they could
build an even more beautiful monastery. For fear that someone
else could use the masons' skills for building an even more
beautiful monastery which could "compete" with his,
Negru Voda ordered his men to demolish all the monastery's scaffolding,
leaving all 10 masons "trapped" on the roof. Manole
tried to escape by building wings made of wood and cloth and
using them to glade down, but his attempt was unsuccessful.
He crashed to the ground, in spite of his wings, and in the
place where he fell a water spring welled forth. Today, one
red-marked monastery wall shows the visitors where Ana was sacrificed,
and a beautiful fountain marks the place where Manole joined
in death his beloved wife. |
Today, Curtea de Arges monastery is not only visited
because of its beauty but also because it is the place where royal
family members (such as Carol I, Ferdinand I and British born Queen
Marie) are buried. After this first day in which we will have seen
an important part of the beauties Wallachia (as westerners called
once this region of what today is Greater Romania) it is time we
go to sleep in a picturesque pension which lies at the base of Fagaras
mountains.
Updated info regarding accomodation in rural Romanian pensions: www.turistinfo.ro |
