If you are on a trip to Romania and you want to be amazed by a unique architectural treasure, you should visit Curtea de Arges and its beautiful monastery.
The Curtea de Arges Monastery, an orthodox place of worship and historical monument, is the most valuable piece of religious art and architecture in our country, covered in stone-woven embroidery, which make some call it the Romanian Sagrada Familia, but on a smaller scale.
Looking at it from the outside, you will feel that every stone-sculpted detail is worthy of a place in your photo album.
Since 1914, the Curtea de Arges Monastery, one of our most fascinating architectural landmarks, has served as a necropolis for the royal family. In 2009, construction started on a new cathedral where the royal tombs would be moved, so that the historical church could be turned into a museum.
The construction of the monastery is the subject of a memorable legend, a beautiful story about creation through sacrifice, a fundamental myth in the Romanian folk tradition: nothing durable and valuable can be achieved without sacrifice.
Known as the legend of Manole, the story says that master Manole was employed in 1512 by Neagoe Basarab to build a great cathedral, but strangely, whatever he built came apart by morning. Thus, Manole ended up sacrificing his wife Ana by burying her inside the walls of the church to stop them from crumbling down.
Once they finished, the ruler asked Manole and the other masons if they could built a bigger, more beautiful monastery. When they said yes, Basarab ordered the scaffolding be taken down, trapping the workers on the roof, to ensure that no other church that could surpass that one would be built.
The legend goes on to say that the masons fashioned wings out of wood shingles and flung themselves from the roof, falling to their deaths. It is said that a spring emerged from the ground where Manole fell, and today you can still drink the purest spring water from the Fountain of Master Manole.
Fill a couple of bottles and you will have an original and meaningful souvenir to bring home to your loved ones, in honor of Manole’s great sacrifice.
If you have time, you should also take a tour of Curtea de Arges, an old Romanian town dating back to the Iron Age, which has served as the royal seat of Wallachian rulers as early as 1200.
The San Nicoara Church, the Princely Church, the Cioculesti House, the Chirita House, the Radulescu House, the Dumitru Norocea House, the former Hotel Royal and the Municipal Museum containing over 12.000 exhibit pieces, are just some of the museums worth visiting in Curtea de Arges, where you can polish your knowledge of Romanian history and see some beautiful representations of Romanian art and architecture.
We include Curtea de Arges in the program in multiple forms of booking tours to museums, monasteries or medieval villages, but this must only tell us when and how you have scheduled vacation just to you can suggest and overlap with various events that occur frequently, such as concerts, festivals, plays, fairs and exhibitions itinerant, seasonal discounts, etc..
