Curtea de Argeș Monastery
Mănăstirea Curtea de Argeș
Interesting facts
- For all its fame, the church is small: roughly 30 metres long, 10 metres wide and 30 metres high.
- Inside, twelve columns stand for the twelve Apostles.
- According to legend, Manole and his masons were stranded on the roof and tried to escape on wooden wings; a spring marks where Manole fell.
- The first frescoes, by the painter Dobromir, were finished in 1526; surviving fragments are kept in the National Museum of Art in Bucharest.
- Neagoe Basarab died before the decoration was done, and his successor Radu of Afumați completed it, as an inscription of 1526 records.
- The church stands on a raised platform about two metres above the ground, reached by twelve steps.
- The relics of Saint Philothea are kept in the church.
- Queen Elisabeth of Romania, the poet known by the pen name Carmen Sylva, was buried here in 1916.
- A small open pavilion on four marble columns, dating from 1516–1517, stands in front of the church.
Why it is worth it
Few churches in Eastern Europe are as intricately carved as the cathedral of Curtea de Argeș. Its walls are faced in pale grey limestone richly worked with carved ornament, and above them rise twisted, leaning towers set around a central dome, a silhouette unlike any other church in Romania.
The church was founded by Prince Neagoe Basarab of Wallachia: building began in 1512 and the church was consecrated in 1517. It follows a Byzantine plan, but its decoration reflects the wider influences reaching Wallachia at the time, with stone facing on the outside and a brick interior covered in frescoes. Local tradition holds that the walls kept collapsing until the master mason, Manole, agreed with his workers to immure the first woman who came to the site the next morning, and that it turned out to be his own wife. The story is told in the Romanian ballad of Meșterul Manole, Master Manole. By the 19th century the church was in poor condition, and between 1875 and 1885 the French architect André Lecomte du Noüy, working with Nicolae Gabrielescu, carried out a sweeping reconstruction, after which the church was consecrated again in 1886.
From the early 20th century the cathedral became the burial place of Romania's royal family. King Carol I was laid to rest here in 1914, followed by King Ferdinand I in 1927 and Queen Marie in 1938; King Carol II was reburied here in 2019, and King Michael I and Queen Anne also lie at Curtea de Argeș. The cathedral is the seat of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Argeș and Muscel.
Getting there
The monastery lies about 2.5 km from the centre of Curtea de Argeș in Argeș County. The nearest airport is Sibiu International Airport (SBZ), about 84 km away in a straight line on the far side of the Carpathians.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș is a Romanian Orthodox cathedral in Curtea de Argeș, Romania. It is located on the grounds of the Curtea de Argeș Monastery, and is dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. The building is the seat of the Archdiocese of Argeș and Muscel.
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