Exploring Romania (Part I)

It's been almost three months since we returned from our trip to Romania. The task of writing about the adventure-filled three weeks that I spent there with my Romanian family seemed too daunting until today.

I realized that the best way to tell my stories may be to do it in parts. As I've always been delighted with architecture, I'd like to start with the marvelous monasteries, churches, fortresses and castles that we visited there. I will also share legends, snippets of history and accounts of my own personal experience.

Curtea de Argeș Monastery
Wallachia

Rear view of the impressive monastery and its well kept gardens

The Story of Manole

No one visits the Curtea de Argeș Monastery (Mănăstirea Curtea de Argeș) in Wallachia without hearing the tragic story of Manole, a legend told to generation after generation of Romanians and tourists.

Front view of the monastery

Legend has it that Master Manole, the best mason of those times, was hired by the voivode to build the most beautiful monastery in the country.

Working with nine masons, Manole labored in vain because the walls of the monastery would crumble at night. This angered the voivode who threatened their lives unless they successfully finished the construction.

One night, Manole dreamed that, for the construction to be successful, a person very loved by him or his masons had to be built into the walls of the monastery.

He told his masons about this dream, and they agreed that the first wife who would come there with lunch for her husband the following day should be the one to be sacrificed.

As expected in stories like this, who other than Manole's own pregnant wife, Ana, would be seen approaching from the hills the next day?

Manole prayed for strong winds, rain and storm to stop her, but her love for him kept her going despite the terrible weather. When she arrived, Manole and the masons hoodwinked her into believing that they were just playing a game of building walls around her body. She soon realized that it was not a game and begged Manole to let her go. Committed to completing the monastery and fearing the voivode's wrath, he kept his word to his men and sacrificed his wife.

The beautiful monastery was completed and the prince was very pleased with the results. He asked Manole and his masons if they could ever make another building to match it. None the wiser, they replied that they definitely could always build something even greater. As the voivode, in truth, did not want them to build something more beautiful for someone else, he had them all stranded on the roof. They tried to fly off the roof using wings fashioned from wood, but they all fell to their deaths.

The marked wall

Today, a well is believed to mark the spot where Manole's body landed. A mark outside one of the monastery's walls is said to indicate the spot where Manole's wife was supposedly immured.

The Legend of Master Manole by Vasile Alecsandri

There are many versions to the Legend of Curtea de Argeș, and the story of Manole is probably one of the most popular among them. These legends have inspired many Romanian poets including the celebrated Vasile Alecsandri.

I found and bought a copy of Alecsandri's version for 10 lei from one of the stalls outside the church behind the monastery. It's quite impressive. Not only is it told in Romanian, French and English prose, but also beautifully illustrated. 

A Final Resting Place

While the legend says that Curtea de Argeș Monastery is the final resting place of Manole's wife and their unborn child, the impressive building actually houses the remains of important personalities in Romania's history: Radu of Afumați, Neagoe Basarab, King Carol I, Queen Elisabeth, King Ferdinand and Queen Maria.

The tombs of King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth

Wall paintings inside the monastery,

depicting monarchs who ruled Wallachia

An Orthodox church behind the monastery

Visiting the monastery in the winter