Discover Târgoviște!
As capital and princely residence between 1396 and 1714, Târgoviște had for more than three centuries, the status of the most important economic, political-military and cultural-artistic center of Wallachia.
The archaeological excavations carried out on the territory and in the surroundings of the city proved that this region was inhabited since Neolithic. In the Museum of Archeology there are vestiges of the cultures from these times, as well as from Bronze Age and Iron Age. Well illustrated in the museum are jewels, tools and Geto-Dacian coins, from the time of the kings Burebista and Decebal, as well as from the Byzantine era.
The Princely Court
The first mention of the city dates from 1396, and the first official act from 1406 and belongs to Mircea cel Batrân, voivode of Wallachia, which opposed three decades of resistance to the Ottoman Empire, with resounding victories. From 1424, the first commercial regulation made by the ruler Dan II is kept, which establishes the customs relations of the local bargains with other merchants.
Vlad Țepeș ascended the throne in 1456 and entered history with the victory of 1462 against Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. Radu cel Mare voivode rebuilds, starting with 1499 the church "St. Nicholas of Hill", known today as the Dealu Monastery. Mihai Viteazul succeeded in 1600, for the first time, the unification of the three Romanian principalities and was recognized throughout Europe as a defender of Christianity. Matei Basarab (1632-1654) was a great supporter of the culture. He strengthened the city's fortifications, repaired old churches and built many new ones.
Tower of Chindia
After Constantin Brancoveanu, who for a quarter of a century ensured the stability of the country, followed a century of gentlemen lords. The old fortress is really abandoned. The rebellion of Tudor Vladimirescu, from 1821, after shining in Bucharest, restoring the earthly rulers upon the country’s throne, ends sadly in Târgoviște. Tudor and many of his soldiers are massacred by the etherists in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral where a stone cross was erected, in their memory.
The inhabitants of Târgoviste actively participated in the Romanian revolution of 1848 and supported all the political acts of the unionists.
The modernization of the Romanian society at the end of the 19th century meant a great economic advance, illustrated by the illumination of the city in 1863, the inauguration of the diligence and then the Bucharest-Târgoviște railroad, the establishment of the first industrial enterprise - the Arsenal of the army and the construction of the oil refineries.
Târgoviștea paid its blood tribute in all the great battles of the nation: the war of independence from 1877-1878, the first and second world wars.
Half a century of communist dictatorship has caused constraints in political, social and cultural life. After December 22, 1989, a new constitution of the country put the political life on a democratic course.
