THE VIFORATA MONASTERY

Nowadays in the heart of Târgoviște, very close to the ruins of the old Princely Court, stands, in the middle of a precinct surrounded by a high wall, built of brick and river boulders, an imposing church that reaches to the sky, richly adorned with glazed ceramic bumps. The appearance of the entire Stelea monastery, built by Vasile Lupu in 1645, is an important landmark in the evolution of architecture in the Romanian Country. The ensemble, brings together several monuments: the bell tower, the abbot house, also called the Nifon House, the cell bodies, ruins of the enclosure wall, the church but also a museum. This monastery is inscribed as a significant presence in the valuable cultural-historical treasure of Târgoviște.

One of the most complete monuments of ancient Romanian architecture, the Dealu Monastery located northeast of Targoviste on the plateau on the Voivodes Hill is one of the oldest voivodeship foundations. The way it was built was extremely ingenious, as it resisted countless stories over the years, being one of the few monuments in our country that preserved to a large extent their original appearance. On the floor of the narthex there are embedded the grave stones of Vladislav II, Vlad the Young, Patrascu cel Bun and of the elderly ruler of Moldova, Mihail Movilă, cast out of the chair and buried here in 1608. Next to them was the stone of a tomb placed initially above the head of Michael the Brave, by Radu Buzescu in 1601. Today, two large marble sarcophagi, carved by Frederic Storck in 1913, placed on the northern or southern side, shelter the tomb of the founder and the ruler Michael the Brave.