Travel planner: Curtea de Arges church, a place full of Romanian history and the tale of Master Manole

In the Arges County in the Southern region of Romania, not too far from the capital Bucharest, there is an old city that reminds me of the wonderful years of school when my favorite subjects were literature and history. This town, Curtea de Arges (which means the Court upon Arges) is a landmark from our Middle Ages history and, at the same time, is linked to one of the most famous Romanian legends called the Master Manole. Curtea de Arges is 38 kilometers North-West of the city of Pitesti - the present capital of the Arges County and 163 kilometres away from the city of Bucharest. It is on the side of the Arges River at the foot of the Fagaras Mountains.

The name of the city refers to its former status as the capital of the historical region of Wallachia. Wallachian written chronicles refer to Curtea de Arges as a fortified city since 1330, but, at around 1290, the Prince Radu Negru crossed the Carpathians Mountains in his journey from Transylvania to Wallachia and he visited two cities : Curtea de Arges and the city of Campulung which in those years was the capital of Wallachia, as set by the Prince Basarab I. Curtea de Arges became the second capital of Wallachia after the city of Campulung and before the city of Targoviste. After 1340, the new royal court was built at Arges containing a church and a palace and, in 1359, the Metropolitan Orthodox Church of Wallachia was founded there. Curtea de Arges was an important trade point between Transylvania and Wallachia. For any tourist interested in Romania's history, Curtea de Arges has one amazing monument which should definitely be visited. The church which was built between 1512 – 1517 by the Prince Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521) on the ancient settlement of the Metropolitan Orthodox Church of Wallachia built on 1359. The story of the building is one of the most fascinating from the Romanian history, first because of the builder Prince Negoe Basarab and then because of the legend surrounding its construction, called Mesterul Manole/Master Manole. The church is also the Romanian Royal family's sanctuary. First, the Prince. Negoae Basarab was one of the most complex and interesting characters in the Romanian history. He was educated in arts and languages, with a very good knowledge of Latin, Greek and Slavonic. In his youth, having various political tasks, he traveled a lot, especially in Central Europe and in the Ottoman Empire, building a large network which later, in his position as a prince of Wallachia were used cleverly in diplomatic, commercial and arts relations. As Prince he tried to set up diplomatic ties with Rome and Venice, and to maintain good relations with Hungary. Neagoe Basarab had a special connection with the Serbs, as his wife, Lady Despina came from the royal Serbian Brancovici family. In his diplomatic activity, Neagoe Basarab tried to mediate the conflict between the Christian Orthodox and Christian Catholic Church, he was a strong supporter of an Eastern countries Coalition against the Ottoman Empire, sending, similarly to the Moldavian Prince at the time, an ambassador to the Vatican. His love for the Orthodox belief was demonstrated too by his great donations to all Balkan countries for churches and, above all, the renovation of many churches and the building of the Curtea de Arges monastery. Beyond his buildings and his diplomatic activity, the Prince Neagoe Basarab remained, not only in the Wallachia history, but, in Romanian literature. Neagoe Basarab is the author of the oldest masterpiece of the Romanian middle age literature, written between 1513 – 1521 in Slavonic (translated in Romanian in 1654) called