Cozia Monastery, located 5 km from the resort Calimanesti - Caciulata, was erected by Mircea the Elder in 1388 (that is also buried here), is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania, combining local architectural styles and Byzantine motifs.
Inside you can discover amazing well preserved frescoes that date back over 600 years. The Cozia Monastery was painted between 1390 and 1391. Some of the original frescoes (1390) are still well preserved. Also inside are the graves of some important rulers of Romania from that period.
The fortified cloister dates from the foundation (1388) and is the only one in Byzantine style preserved in Romania. Two chapels are incorporated in the side toward the Olt River and their Byzantine cupolas are reflected in the water, creating one of the most iconic natural landmarks in Romania.
The walls are decorated with stone rosettes, horizontal Byzantine-style rows of brick and stone and vertical frames. The style of the building, soaring high through its monumental tower, impresses the visitors as well as the specialists as being an alliance between lines and Chapel on the southern side of the precincts forms which belong to the Serbian architecture of that time and Byzantine and local elements, a combination which marked the transition towards a peculiar formula of church architecture.
The first fountain, admired in 1657 by Paul of Alep, is a holy water font (where water for the great religious ceremonies is consecrated); it is ornamented with sculptures, in the middle, from the arms of a cross, water runs into the wide cut of the fountain. The second fountain is equally interesting: it is called Neagoe Basarab’s fountain and it dates from 1517. It is covered with a vault supported on the front on columns with chased capitals, and, at the back, it rests on two consoles embedded in the wall and supporting a lion in the Brâncoveanu style.
Next to the main church there is also a small museum that hosts a “Collection of ancient religious object”, where we can admire: original documents, precious icons from the last two centuries (painted on wood and glass or mounted in silver), sacred objects skillfully worked out, religious paintings, romanian or foreign presses, manuscripts written in Cyrillic, Slavonic and Greek characters, gospels bound in precious metal and inlaid with precious stones (among them, the versified Psalter of Dosoftei), fragments of 14th century pieces, as well as some parts of the tombstone of Mircea the Elder, documents from the time of the monastery’s great founder, foundation and donation charts.
