The oldest surviving church in Bucharest, built between 1545 and 1559 by Mircea Ciobanul, son of Mihnea the Evil, and used as the coronation church of the Wallachian princes for two centuries. It sits beside the ruins of the Old Princely Court, in the heart of the Old Centre, and its modest brick exterior gives little hint of the role it played in shaping medieval Wallachia.
Inside, faded frescoes and a carved iconostasis survive from various rebuildings. The church is small, dimly lit, and almost always open — slip in for ten minutes between the bars of Lipscani and you have stepped six hundred years back in time.