Curtea de Arges is a small medieval town in southern Romania, about 150 kilometres northwest of Bucharest in the foothills of the Carpathians along the Arges River valley. It was the first capital of Wallachia — the principality established by Basarab I around 1330 — and it retains a quiet dignity appropriate to that history. The town is visited primarily for two exceptional monuments.
The Curtea de Arges Cathedral (also called the Curtea de Arges Monastery) is the most famous building in Romania after Bran Castle. Built in the early 16th century under Prince Neagoe Basarab and his successor, its exterior is covered in intricate stonework: twisted columns, carved rosettes, and a roofline that looks like it belongs in the Middle East as much as medieval Europe. Inside lie the tombs of Romanian kings and queens, including Carol I, Queen Elizabeth (known as the writer Carmen Sylva), and the beloved Queen Marie. Legend attaches a darker story to the building: Master Manole, the architect, was said to have walled his own wife into the foundations to make the structure stand — a tale retold in ballads across the Balkans.
A few kilometres up the valley is Poenari Castle, the genuine stronghold of Vlad Tepes — the 15th-century prince whose brutal reputation inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula character. Reached by 1,480 steps from the road, the ruined fortress perches on a cliff above the Arges River gorge with considerable dramatic effect. Transfagarasan Road, one of Europe's highest and most scenic mountain highways, begins its climb into the Fagaras Mountains nearby.