Târgoviște was the capital of Wallachia from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, when the princes of this Romanian principality held court here before moving to Bucharest. Today it is a mid-sized city about 80 kilometres northwest of Bucharest, and its history gives it more layers of interest than most Romanian towns of similar size.
The main sight is the Curtea Domnească (Princely Court), the ruined palace complex that was home to Wallachian rulers including Vlad the Impaler — the historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Chindia Tower (Turnul Chindiei), a fifteenth-century watchtower built by Vlad himself, still stands at the heart of the complex and can be climbed for views over the city. Outside the walls, the Dealu Monastery a few kilometres away preserves the severed head of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave), the prince who briefly unified the three Romanian principalities in 1600.
Târgoviște also has a grim footnote in twentieth-century history: it was here, in a military barracks on the outskirts of the city, that Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were tried and executed on Christmas Day 1989. The barracks where this happened is now a small museum.
The city is an easy day trip from Bucharest or a stopping point on the way to the Prahova Valley and the Carpathian mountains.