Cozia Monastery

Cozia Monastery sits in a dramatic position in the Olt River gorge, where the river cuts through the Southern Carpathians south of Râmnicu Vâlcea. The monastery was founded in 1388 and is one of the oldest surviving religious foundations in Wallachia. The main church is a masterpiece of the Byzantine-influenced Wallachian style, with an exterior of alternating courses of stone and brick and a remarkable carved stone portal.

The monastery is active and open to visitors throughout the day. The surroundings are beautiful — the gorge is narrow and forested, the Olt runs fast and clear beside the road, and the monastery walls rise directly from the riverbank. Nearby is the Cozia National Park, with good hiking trails into the beech and conifer forests above the gorge.

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A story
Cozia's church was built in 1388 by Mircea the Elder, one of Wallachia's greatest princes and the grandfather of Vlad the Impaler. Mircea himself is buried here. The church's carved stone exterior, with its alternating bands of brick and stone and its elegant trefoil window, was a direct model for ecclesiastical architecture across Wallachia for the following century. The building has survived remarkably intact — it has never been significantly rebuilt.

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