"Targoviste - Residence of the Princes " a Targoviste Travel Page by codrutz

In the history of the Romanian people, the city of Targoviste has held a special place which was won three centuries ago when it was the residence of the Princes and the capital of Wallachia, main economic, military, political, cultural and religious center of the country. Being documentary attested in 1396 in the "Traveling Impression" written by Johannes Schiltberger, Targoviste will soon become a powerful capital, having an important influence and renown in Central and South-East Europe. This fact is proved by its presence on all the maps of the Middle Ages, by the numerous descriptions in the texts and pictures belonging to the respective period of time as well as by the documents existing in the great European libraries and museums.

Since the long period when it was the capital of Wallachia, Targoviste has preserved in time the memory of the great number of personalities and events that contributed to the appearance and maintenance of the national spirit of the Romanians.

A periplus here has to start from the Ensemble of the Princely Court. Its first nucleus was dated during the ruling of Mircea cel Batran, being later on enriched by the following rulers with other constructions.

Dambovita County lies south of the Southern Carpathians, in the zone where the Romanian Plain meets the Wallachian Sub-Carpathians, covering the hydrographic basins of the rivers Ialomita and Dambovita. Targoviste, the municipality of Dambovita County, is situated at only 80-km northwest of Bucharest, on the beautiful hills south of the Carpathians. It is a small town with a glorious history. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic. Targoviste was first mentioned in written documents during the Middle Ages. From the 14th to the 17th century this was the capital of feudal Walachia. During 1396 and 1714, thirty-three ruling princes, from Mircea the Old to Constantin Brancoveanu, ascended the throne of Wallachia in Targoviste. Among them, Radu the Great, who encouraged the first printing activities, Vlad the Impaler, a fascinating personality in our history, the learned prince Neagoe Basarab, Petru Cercel, a true man of the Renaissance, Michael the Brave and others. Targoviste fully deserves its nickname of Wallachian Florence. Here the first books in Slavonic, and then in Latin, were printed, the town being, alongside Brasov, one of the birthpla ces of the Romanian literary language. The head of Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), the first unifier of the Romanians, was brought here after his murder in Transylvania, and is now kept with respect at the Dealu Monastery, close to town. This faded glory still shows up in the atmosphere of the old town.