DESCRIPTION
With several villages plying the meandering Dâmbovița River well before that time, Bucharest was mentioned in historical documents in 1459 and two centuries later became the capital of Wallachia, after being endowed with a fortress (the Old Court) that was initially used as a summer residence of the prince. The late medieval period saw the city develop mainly as a trading and craftsmen centre, with a network of oak plank or stump, later cobblestone paved streets given the fact that the terrain it had been settled on was moist and the river passing through was prone to floods; people in the area around the city lived on agriculture and cattle, given the fertile land and the easily available sources of water. During the over 4 centuries when Wallachia was a vassal state to the Ottoman Empire the city saw a strong Oriental influence, from the omnipresence of the typical inns the larger of which set around a church or monastery to the music, cuisine or fashion observed by the leading class and the local landlords that had a great say in the principality policies. The city would greatly embrace first Constantin Brâncoveanu’s architectural style that blended in Oriental and Western lines, from cusped arches to rich Baroque floral patterns, then the French Neoclassical style that it would adapt to laid back, often single storey houses set in the middle of vast green gardens (a feature that would have several 19th century foreign visitors compare the city to a village), and eventually the Modernist functionality and return to the basics. The resulting city sees no shortage of contrasts, with different style properties often sharing the same street – or block for that matter -, with various fragrances coming from the dozen upon dozen of pastry shops filling the air, with the constant tumult down the main avenues joined by the serenity of small sleepy streets a mere 50 meters away. And so does the area around it, complete with its patches of ancient woods (the story goes that a certain shepherd called Bucur settled with his flocks in a clearing of the then extensive Vlăsia Woods, therefore founding Bucharest), fine pieces of Brâncoveanu architecture, great Byzantine monasteries and the still alive crafts. A great area to explore, and at the same time a quite diverse one, we would say, even though this tour focuses on medieval and classical Bucharest and its surroundings (from the city foundation to the turn of the 20th century), all that typically enshrouded in mystery and local charm as in one of Mircea Eliade’s short stories:
“The silence and the twilight were so restful that Liza would have liked to be truly exhausted, to be broken by her life in the capital, to the point where she could really enjoy these new beauties more fully. […] They had now taken the secondary road. In the distance, one could see the monastery forest, like a mane hidden in the horizon. […] Someone had waved, with both arms, from the middle of the road. It was a tall, dark-skinned young man, bare-headed and wearing sunglasses. He had probably forgotten to take them off, as the sun had set by now and the light was transparent.
‘I beg your pardon for my stopping you’, he said very correctly, approaching the car and greeting.
‘I suppose you’re going to Căldăruşani, and I’d be grateful if you could give me a lift; I can stand on the step pads’.
He was smiling, but he was by no means intimidated, he had rested his right hand on the car door and with his left he slowly took off his glasses. Dorina started. He had very cunning, burning eyes, with unusually large pupils. From his words and gestures, the young man seemed to be from a good family. Liza looked in admiration at his perfectly cut, sporty jacket featuring large pockets in the front.
‘I got lost, if such a thing is at all possible!’, the young man added cheerfully.
‘Or rather, I fell asleep in the forest, and my friends drove on. We were also going to the monastery…’.”
Mircea Eliade – “The Snake”
DAY 1
Bucharest – Comana Monastery, Reserve and Crafts – Bucharest
Welcome to Bucharest! We shall not commence this tour with the classical drive up and down busy avenues or around imposing palaces of the day, but rather in a chronological order. Because, long before the said avenues and palaces, before even the merchant and craftsman shop-lined narrow streets in the old town, Bucharest developed in the middle of a forested, then pastoral and agricultural area. Therefore, before leaving the city, we shall go to its busiest market, the Obor. Mentioned as early as the 17th century but possibly older, the “Obor” (literally meaning “cattle market”), also known as the “Outer town” due to its location well beyond the fortified town walls of the time, was initially meant for the cattle sale. Lesser known are two facts. Number one: after a 1632 battle with plenty of casualties, a memorial place was designated there, where people would give alms in the memory of those that had died in the battle, later to any deceased relatives and friends, point where the place would be called “La Moși” (En. “Deadman’s”) and being related to an Orthodox holiday, the Summer Deadman Remembrance Day that occurs every June 29, and even later everything turning in one big fair where everything was sold and bought, where circus, clowns, musicians, fortune tellers, dancers, grills (including the “mici”, the skinless sausages every country in the Balkans claims paternity of even though they probably originate farther East or South-East), horse pulled carts, heaps of vegetables and fruits, polenta pots, clothes and shoes, all and everyone collided and mingled, hence creating a memorable event. Number two and less illustrious: the 17th and 18th century saw public executions (by hanging) done also there, the reason being that, first, it was out of town, and then, it was a popular place, so that executions acted as a warning for would-be criminals. Whether the cattle market, the battle casualty memorial or the hanging place was first we can only invite you to guess when
roaming across this vast marketplace that consists of a great new hall, another great old hall and vast open air grounds. After an optional detour to see the oldest house in Bucharest, the 1760 Melik House nowadays hosting an interesting Theodor Pallady painting collection, we shall leave the city and head Southwards, to Comana, where we shall visit the local monastery built by one Vlad the Impaler in 1461, and having survived in the way of the Ottoman invasions due to its being initially located on an island in the middle of a vast swampy area, with only an easy to set on fire wooden bridge if the situation called for it. Then, still with the rustic atmosphere and medieval history in mind, we shall call at a local community center where people in the area are encouraged to go on with their centuries-old traditions such as embroidery, reed weaving, pottery, wood carving, ironwork, milling and bread baking. After this day dedicated to the days of old in this part of Wallachia, we shall return to the busy city.
- Pick-up in Bucharest or at the airport.
- Drive to Obor and walk around the market place.
- Optional detour to see the Casa Melik, the oldest house in the city.
- Drive South of the city and visit to Comana Monastery.
- Visit to the Satul Meșteșugurilor community center and presentation of the local crafts.
- Return to Bucharest.
- Optional dinner at Bogdania, an old style cafeteria still serving the bragă (a traditional fermented millet drink especially popular in the hot summer months) and fine local dishes.
- Accommodation in Bucharest, 4* hotel hosted in a heritage property, such as a former mansion on the verge of the former Jewish Quarter or the interwar house built by an illustrious doctor of the time.
DAY 2
Bucharest – St. Nicholas’ Monastery – Căldărușani Monastery – Mogoșoaia – Potlogi – Bucharest
Not possible on Mondays
Now that we have looked into the traditions and rural culture out of the city, let us have a look at notable men of the same period and their legacy. First, we shall visit two monasteries: St. Nicholas’ Monastery, built in 1627 by a rich local landlord, Papa Greceanu and Căldărușani Monastery, built in 1638 by Prince Matei Basarab. While the former impresses one with its porch frescoes reminding in a way of the painted monasteries in Bukovina, the latter has a great location on a peninsula on the homonymous lake and having hosted an important painting school to the point where one of the greatest Romanian painters, Nicolae Grigorescu, is the author of some of the murals. Then enters Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu who ruled over Wallachia between 1688 and 1714. An enlightened figure, he developed his own architectural style in a blend of Oriental patterns and typically rich Baroque decorations, building or setting the framework for followers to build churches and mansions that would keep his legacy alive well beyond the point where, after trying to sign anti-Ottoman alliances first with the Habsburgs and then with the Russians, together with his four sons, he was invited to Istanbul, told to give up Christianity in exchange for being pardoned, refused and was duly beheaded. Today, as his palace in downtown Bucharest no longer exists, we shall see two of his out of town, summer residences, the palaces in Potlogi and Mogoșoaia. While both impress one with their fine carved stone artwork, the former also has some excellent plaster and paint designs featuring floral motifs reminding one the Persian art in the Kashan mansions, while the latter’s larger enclosure on
the lake shore, great park and adjacent 1698 church add diversity to the visit. The day will end with a visit to Brâncoveanu’s New St. George’s Church, part of a former inn and the place hosting the prince’s grave after his corpse had been brought in from Istanbul in secret; the church has a great verandah typical for the Brâncoveanu style, and an impressive iconostasis.
- Breakfast.
- Visit to St. Nicholas’ Monastery.
- Visit to Căldărușani Monastery.
- Visit to Mogoșoaia Palace.
- Visit to Potlogi Palace.
- Return to Bucharest.
- Visit to New St. George’s Church in Bucharest.
- Optional dinner at the Hanul lui Manuc, a typical inn completed in 1808.
- Accommodation in Bucharest, 4* hotel hosted in a heritage property, such as a former mansion on the verge of the former Jewish Quarter or the interwar house built by an illustrious doctor of the time.
DAY 3
Bucharest
Not possible on Mondays
After looking into the roots given by the first centuries in and around Bucharest, let us explore the city today or, to be more precise, to carry on from where we stopped the previous day. And let us look into what is nowadays called the old town, a maze of merchant and craftsman streets (many of which still bear the names of the guilds that once had their shops there, or of the towns merchants present there came from) dotted with typical inns (the best preserved of which are the Manuc and Gabroveni), old churches (the oldest of which is the Curtea Veche built in 1554, while the most scenic of which is the jewel-like Stavopoleos built in 1724) and ruins (among which those of the Old Court or the underground remains of the great Șerban Vodă Inn). After a break during which we shall sample the varieties of local, traditional pastry in the old town, we shall carry on along the popular Calea Victoriei, initially known as the Podu’ Mogoșoaiei (En. “the plank-paved road to Mogoșoaia”), as it made the connection between the town palace of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu and his summer residence in Mogoșoaia, stepping further in the city history and discovering the entirely different architecture of the late 19th and 20th centuries including highlights such as the Post Company Building, the CEC Building, the former Marmorosch Bank Headquarters, the Carol I Foundation, the Royal Palace and the Athenaeum. Our tour will end with a visit to one of the following museums which will draw the line after this time journey: the Suțu Palace completed in 1835 and hosting the Bucharest History Museum or the 1892 Filipescu-Cesianu Mansion hosting the Age Museum offering excellent insights in the day-by-day lifestyle of the city between the 18th century and today. And then we shall complete this tour with quite a lot of historical, but also mundane, facts about this part of Europe in mind…
- Breakfast.
- Walk across the old town including sights such as Manuc’s Inn, Gabroveni Inn, the Old Court and the adjacent church, Stavropoleos Church, the Macca-Villacrosse Passage.
- Tasting of local pastry in the old town.
- Walk up the Calea Victoriei to Revolution Square with explanations on the sights along the way.
- Visit to one of the two museums: the Age Museum hosted in the Filipescu-Cesianu Mansion or the Bucharest History Museum hosted in the Suțu Palace.
- End of services.
Photo Gallery
