Cozia Monastery

Listen first. Below the monastery wall, the Olt River runs fast and green over stone. Behind you, trucks and trains pass along the valley floor. Then you step through the gate, and the sound drops away. The air smells of cut grass, candle wax and old timber. Ahead of you stands a small church striped in pale stone and red brick. The bands run around the walls like layers in a cake. This is Cozia Monastery, one of the oldest standing monuments in Romania.

The man behind this place was Mircea the Elder, a prince of Wallachia in the late fourteenth century. Wallachia was the medieval principality that covered much of what is now southern Romania. Mircea ruled for about three decades, and he spent much of that time fighting the expanding Ottoman Empire. He founded Cozia as his own monastery, and the church was consecrated in 1388. It was not only a place of prayer. It was a statement of power, faith and permanence, built on the main route through the Carpathians.

Think about the location for a moment. The Olt is one of the few rivers that cuts straight through the Carpathian Mountains. For centuries, this narrow valley was a road for armies, traders and pilgrims moving between the Danube plain and Transylvania. A monastery here was a landmark that every traveller would see. Today the road and the railway follow the same line. The valley still works as a corridor, and Cozia still sits right beside it.

Now look closely at the church walls. The alternating rows of stone and brick are the clearest clue to its origins. This style comes from the Morava school, a type of late medieval church building that developed in Serbia. Mircea had strong ties to the Serbian world, and historians believe builders or ideas came north from there. Notice the decorative rosettes, the carved frames around the windows and the slender columns. Few Wallachian churches from this period survive with this kind of detail.

Here is the first thing many visitors miss. The church follows a trefoil plan, which means the building has three rounded apses, like a clover leaf. One apse sits at the east end, behind the altar. The other two push out to the north and south. Walk slowly around the outside and you will see these curves clearly. This shape came from the monasteries of Mount Athos in Greece, and it became a model for Romanian church architecture for centuries afterwards.

Step inside, and your eyes need a moment to adjust. The light is low, and the walls are covered in painted saints. Some of the wall paintings in the nave date back to the founding years, the late fourteenth century. They are among the oldest church paintings in the country. Look for the faces with long, calm features and the deep blue backgrounds. Time and candle smoke have darkened many surfaces. Even so, the quality of the early painters still shows through the grime.

On one of the walls, you can find a votive portrait of the founder. A votive portrait is a painting of the person who paid for the church, often shown holding a model of the building. Mircea appears dressed as a ruler, with a crown and rich clothes. Beside him stands his son. These portraits were political as much as religious. They told every visitor exactly who had built this place, and who deserved their prayers.

And here is the second surprise. Mircea the Elder is buried here, inside his own church. He died in 1418, and his tomb lies in the nave. For Romanians, Mircea is a national hero, remembered for standing against the Ottomans. You will often see flowers and candles near the grave. School groups stop here, and so do older visitors who come to pay their respects. Many people visit Cozia for this tomb above everything else.

Cozia holds another important grave. Teofana, the mother of Michael the Brave, is also buried here. Michael the Brave was a prince of Wallachia around 1600. He is remembered for briefly uniting the lands that later became Romania. In her later years, Teofana became a nun at this monastery. So within these walls, you have links to two of the most famous figures in Romanian history. Both are tied to the same quiet riverside church.

The church you see today is not exactly the church of 1388. Over the centuries, rulers and abbots added to it and repaired it. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the court of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu sponsored major work here. His name gave rise to the Brâncovenesc style, a Romanian blend of local, Byzantine and Italian ideas. Look at the open porch at the entrance, with its columns and painted ceiling. It shows that later style, which is lighter and more decorative than the medieval walls.

Take time to walk around the courtyard. The monastery buildings form a protective ring around the church, with cells for the monks and nuns, workrooms and quiet arcades. Near the main complex stands a smaller church, the infirmary chapel, built in the sixteenth century. Monasteries like this one cared for the sick and the old, and this chapel served them. Its painted walls are worth a look if the door is open. Many visitors walk past it without noticing.

Cozia is still a living monastery, not only a museum. Monks live and pray here, and services continue through the year. You may hear chanting from inside the church or the sound of a wooden board being struck to call people to prayer. This board is called a toacă, and its rhythm is an old part of Orthodox monastic life. Please dress modestly, speak quietly and follow any signs about photography inside the church.

Before you leave, walk to the edge of the grounds facing the river. Look up at the steep, wooded slopes of the Cozia Mountains rising across the valley. The same ridges stood over Mircea's builders more than six hundred years ago. The stone and brick bands on the church wall catch the light in turn, pale and then red. When you step back through the gate, the noise of the road will return. Here, the river still runs past the monastery, as it has since the church was built.