Things to do
6-
Bistrița Monastery
A monastery founded in 1494 with a cave chapel in the cliff behind it reached by a stair, holding the relics of Saint Gregory the Decapolite. It ran one of the earliest presses in Wallachia. It stands six kilometres from Horezu on the road towards Costești, and the nuns keep a small museum.
-
Cozia Monastery
Built in 1388 on the bank of the Olt, this is the best preserved fourteenth century building in Wallachia, banded in stone and brick on a Serbian influenced plan. Mircea the Elder is buried in it, and the courtyard is entered straight off the valley road that runs past the gate.
-
Horezu Monastery
The largest monastic complex of the Brâncovenesc style, founded in 1690, on the UNESCO list, with a carved stone porch, a painted refectory and a school of fresco painting that trained the region. Its balance of Byzantine plan and Renaissance ornament is the style's definition.
-
Stânișoara Monastery
High in the Cozia forest, reached by a rough track or an hour's walk up, and the trailhead for the Cozia ridge. The setting is the point, and the last part of the track needs a vehicle with clearance, so most walk the final stretch from the forestry road.
-
Trovanți Museum
An open air reserve at Costești holding trovants, sandstone concretions that swell after rain and appear to grow, which is cementation at work and not the local legend of living stones. It is a short stop on the way up to Bistrița, and the ground is fenced and signed.
-
Turnu Monastery
At the foot of the Cozia massif, with hermit cells cut into the rock above it, reached on a path from the road. It is the quieter of the valley's foundations, and the cells are visited on a steep half hour climb that starts behind the church.
