The complex of monuments which form the Royal Court of Targoviste represents one of the most important architectural group from Wallachia and has a great artistical and historical value. Being a royal residence for centuries, the Royal Court offers the possibility of revealing a chapter of the romanian medieval art and history.

1. The southern gate.

The entrance, which is still used now, lies under the bell tower built at the end of the 16th century (1584) and then reconstructed in the age of Matei Basarab and Constantin Brancoveanu. The bell tower has the same constructional features as the inside wall of the enclosure (raised by Petru Cercel), to whom he is related organically, not only as a structure, but from its settlement point of view, compared to the frontage wall. The building of the tower was determined by the existence of the church, which didn’t have the possibility of accommodating a tower bell in its own steeples.

2. The Royal Palace

The first royal house

The first stone construction from the Royal Court and from the town is raised by Mircea the Old at the end of the 14th century, close to the south of the church built afterwards by the same king. Only the sides of the cellar made of rolling stone, having the dimensions of 15 x 6 m, and a long prominence on the short side have preserved under the house from the 15th century. The access to it is made from the north side. In the beginning, this construction was protected by a double fence of wooden pillars.
The royal house from the 15th century
Built at the end of the 15th century it was placed very close to one of the sides of the enclosure wall. On a rectangular surface measuring 32 x 29 m on the outside, the house had a cellar on the entire surface, with four parallel aisles, on which rose the ground floor with a large hall (6 x 12 m) – probably the ceremony hall and the hall of the royal council – placed on the eastern side – and rooms intended for the accommodation of the king and his family.
The royal house from the 16th century
In 1584, the king Petru Cercel imagined the construction of a building inspired from the composition principles of the palaces he saw during its peregrinations along Europe. The formation of the house and the decoration of the building’s frontages are new elements, but we can sense the local tradition induced by the local manufacturers.
The Royal Court built by Petru Cercel, “a small, but beautiful and grand palace”, situated near the south side of the first royal house, but completely separated from it, was composed of cellars, the ground floor and one other floor. The cellars, preserved until now in its incipient form, were placed on the axis of the building, having a rectangular shape plane with a 12 m side, divided into four identical sections placed around a massive pillar.

Initially the access was made through an underground arched prominence of 25 m long and it was placed on the west side. The ground floor sheltered the royal common room and it was constituted of 10 rooms, from which a large one was placed cross-cut at the southern extremity. The floor contained the living chambers of the king and his family and it was completely separated from the ground floor. The access to it was possible only from the outside through a staircase situated on the western frontage and there was a direct connection with the great Church through a passage. The houses were covered with tiles.
The palace from the 17th century
King Matei Basarab finished in 1654 the reconstruction of the royal houses, raising a floor above the house from the 15th century, connecting it with the new one by a passage linkage and resulting a real palace, uniform from the architectonical point of view. Destroyed in 1659, the palace is restored by Constantin Brancoveanu. The vaults and the floors will be renewed and the rooms will be decorated with timber work and paintings. A loggia with access staircase from the garden was built on the east frontage of the Petru Cercel’s house and also a second one towards west, on a porch made by Matei Basarab, changing the orientation of the cellar’s access on the side of the great royal church.

3. The Chapel-Church

The Chapel-Church is the oldest religious structure known in Targoviste until now and it was built along with the first royal house, very close to it, by Mircea the Old. The church was conceived after a plan influenced by the general features of the tri-conical type as they appear in the church of the Cozia Monastery, but, unlike the previous raised buildings, a new element appears, namely the elevation of a stoop with a bell tower above on the western extremity. Nowadays the church preserves the consolidated walls of 2 m height, detached in the fourth decade of the 20th century.

4. The Sunset tower

Located in the north-west side of the Royal Court and dominating the entire complex of monuments from here, the Sunset tower became the symbol of Targoviste. Of 27 m tall, it is constituted of a truncated pyramid shaped base of stone, from which rises a cylindrical structure made of bricks whose diameter measures 9 m. The construction has 3 floors, from which the last two are label led on the outside by broken arch openings and by balconies supported by stone consoles. The access to the upside of the tower can be made through an inner spiral shaped staircase situated on the vertical axis of the building.
The Sunset tower was built in the second half of the 15th century, during Vlad Tepes’s reign, over the porch of the Chapel-Church raised by Mircea the Old. Initially the tower was composed of two floors and the access was made through a turn bridge from the first level directly into the next house.

5. The Royal Court’s fortifications

At the beginning of the 15th century the ensemble was defended towards the town by a large defense entrenchment of 20 m width and 250 m long, afterwards doubled inside by a stone wall. In 1584, along with the new structures which tripled the surface of the complex, Petru Cercel builds an enclosure wall provided on the outside with counterforts of triangular plane. After 1640, Matei Basarab doubles it externally with another one, punctured with five entrance towers and provided with guard rooms.

6. The Saint Friday Church

It was known until the beginning of the last century under the name “The Little Royal Church”. The church came into existence in the year 1517 (according to the memorial inscription in Slavonic from the southern frontage of the church, which mentions Clucer Manea Persanu and his soul mate Vladaia) and it’s the only known monument in the Romanian Country’s architecture dating from the middle of the 15th century and preserved in its original shape until today.

The plan of the church belongs to the tri foliated type, of elongated shape. The spire is supported by four semi cylindrical arches belonging to the first period of the church to which it is organically connected. It shows analogies to the porch of the Chapel-Church which also sustains a bell tower.

 
7. The great Royal Church

An endowment of Petru Cercel (1583-1585), the great Royal Church was built in the year 1584, at the same time with the Royal Court and next to it. The church is dedicated to “The Virgin Mary’s sleep” and was carried out after the model of the inscribed Greek cross type churches. The monument stands out of the churches built at the end of the 16th century by its until then un encountered proportions, as the rectangle in which is inscribed the external cone measuring 14 x 30 m. Petru Cercel added a balcony above the nave entrance for the royal family, with direct access from the palace through a passage which joined the two constructions.
The first painting from the end of the 16th century or beginning of the 17th, partially preserved on the of the deacon’s wall above the altar and on the southern wall of the pronaos was superposed on a second layer of painting made between 1696-1698 on Constantin Brancoveanu’s initiative. The diversity of the iconographical themes, the color harmonization sense as well as the expression of the faces make this church’s painting one of the great achievements of the age. The detail abundance, the great number of low proportions scenes, bound together by coloring and scale, creates a strong expression of unity which also detaches itself from almost all the painting ensembles of the Brancoveanu age.
We can find in the great Royal Church the largest gallery of Wallachia rulers’ faces, preserved and represented by the votive paintings of the church’s pronaos, paintings of a great artistic and documentary interest. Thus the western wall of the pronaos is decorated with the portraits of the kings Matei Basarab, Neagoe Basarab, Constantin Brancoveanu and Petru Cercel (in their places as founders, holding the copy of the church), followed by Mihai Viteazu (it’s his first presentation with the crown on his head), Radu Serban, Constantin Carnul, Serban Cantacuzino and Radu Mihnea.

 
8. Lady Balasa house
 

The house was built in 1656, in the eastern side of the enclosure, near the church Sfanta Vineri, by lady Balasa, wife of Constantin Serban and is composed of four rooms (living chambers), put together on a single level, paved with bricks, covered with cross type vaults with splayed edges. According to the memorial inscription from the southern wall, the building was meant “… for the peace of the Christians who fall in need…”

 
9. The Royal Gardens
 

Situated in the place of the town’s current park, in the interspace between the enclosure wall from the eastern side of the Royal Court and the river bed of Ialomita, the royal gardens where made, according to Franco Siveri information, by King Petru Cercel “he made beautiful gardens in the Italian style in front of the palace”. The Royal Court garden reached over the other river bank of Ialomita, until the root of the Monastery’s hill with a hunting forest and was surrounded by a wall made of “brick boulders”, according to Anton Maria del Chiaro’s description. The royal gardens were enlarged by King Constantin Brancoveanu who, in order to better enjoy “the exquisite gardens of the court”, builds a pavilion for “watching”.

10. The Royal Bathroom
 
Placed on the eastern side of the royal houses, between the enclosure wall from Ialomita’s side and the houses, the Royal Bathroom was built during the reign of Matei Basarab. Its plan has rectangular shape and measures 5.50 x 14.7 m on the outside. It’s composed of tree rooms placed in a row. There is a small clothes closet in the first room, situated in the north side, which can be accessed from the outside through a door in the western wall. This room is followed by another one, where they actually took the bath. On the south side and with no connection to these two rooms was the room accommodating the boiler where the fire was made.

11. The pavilion in Brancoveanu style 
Elevated in wood by Matei Basarab, the pavilion is rebuilt in stonework during the reign of Constantin Brancoveanu. The kiosk is a new element, emerged in the architecture of the ensembles of royal courts and manors from the Romanian Country in the times of Matei Basarab. The ruins can be observed today at about 60 m east of the exterior wall of the Royal Court. It is still preserved on a 0.40 m height and a thickness between 0.87 – 1.15 m and it’s made of the brick type we see in others buildings in Brancoveanu style from the royal house.

Foreign travellers about the Royal Court (16-18th century)

Franco Sivori, the Italian secretary of the king Petru Cercel:
“As the month February of 1584 arrived, his Highness decided to change his residence and retire to a town called Targoviste… The town is enriched with all kind of things, satiated with good water, with wells and fountains and a lovely river flowed besides the prince’s palace. His palace, built by his ancestors has large proportions and an accurate architecture; it was immediately enlarged by his Highness who added beautiful and grand chambers. He had a fountain made on the esplanade, with great toil and expense, which brought the water from a spring well from at least four miles far from the city, passing it underground through thick fir cradles; the prince order at the same time to raise a beautiful church next to the palace, thus his Highness could pass over a covered bridge and enter the church from his chambers without anybody seeing him…. He ordered to make unspeakably large and beautiful cages to keep wild beasts and Italian gardens which were placed next to this palace. And he made everything with such expedition that everything seemed like a wonder. In less than six months everything was completed as more than 1000 people worked ceaseless.” (1584)
Paul of Alep, Syrian traveler:
“It is known that the Court of the Romanian Country’s ruler is big and surrounded by a stone wall; a river flows besides its end. The church which you can reach through a staircase is very big; it’s placed in the middle of the court. The church is divided into three parts: the external part includes the arcades of the narthex, then you reach to the second part of the church through a second door, where lies the rulers’ graves, then you enter through a third door in the nave of the church which is a very old hall. There are high domes above it and it is surrounded by pews. In the middle of this yard there is a tower made of stone, big and tall which astonished us by its height, there you may see the horologe of the town and many guards keep sentry there… the king’s throne (from the church) is tall and gilded, behind it there are stairs that allow you to climb to a retiring place with wooden latticed members, where lives the lady and her suite; from there you can go to the ruler’s council hall because they climb and descend frequently through there. There is also a staircase reaching it through the place where lie the rulers’ graves. In the upper part there is a window; the prince sits there on festival days and on Sundays… We climbed the above-mentioned staircase that went from the church to the dining room of his palace…” (1654).
Edmund Chishull, ambassador of the United Kingdom in Istanbul:
“April 30. Today, around 12 o’clock we reached Targoviste where his Highness, along with its suite are received in the ruler’s palace. By its shape and pomp, it resembles very much to the one in Bucharest, but this palace surpasses it by a more beautiful garden and by a beautiful stone kiosk inside the garden. They are both harmonious and may stand besides those of the more enlightened Christianity… Here was the residence of the kings until thirty years ago… when the ruler Ghica and its descendants were forced to break it down and move back to Bucharest. But, since five years ago the current ruler received the permission to rebuild it, on the condition of not raising enforcements in that place; therefor… while the prince was organizing again the palace and adorning the gardens, he advised the boyars to build also their houses.”