Sambata de Sus
Phone: +40-0268-241237
web page:
www.manastireabrancoveanu.ro
Access Ways
From Brasov town to Fagaras town on DN 1 road ( 66 Km)
From Fagaras town to Sambata de Jos village on DN 1 road (
13 Km)
From Sibiu town to Sambata de Jos village on DN 1 road (64
Km)
From Sambata de Jos village to Sambata de Sus village on DJ
105 B (6 Km)
The "Brancoveanu" Monastery
- Sambata de Sus - located on the valley of Sambata river-
is famous for being
a place of recovery, comfort and spiritual balm for visitors
who halt or pray in this sacred dwelling. The history of
Brâncoveanu Monastery started in the 17th century,
when Preda Brâncoveanu erected on Sambata Valley the
first church built in wood. On its place, around the year
1696, Constantin Brâncoveanu, the ruler of Wallachia
(1688 - 1714), re-built a monastery in stone, in order to
strengthen and save the Romanian Orthodoxy from the danger
of Catholicism, which appeared when Transylvania was ruled
by the Habsburgs (1683). In 1785 the monastery was partially
demolished by the order of general Bukow from Vienna All
the cells were completely destroyed, the church became a
ruin
and the monks were driven away. Throughout the 140 years
since the destruction there had been many people who tried
to restore it such as Metropolitan Bishop Andrei Saguna,
Bishop Ilarie Puscariu, nun Maria Boros and so on, but with
no results. The honor of becoming the second founder of
the Brâncoveanu Monastery was given to Metropolitan
Nicolae Balan, who started the restoration work in
the 1926. Its consecration took place in 1946 , after
the war (that is why the precincts were not rebuilt).
The
architectural style fits entirely Brâncoveanu
style, which emerged in Wallachia at the end of the 17th
century and the beginning of the 18th century. Stones decorate
the windows and the door frames and I took real interest
in observing the front entrance door, the sculptured pillars
and the stone panels of the church which add a special
beauty to the monastery.
The steeple is octagonal outside
and cylindrical inside. The interior is divided into: altar,
nave, narthex and porch
and it is quite common to the churches built during Brâncoveanu's
time. The painting of the porch is entirely new and includes
scenes from the Old Testament. The entrance from the porch
to the narthex is through a thick oak door, framed by sculptured
stone.
On the West-side of the narthex, where the Holy Virgin
is painted, one can see the painting of Brâncoveanu's
founders. The monastery houses five bells cast in Vienna,
very well harmonized, electrically rung nowadays and weighing
more than 2,000 Kgs.
The
precincts which have been rebuilt are quadrilateral, also
in a Brâncoveanu style. Three stone-carved
towers adorn the precincts both on the inside and on the
outside. On the ground floor
of the Northern buildings there are the abbey and the cells
for the monks. On the first floor there is a steeple and
a new monumental and spacious church. The ground floor of
the Southern buildings comprises a large refectory, the kitchens
and the cells and on the first floor there is a large library.
The new monastery houses a museum, which
exhibits one of the ancient glass painting collections belonging
to the 18th-19th
century (mostly painted in a naive manner) and very rare
and historical valuable documents. Besides the glass-made-icons,
one can admire ancient letters, the first edition of some
newspapers, clothes worn by monks, ecclesiastical objects,
a huge library and so on.
