Surroundings :: The Dealu Monastery

On the territory of the Viforâta village belong The Deau Monastery, one of the most interesting religious monumentes in the county. The monastery existed at 17 november 1431, when Alexandru Vodă Aldea give to it two villages, Alexeni and Răzvad, for the remembrance of Mircea the Old, the father of the intending builder. At 28 march 1451, Vladislav the II gave to the monastery other 3 halfs of villages, as well as the Bratei mountain, wich prove that, from this era, existed here a great and rich monastery. At his death, in 1456, the lord of The Romanian Country (Tării Româneşti) was buried in this monastery, becomed afterward a regency necropolis. This first building from Dealu vanished , being replaced with another in the time of Radu the Great regency (1495 - 1508). So, Radu the Great "begun to build and to renew and from the foundatin he raised with all the wealth and with great beauty he beautified this titular saint". The workmanship begun at 26 august 1499, like it's showned on a inscription remained from the old bell tower of the monastery ; at first were reconstructed the buildings of the monastery and the after the minster(monastery church). The halidom was sanctified at 4 december 1501. Radu the Great died before the completion of the magnificent building of Dealu. Those that continued the workmanship were Vlăduţ waivode and, afterwards, Neagoe Basarab (1512 - 1521), the regnant so linked to the Târgovişte history trought his buildings. In this period the church amazed contemporaneity trought its splendor. At the middle of the XVII century the deacon Paul of Alep remarked some similarities to the minster of Curtea de Argeş ; also him showes that the church walls were "elaborated and inwrought with fine stone, and the windowes bordered with white marble".

In the XVI century after its rebuilding, the Dealu monastery was an important regency necropolis, completing this role beginning with 1508, the date Radu the Great was buried here, the church builder. After this date were buried here : the Caplea landlady, the sister of Radu the Great (1511), Vlăduţ waivode, the brother of Radu the Great (1512), Radu vodă Bădica, the son of Radu the Great(1524), Vlad "The Sunken" (1532), Pătraşcu vodă the Good, the nephew of the first builder (1567) and Mihai Movilă (1608).

In 1603 here was brought, trought the care of clucerului(title) Radu Buzescu, the head of Mihai the Brave, killed dastardly on the Turzii Plane. On the ledger that coveres the head of the great hero, clucerul(title) Buzescu put to be carved this beautiful inscription : "Here lie the honest and defunet head of the christian Mihail , the grat waivode, that was the lord of The Romanian Country and Transilvania and Moldova ; the honorable body lie on Thr Turzii Plane. And when the germanes killed him the years were (1601), in the month of august 8 days. This ledger was put by jupan(title) Radu Buzescu and jupăniţa(title) ego Preda".

After the regency of Mihai the Brave Dealu monastery suffered because of the armies of the prince Gabriel Báthory, that entered unexpected in the country, in december 1610. How tell the ex-mitrpolit Matei of mirelor(title), the hegumen of the moastery at that time, the soldiers stoled "all the jewels" of the church, "breacking the regnants graves... and spoiling the church ledgers", hoping to find treasures here ; with the same opportunity was taken also the lead that covered the church.

At 1614 Radu vodă Mihnea (1611 - 1616) visited the monastery and found the local "decayed and crecked and depleted and lootered and caving with all by the hungarians". Hereby the waivode gave the monastery the Satul Nou, tax-free, from which revenue (100 coins each year) the monks should "reinforce and refit the holy monastery".

The great builder that was Constantin Brîncoveanu didn't unvalued the Dealu monastery, he made to the church a new paint "all over", as well as a new carpentry ; the document preserve also the name of the painters : Constantin, Preda, Nicolae and Radu, almost the same team that painted the mitropoly from Târgovişte at 1707 - 1709. After the regency of Constantin Brîncoveanu, in the fanarioţilor(title) era, like many others monastery in the country, the Dealu monastery, uncared by the monks begun to collapse.

After a harsh period for the monastery, in the first half of the XIX century, when it was affected by the earthquakes from 1802 and 1838, was restored by George Bibescu between the years 1844 - 1854. In the year 1879, in the new monastery buildings, was opened "The officer division school", after that, at 1890 - 1891 "The army arsenal", at the beginning of the XIX century "The troop children school", and in 1912 "The military high school Nicolaie Filipescu". WIth this last opportunity, the sanctums were replaced with new buildings, from the old buildings remaneing only the church.

At the beginning of the XIX century the minster of Dealu show it self to Nicolae Iorga like a "wonder of the oriental art". "Great flagstones, bounded with iron gibs, compose the walls with an unusual power in bulk and in their rock clamping-in. Two orthogonal towers in front, a big one in the middle. The most delicate and diverse stone laces surroundes the hall split at right and left from the entrance or they wrought the base, ending the towers windowes. The most exquisite taste should have stop before this charmed harmony, made for a thousand years".

The earthquake from 1940 caused great damages to the monastery, demolishing the steeples of the church, the superior part of the bell tower and damaging the buildings from 1912, that were rebuild in 1953 - 1956, o period when the monastery recovered its original brilliance.

The Dealu monastery link its name to the appereance of the first book in Romania and the establishment of the fourth european typographical center of cyrillic writing, trought the patronage of the waivode Radu the Great and the activity of the bookman monk Macarie. The books that appeared at Dealu in 1508, 1510, 1512, 1644, 1645, 1646 and 1647 constitute not only unique formes of an autochthon editorial model, but also the the perfect illustration of an cultural and ideological specific current, trought which the waivodal Târgovişte assume the role of an important south-east european cultural centre, the place of apparition of the necessary books for the romanians and the christians in The Otoman Empire, point of the maximum concentration of national and european of scholary values, called to work for the developement of the culture and literary language. Especially in the XVII century - trought Matei of Mirelor and Udrişte Năsturel - The Dealu Monastery became easement for the activity of miniaturists, translatores and pressmen that bring out Toma Kempis editiones, the mitropolit Varlaam of Moldova drawes beautifully portraites (like those of Matei Basarab and Lady Elina, drawn by Antim the calligraphist in 1634 - 1644).