Cozia
Cozia monastery is one of the most authentic jewels of Romanian ecclesiastic architecture. Located 75 km from the city of Sibiu and 22 km from the town Ramnicul Valcea, on the bank of the river Olt, the monastery has been founded over 600 years ago by Romanian regnant Mircea the Great. Its past intertwines with his destiny, as well as that of many other Romanian and foreign rulers and monks who have become great hierarchs and cultural personalities. To present date, it attracts pilgrims from all around the world.
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The Cozia monastery impresses not only through age and spiritual importance, but also through its artistic significance, featuring stone sculpture, wood carvings and mural paintings. It has been an inspiration for literature and poetry.
Old documents describe the haven of tranquility surrounding the monastery, as well as its protective and powerful walls.
Formally, its byzantine-inspired architecture features an archway with columns at the entrance, two apses flanking the volume and a dome surmounting it. The walls are simple and picturesque, cream colored with thin lines of brown brick and decorative rosettes carved in stone. The interior presents amazing orthodox frescoes on the ceiling and the walls, dominated by deep blue and the tinges of gold on the saints’ halos, suggesting sternness and harmony.
The additions and renovations of the Monastery date from the 16th and 18th century and include the entrance foyer and the octagonal fountain.
The southeast part of the monastery citadel houses a museum. It features a collection of old ecclesiastic items: icons dating as far as the 14th century, of painted wood and glass, old printed Romanian documents in Cyrillic, Slavonic or Greek documents, metal cased gospels, precious stones, fragments of stone sculptures.
The museum chambers also present writings illustrating events of the reign of Mircea the Great, the bull and eagle emblem of the United Princedoms and the history of Cozia Monastery.
