Bucharest surroundings

BUCHAREST SURROUNDINGS – 6 hrs

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Visit the beautiful Magosoaia Palace and admire its unique park and gardens;
• Explore the fascinating Brancoveanu Medieval Art inside Mogosoaia Palace and Museum;
• Discover Snagov Monastery and find the supposedly tomb of Vlad Dracula;
• Visit Caldarusani Covent and find out the monastic life of the monks.

Mogosoaia Palace-Snagov Monastery-Caldarusani Monastery

Bucharest Surroundings Tour starts from your hotel, where the guide will come to pick you up. The first stop is Mogosoaia Palace, which is located 15km outside the city and is built by Constantin Brancoveanu in 1702. This elegant castle, decorated with wonderful stone masonry presents also some Byzantine decorative features and adornments which join stylistic elements characteristic both of the Italian Rennaissance and the Barroque.

Mogosoaia Palace survived wars, plunder, and destruction throughout the last two centuries. Inside the castle, you will find an interesting art exhibition. After the end of the communist regime, Mogosoaia became a popular tourist attraction once again.

The trip continues to the Snagov Monastery, which is a very significant medieval monument, located on an island in the northern part of Snagov Lake outside Bucharest. Here, you will visit the alleged burial site of Vlad Tepes the Impaler (Dracula`s Tomb), the Voivod known as Dracula in international literature.

Inside the monastery we find the largest assembly of medieval frescoes from Wallachia, dating from the XVIth century. The monastery was built by Mircea the Elder (the grandfather of the famous Vlad the Impaler) who has also left us the first written reference of this church in 1408. For a long time in the Middle Ages, it was one of the strongest fortified churches and perhaps the richest in Wallachia. Snagov Monastery was also an important cultural center, and the place from which the first printing house in Wallachia was run. Snagov Monastery is one of the most popular tourist destinations especially for the foreign tourists coming to Bucharest.

We conclude the day with a visit to the Caldarusani Monastery, which was built between 1638-1639. This monastery is very well known thanks to the great Romanian painter Nicolae Grigorescu, who had performed his apprenticeship here. You can admire the monastery museum, which hosts some of the paintings of this great artist, as well as a collection of medieval art, icons and old books.