According to tradition, Negru Vodă Monastery (Black Prince Monastery) was built in 1215 by Prince Radu Negru, and was then rebuilt by Basarab I and his son, Nicolae Alexandru Basarab in the first half of the 14th century. The Monastery include the Princely Church dedicated to "The Dormition of the Mother of God" (14th century) , the “Bolniţa” (infirmary) church dedicated to "Birth of Saint John the Baptist " (1718), The Princely House (1650), The Principal House (17th -18th century), the Belfry (1647) and the monastery inn (1647-1746) . Princely Church collapsed in 1628 due to a strong earthquake. Matei Basarab rebuilt it in 1635 with the same sto...ne blocks of the original church and so it will remain until 1827, when the high priest Beldiman Filaret, with the support of Prince Gregory Ghica, remade it for the third time. The Princely Church is princely burial place and preserves the oldest princely gravestone, written in Slavonic, belonging to Nicolae Alexandru Basarab (1352-1364). The Princely Church is historical monument grade A. The bell tower is built in 1647 and is the tallest tower preserved in the Wallachia (35 meters). The smaller church was built in 1718 by members of the Brancovan family on the site of an old wooden chapel: It was painted by the Romanian painter George Tattarescu in 1856. Princely House of Matei Basarab was built in 1650 of stone and brick. The building has one floor with vaulted rooms, two hexagonal towers with brick pillars. This level is erected on a much older basement from the 14th – 15th century. In this building functioned the first printing press in Wallachia, which published in 1642 the first book in Romanian - “Precept upon every day" Here is a beautiful museum collection containing valuable objects and 2,000 old books.
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