After walking you inside every luxurious room of the amazing Peleș Castle in the Day 5 (Part 2) of this Leaving All Behind series, I decided to once again follow the trail of Vlad Tepes III (Dracula), to a small town near Bucharest.
On bus(es) to Snagov Lake
*Tip (1): Since, believe it or not, the Vlad Tepes III tomb is not a national tourist site anymore (from 2013 the Ministry of Tourism decided not including Snagov monastery as a tourist attraction), to get to there from Bucharest is quite a whole-day adventure, more if you go by public bus. So, if you decide to visit it, wake up very early and get ready to take several buses, to ask locals in half-empty hamlets, walking, get lost and more walking again.
*Anecdote (1): I remember that I had to take a combination of buses (I think they were the 443 and 447) just to arrive to a half-empty hamlet relatively close to the Snagov lake. From there, I spent at least half an hour trying to speak with locals and to realize how to get closer to the monastery. After figuring out the next bus (not the regular ones), I got into a bus with only a crew of 5 Romanian teenagers inside that seemed they wanted to take advantage of a lost tourist and I really thought I was going to have to fight them to keep my small backpack on my back.
*Anecdote (2): After being told by the bus driver to get off at the next bus stop, still took me around another plus half an hour walking through the streets of another hamlet (thanks Google Maps, I don't know what would I do without you), for finally reaching the gate of the bridge that leads to the islet in the middle of the Snagov lake and, surprise, it was about being closed early that day so I had to go in a rush.
YouTube Short heading to the islet after crossing the bridge gate:
*Tip (2): You can opt for taking a boat trip through the lake and disembark in the monastery pier so that way you won't depend on the bridge gate opening/closing schedule (from around 9:00 to 13:00) but it will be much more expensive (around 100 RON -21 EUR/pp- and that if you find the guy of the boat).
This Orthodox Monastery is surrounded by the Snagov Lake (Snagov meaning snow in Slavic, it's the largest natural lake in Romania with almost 14 km. long) and partially surrounded by an old oak forest in a Nature Rserve that was favorite retreatment place of Romanian elite (including Nicolae Ceaușescu).
Although the new monastery dates back from the late 14th century, a wooden church had already been existed there since 11th century (founded by Mircea "the Elder", Vlad Tepes' grandfather) wich was replaced in 1453 by a stone building that later sank into the lake.
Being the exterior of the monastery quite humble, its interior is a delight for the senses:
As you can see, everything is quite well preserved, specially the Byzantine-style paintings on the altar, the ceiling and the fabulous polychrome frescoes on the walls, being a small jewel of feudal art, containing the largest mural fresco preserved in any church in the country, that dates back to the 15th century.
*Anecdote (3): Despite you can't take pictures of the interior (unless you pay a fee), the Italian girl I met on the bridge entrance convinced me to take some sneaky pictures and, yes, they caught us taking photos and scolded us, that's why I don't have many (since I already paid 15 RON -3 EUR- for entering the monastery, I thought the 10 RON -2 EUR- photography fee was, somehow, abusive).
As for the tomb itself and although it's true Vlad Tepes asked to be buried here, in 1933 the tomb was dug up and opened and only horse bones and a ring with the emblem of Wallachia were found, with no trail of Dracula.
However this monastery was special for the Prince of Wallachia, since in 1456 he built fortifications around the monastery, he also built the bridge from the lake to the mainland, a bell tower, a new church, an escape tunnel and a prison (the remains of the prison behind the present-day church can still be seen) and torture chamber.
As you may know, legend states that Prince Vlad was murdered in the Batani forests (few kilometers from Snagov), at the hands of some boyars (Romanian noble landowners who betrayed Vlad for his sadism). The crime would have had the support of the Orthodox Church, after the Impaler had married a Catholic princess. The corpse would have been decapitated, to exhibit his head in Constantinople by the sultan and the rest of the body would have been secretly moved by a group of monks from Snagov to be buried inside the monastery.
YouTube Short appreciating the surroundings from the Snagov monastery pier before leaving:
In the next article I'm leaving Romania and heading to Sofia to stay couple of days in the full of history capital of Bulgaria.
Leaving All Behind series: Day 1, Day 2 (Part 1), Day 2 (Part 2), Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 (Part 1), Day 5 (Part 2).
All photographs were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
YouTube Shorts recorded with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
Images of the bus trip to Snagov are screenshots from Google Maps.
Some sources on which I relied to give some accurate info about Snagov lake, Snagov monastery and Vlad Tepes: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10).