Whoever passes by the Cozia Monastery today, whether local or not, cannot help but be in awe of the monumentality of the settlement built by the great voivode Mircea, by its splendid architectural lines and the grandeur of the natural setting with its picturesque landscape, added to which is the graceful silhouette of the Monastery Hospital, a true jewel of the sixteenth century in Europe.
“The great voivode Mircea, maker of Wallachia, army organizer, famous landlord, wise ruler, feared fighter against the enemies of the land, distinguished diplomat and politician in Southeast Europe, prince, among Christians, the bravest and most agile, he proved to be a good Orthodox Christian.[1]”
No one today disputes that large hearths of living and creation, spiritual centers in the making, have sprung up in some of the religious settlements, especially the monastic ones. In monasteries, the first calligraphers sharpened their quills, and the first manuscripts and graphic ornaments in gold or carefully engraved woodcuts appeared. There, between their walls, in the light of the sun or the lamps, the first translated books were pressed. Countless painters appeared. Old Romanian art is rightly durable and invaluable.
One of the most telling proofs in Wallachia is the ktetory of Mircea the Elder at Cozia, erected six centuries ago in the shelter of the homonymous mountain, on the right bank of the Olt river, near the remains of the Roman camp Arutela and on the border with Transylvania.
Cozia provided researchers with a rich, interesting, and varied architectural material, such as stone, wood carving, and mural painting. It offered poets and writers themes for their works.
Therefore, bishops, monks, laypeople, eminent scholars, painters, sculptors, historians, and countless poets have stopped here and laid immortal or remarkable pages of European art in the chronicle of the time.
This documentary reveals to the world a dialogue of the arts with the entire dowry, antiquity, and Romanian and European history that the researchers of the present must take into account, always delving into the still undiscovered secrets of the monastic settlement founded by the voivode Mircea the Elder.
[1] Gamaril Vaida, Cozia Monastery, p.15, 1986, Episcopia Ramnicului si a Argesului Publishing House.
