Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The history of the Brancoveanu Monastery begins in the 17th century, in 1654, when the village and estate at Sambata de Sus entered the possession of Preda Brancoveanu Wallachian boyar, who built a wooden church on the river valley. In the place of the wooden church, ruler Constantin Brancoveanu (1688-1714) erected a monastery made of stone around the year 1696.

At the end of the 17th century, the Romanians of Transylvania had just escaped the repeated attacks of the Calvin princes on the focus point of their identity — the Orthodox faith, and then, by Transylvania’s going under the rule of the House of Habsburg (1683), the Romanian Orthodoxy of Transylvania faced the danger of catholicisation. In this context, ruler Constantin Brancoveanu turned and reorganised the old Orthodox monastery at Sambata de Sus, with hermit monks, into a monastery with a wider community life, with monks living, working and praying together, to testify in time about the ethnic and faith unity of the Romanians on both sides of the Carpathians. It is worth remembering that the ruler of Wallachia — regarded in 1699 as the true patron of the metropolitan church of Transylvania — was one of the most resolute and determined defenders of the faith unity of the Romanians of Transylvania.

Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The martyr voivode also established at the monastery at Sambata de Sus a grammar school, a fresco painting workshop and a small printing house, installed in the new stone-made building, after the Brancoveanu-style model used in all his princely foundations. One of the most renowned abbots of the monastery of the 18th century was Father Superior Visarion, who ran the monastery for almost 40 years, until it was destroyed in 1785.
In the summer of 1761, Austrian General Bukow ordered the disestablishment of monasteries, which he regarded as dangerous centres of keeping the Orthodox conscience, and his order provided that the wooden monasteries be burnt and the stone ones, demolished. In Fagaras, the order was carried out by Count Nicolae Bethlen in June 1761, but the monastery at Sambata de Sus was spared from destruction, very likely at the intervention of the Brancoveanu family, the owner of the estate and village. Having remained the only Orthodox monastery in the Land of Fagaras, the prestige of the Brancoveanu foundation enhanced even more.
Through a resolution of December 12, 1782, the Court of Vienna disposed the disestablishment all over the empire of all those monk and nun orders leading only a life of meditation, without concretely contributing to the wellbeing of the civil society, and with all the interventions made by boyars Nicolae and Emanuil Brancoveanu with Transylvania’s government, the monastery at Sambata de Sus could not be salvaged, being destroyed in November 1785. Of all the monastery’s buildings, the church, having very solid walls, could not be demolished, but only damaged. It was left in ruins for almost one century and a half.

Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

After the monastery was demolished, the Brancoveanu palace at Sambata de Sus, located 10 kilometres away, was temporarily inhabited by the successors of the Brancoveanu family who ruled the estate until the agrarian reform of 1922, when the Ministry of Estates handed over these properties to the metropolitan church of Sibiu, together with the ruins of the monastery at Sambata de Sus.

Over the 140 years of decay since it was destroyed, there were several attempts to restore the monastery, but the honour of becoming the second founder of the Brancoveanu Monastery went to metropolitan bishop Nicolae Balan, who began the restoration of the church in the summer of 1926, when the walls of the old church were dug from the ground, the missing parts were rebuilt and the roof was erected. The sanctification of the church and of the new buildings took place on August 15, 1946, when the patron saint of the church was celebrated.

The beautiful painting that endured the bad weather and time was kept inside the church and the architecture of the rebuilt church completely matches the Brancoveanu style. On the outside, the stone decoration of the door and window frames, but mostly of the columns and stone panels of the church’s portico render a special beauty to this monument. The dented brick belt, the shingle roof and the perfect proportions depict a monument worthy of the times of ruler Brancoveanu. The church’s tower is octagonal on the outside and cylinder-shaped on the inside. The cross-shaped interior of the church is completely new and includes scenes of the New Testament, such as Judgment Day, the Heaven and the Hell. The entrance from the portico to the narthex is made through an oak door, placed in a sculpted stone frame, and above the door there is the inscription carved in a stone board. On the western wall of the narthex, where Virgin Mary is painted, there is the painting of the Brancoveanu founders. In the transept, the painting is displayed in five registers: the holy martyrs, scenes from the New Testament, prophets, the Lord’s Resurrection and the Transfiguration of Jesus. The iconostasis, built in a massive wall, allowing the entrance to the altar through three doors, is also completely covered in fresco paintings with icons corresponding to the church dogma. The fresco painting of the iconostasis is displayed in four registers: Virgin Mary on the throne, the Apostles taking the Eucharist, the Holy Hierarchs, in two registers. Metropolitan bishop Nicolae Balan also rebuilt the old belfry of the monastery in its initial shape that sheltered the five bells of over 2,000 kg until 1997. The bells have been moved to the church tower.

Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Life-Giving Spring Fountain, first mentioned in a document in 1500, the oldest item inside the monastery walls, around which many miraculous events and legends occurred and merged, was first restored by metropolitan bishop Nicolae Balan and it is currently surrounded by an oak wood baldachin. The revamping and extension of the altar in the woods, where the outdoor religious services take place, is another renovation work at the Brancoveanu Monastery.

Photo credit: (c) NICOLAE BADEA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The third founder of the Brancoveanu Monastery was Antonie Plamadeala, elected in 1982 Archbishop of Sibiu, Metropolitan Bishop of Transylvania, Crisana and Maramures. He rebuilt the compound of the Brancoveanu Monastery, a work than began in 1985. After 208 years since its demolishment, the Brancoveanu Monastery came back to life on August 15, 1993, at the celebration of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, when the new church with the patron the Brancoveanu martyr saints and the entire monastery was sanctified.

The Brancoveanu Monastery hosts one of the most valuable monastery libraries, not only of Romania, with a fund of over 70,000 tomes of books and periodicals, organised according to modern principles and open to the public. One of the cultural-religious landmarks enhancing the fame of the monastery is the Ecumenical Centre — the Academy of Sambata de Sus, which was inaugurated at the celebration of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, on August 15, 2003. Conferences, symposiums, meeting are organised here and people outside the monastery are hosted here.

Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Tens of thousands of pilgrims gather each year at Sambata Monastery on August 15, at the celebration of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, when the religious service is usually held at the outdoor altar. AGERPRES