The Old Pricely Court

The Old Princely Court area can be identified with the medieval history of Bucharest, though continuity of human life in this part of the town dates back to the 10th and 4th centuries BC, as attested by archaeological findings.
Between the 14th and the 18th centuries, the Princely Court polarized economic, social and political life in Wallachia's largest town, Bucharest, which has become, eventually, the indisputable capital of the country around the year 1660, after having competed with Târgoviste for most of the 17th century.
The fact that Bucharest was at mid-road between the former princely capital, Târgoviste and the Danube, at half distance between the river and the Carpathian Mountains, that it was surrounded by thick forests and lakes, having, just like the famous Rome, hillocks among which the town spread out as we know it today, had an utmost strategic importance. This is why, by the end of the 14th century, Mircea the Old, Wallachia's ruling prince, built a fortress with a dungeon and a defense moat; it stretched over about 160 sq. m, and was to protect the town from foreign invasions, particularly from Turks and Tartars. One can still touch nowadays the brick walls of that fortress. It stood up on a hillock down which flowed Bucharest's "Thames", the river of Dâmbovita (whose name means "oak leaf" and originates in Paleoslavonic, being relates to Bucharest's natural environment rich in thick forests). Beyond the brick walls of that fortress, the ruling prince, his family, courtiers, soldiers, foreign guests, bondsmen, together with all the assets of the princely court, i.e. cattle, horses, carts etc. must have felt safe.
Ever since the time of Vlad the Impaler (1456-1462; 1476), the one who inspired Bram Stoker's fiction work about prince Dracula, the fierce vampire, there is historic evidence that Bucharest, mentioned for the first time in a written document in 1459, played an important part in Wallachia's social, economic and political life. Starting from the foundations of the 14th century stronghold, Vlad the Impaler would extend the princely residence to about 700 sq. m, would build large cellars and would encompass it on its four sides with river stone walls, still to be seen.
Mircea Ciobanul, who ruled over Wallachia twice, between 1545-1554 and 1558-1559, was nicknamed "cioban" (shepherd) because he had been a trader in sheep before getting to the throne. He would turn the old fortress into a real princely residence by changing its original structure, and by adding to it a chancellery, a guardhouse, stables, a recreation pavilion, and the present Annunciation church, which, alongside the vaulted cellars of the princely court, can still be admired nowadays.
Church of the Annunciation or St. Anthony’s Church is the oldest church in Bucharest preserving its original form.
Built on the place of a former wooden church which burnt up, restored after another fire in 1847, and over again in 1934, by the Commission of Historical Monuments, the church was conceived in the local architectural style of the 16th century: it singles out by its harmony and balance of proportions.