Things to see and do Southeast

3 km north of Frâncești, in the hamlet of Dezrobiți, the Dintr-un Lemn monastery is located on the banks of a small river, at the end of an alley lined with weeping willows. More friendly and welcoming than any of its neighbors, it's sure to enchant you. After passing through a portal decorated with paintings depicting Saint Peter and marine motifs, you enter a first courtyard, full of flowers, with a well and beautiful white monastic buildings. Passing under another porch and next to an unexpected sea anchor (the monastery protects sailors and aviators, who come here to meditate), you enter the second, smaller courtyard, which houses the most recent church, with its beautifully decorated walls. A little further up, past the Pope's house, orchards and frolicking cats, you come to a small wooden chapel surrounded by tall, old oak trees. The chapel, founded in 1635, gave its name to the monastery. Indeed, Dintr-un Lemn means "of a single wood", and it is said that the trunk of a single oak was enough to build it! The paintings inside the church, a little darkened by candle smoke, date from the early ^18th century. Its iconostasis, carved from limewood in 1814, is a true work of art, as are many of the wooden icons that adorn the church.

The monastery is also associated with a love story. The writer Anton Pann is said to have fallen in love with a 16-year-old nun here, disguising her as a boy in order to kidnap her.

The history section displays archaeological finds and old photos of the city and the region. The art section (strada Carol I, 25), which is very close by, occupies a superb mansion, mixing neo-Romanian style with Gothic, Romanesque and Renaissance elements. Some of Grigorescu's works can be seen there. Finally, the museum has an open-air section in the village of Bujoreni, 5 km to the north, where old village houses typical of the region are on display. There is a school, a church dating from 1785 and other furnished, decorated, almost living buildings.

Right on the banks of the river Olt, this monastery is one of the most remarkable monuments of Romanian medieval architecture. The church was built by Mircea the Elder (Mircea cel Bătrân) in 1388. Mircea can be seen in knightly garb on one of the original frescoes in the nave. His tomb is also located here. Various elements and two chapels were added later, notably during the reign of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. The monastery also includes a small museum displaying ^17th-century cult objects and manuscripts. The view of the complex from the banks of the river Olt is particularly impressive, with its white buildings resting on stone buttresses.

A little further north, on the other bank of the Olt, you'll see the ruins of a Roman fortress (castrum Arutela), built under Emperor Hadrian in 138.

Further north, on the same bank as the Roman fortress, the Turnu monastery was built in 1676 and rebuilt in 1933 after a fire. Nearby, monks' cells have been carved out of the rock.

Near the center of Călimănești, don't miss the Ostrov monastery, built in 1522 on an island in the middle of the Olt(ostrov means "river island"). A small bridge provides easy access. It features ^18th-century paintings. All around, the park, planted with trees and flowers, is very pretty. The location of the complex on the Olt river is truly privileged and well worth the detour.