Let's travel together #331 - Mănăstirea Cetăţuia - Negru Vodă (Negru Vodă Monastery)

There are few things in life that impress me the way some of the destinations I end up visiting, manage to do. And while I've grown up with a special connection when it comes to the religious part that more or less is missing from people's lives, I can easily say that I've seen around one hundred churches until the age of 27.

I am used to saying that no matter how many waterfalls you see which in fact they all represent a volume of water falling down the rocks, they are all unique in their own way when it comes to the legends or how they were formed.

I gave the example of the waterfalls because a similar situation is with the churches and monasteries I've seen. They do have a connection with God in common no matter if my God is the same as yours, but the energy is pretty much different from one place to another. Or at least that's one of the first things I feel different whenever I end up exploring a new religious place out there whether it's in Romania or abroad.

What makes the Negru Vodă Monastery even more special from what I've seen so far though, is that it doesn't come with any imposing building with lots of details to catch one's attention, but actually with a manually carved religious place in the heart of the mountains letting nature itself be the one who fascinate the ones passing by.

Speaking about a religious place that has become part of the heart of the mountains, keep in mind that it's not an easy track to follow, which is why I was quite exhausted in the picture above. But let's start with the beginning!

I was with my family at home when they got a phone call from some relatives we hadn't seen in a while when we were spontaneously invited to spend the weekend together and get updates about each other's lives when we made it on this part of Romania that even if we've crossed before, we never really took the time to explore what it comes with.
In fact, I don't really consider it a trip but more of an opportunity to walk in two or three places before returning home, all of them being to special religious places that my parents have visited previously, but which both I and my sister wanted to see as well.
The first such experience was at the Negru Vodă Monastery which is locally known as Mănăstirea Cetăţuia - Negru Vodă.
This place was just a few km before reaching our relatives' place so we thought about having this trip before meeting them.
If you've been around here for a while, you might remember my mentions about coming from a family where the travel bug always exited, especially when it comes to hiking the mountains. And while both I and my family had this activity missing a lot in the last few years, we needed this experience like a deep breath of fresh air. Hence why we couldn't wait anymore and started getting our shoes dusty. Ah, we missed this feeling so badly!

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The access to the monastery, or, better said, the path that leads to it, is fairly hidden, remembering a dusty path detached from the main road. Yet one of the many paths like this that you can find in Romania where they could lead to a tourist attraction, a chalet, some illegal tree cutting or even... nowhere.

But we did read on the internet before and found out that the path we have to follow is right next to the single shop you will find in this village known as Cetatuia which is, sadly, a very poor location. Hence why, you shouldn't get scared that as soon as you stop the car on the edge of the street you will see poor and sad people coming from one place or another with stained and torn clothes, asking for a bit of food or money.

Being on the way to these relatives, we didn't have any food with us as we usually bring on the roadtrips we take, but we did give from the little we had, thinking that maybe, because of us, they could have something to eat that day, after only God knows how many days since their last meal.

Some of these people will also be met on the way to the monastery, either sleeping under a stone or selling some of the things they crafted, like wooden spoons.

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The path between the stones is quite short, but based on how hot it was outside during our trip, it felt like a blessing as soon as we made it into the forest and managed to stay away more or less from the powerful sun rays.

This path that starts after the trail with the stones ends and before reaching the monastery, is known as the Drumul celor 12 Cruci which can be translated as The Path of the 12 crosses because every twist you have will end up with a new resting place and a cross, the path remembering about the 12 stations Jesus had on the way to Golgotha.

Sadly, I've let myself recharge with the whole energy felt during that hike and I completely forgot about taking pictures of each of the 12 crosses I mentioned you will find on the path. However, along with the crosses, you will run into all kinds of caves that were carved by the hermits who made a living away from people and traffic noise, but also some church cells and a very interesting cross made of stone and placed on top of a rock.

The story behind this cross is that it was placed by the Negru Voda itself who was the first Voivode of Wallachia and who also lived in this place, along with some other interesting names from the history of Romania, one of them being Vlad Tepes.

Moments before reaching the church that makes the subject of today's post, you will reach some interesting stairs where each comes with either a mark or a text, these being said to be written either by Negru Voda as a message for the people of the future, or leave steps and marks from where he took a break next to his wife to kneel and pray.

The wooden constructions are a lot more recent than what you will see in the next pictures, these being raised as shelters for the locals and poor people who never stopped looking for a place where they could spend a while praying and feeling closer to God.

And speaking of these wooden little houses, all these people along with the ones who take care of the monastery, are being fed with what is provided here, speaking mostly of pretty old people who don't have the possibility to have the whole hike to the monastery with food in their backpacks.

With this purpose, many people from these who are coming to see the monastery with their own eyes do bring food with them, including I and my father who had our backpacks full of ingredients that could resist in front of the heat that was back on that day.

After such an exhausting hike that even if it lasted for around one hour only, it felt a lot more challengeing, perhaps, because of the spiritual energy too.
Hence why, we almost forgot that we have a destination to reach, taking note of all the things we were blessed to observe on the way there.
But as things are not meant to last forever, our path came to an end finally reaching the church that was settled 2000 years ago, everything being carefully carved inside the stones that represent one of the highest peaks from this side of Romania, which is almost 900 meters high.
The interior of the church is quite basic, coming with an altar, nave and narthex that are common for Orthodox Churches, Mănăstirea Cetăţuia - Negru Vodă being one of them.
The monastery is only 12 meters long and around 4 meters wide, speaking of a very low ceiling so in case you are a tall person, you have to be very careful because there are quite a few sharp points on the top that could harm you if you are not paying enough attention.

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What you see in the pictures above represent the interior of the main church which is the one carved in stone. However, with the passage of time, a newer one was raised nearby, made of wood, that comes with a larger space for praying or simply spending some time in silence.

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As soon as we checked the 2nd church too, where I and my father also left the food ingredients we carried all the way to the top, we met some really lovely kittens. It was impossible not to take a picture of them, especially that I am a cat mom and have plenty of paw friends where I'm currently living.

I didn't want to bother them too much from their sleep so I felt thankful just for getting to see them and take some quick pictures, and then walked further because the journey was not going to end at the church.

The murals and religious paintings decorating a stone wall were the single indication we needed to figure out there was something more about to come, so we took a short walk along this one, completely forgetting about the fatigue we accumulated so far.

The place that stole our hearts forever both because of its meaning and the view surrounding it, is known as Crucea Dorințelor which can be translated as the Cross of Wishes.

This place is known as having a very powerful spiritual energy where even some of the most impossible desires can be brought to reality if your faith is a real one and if you manage to reach this place which, as I said, comes with quite a difficult path to follow. All the scarves, personal objects and little religious things left here belong to those who passed by.

Beyond the beauty offered by nature which felt so generous in this part of Romania, as well as the possible wishes that could come alive, a more important thing is that we are speaking about one of the most authentic places where both spirituality and history go along well for a very long while now. Yet one of the few places that manage to stand still after so long, considering that Romania is part of lots of indifference when it comes to restoring or taking care of monuments of the past.

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Mănăstirea Cetăţuia - Negru Vodă can be found in Cetateni village (Arges County) and the main path that leads to it is on the national road that connects București-Târgoviște-Câmpulung, just 22 km away from Câmpulung Muscel.

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

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[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 45.21708 lat 25.20984 long One of the few places where the destinations don't even matter anymore after such a trip on the way there! d3scr))