Holy Monastery of Horezu

Romanii de Sus, Vâlcea County | Romania

The Monastery of Horezu represents an important centre for the diffusion of culture. The Horezu School of painting was pre-eminent throughout the region in the 18th century Wallachia was a Romanian principality that was recognized as an independent state in the 14th century. It was never part of the Ottoman Empire and so it was able to undergo a post- Byzantine cultural evolution that distinguishes it from the artistic Balkan family to which it belongs. The only artistic centre in this region in the 17th century was Mount Athos (Greece), which prospered as a result of the patronage of sovereigns and nobility in the Romanian principalities...