Brâncoveanu Palace

yes
soo. as i said in my last post, i was to visit brâncoveanu palace [also known as mogoșoaia palace]. aand i did, actually. yesterday. it wasn't the 1st time i visited it, but this time i was alone so i got to actually spend as much time as i wanted wherever i chose.
unfortunately i forgot my camera's memory card in my laptop [yes. sometimes i am THAT smart :))] so all the pics i took were made by phone. i will post some pics here :).
a bit of history. the palace was built between 1698-1702 by constantin brâncoveanu in what is called the romanian renaissance style [better known here as the brâncovenesc style].
the last owners of the palace were the bibescu family.  in the palace's yard you can find the stone chappel where most of them are burried ( antoine bibesco and  marthe bibescu couldn't be burried there becuse they died during the communist area.)
more info about the palace and its last owners here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogo%C5%9Foaia_Palace
http://palatebrancovenesti.ro/en/2011/07/25/presentation/
or just google it !

now part 2
 Constantin Brâncoveanu
was the voivod of wallachia between1654 and 1714. during his time this land met an era of prosperity. at first he was suppoerted by his uncle, constantin cantacuzino, but they ended up facing eachother. cantacuzino was exiled and started advocating his son's Ştefan's candidacy to the throne, while competing with Brâncoveanu for the support of the ottoman empire - wallachia's overlord at the time.
meanwhile brâncoveanu took steps in negotiating anti-ottoman alliances first with the habsburg monarchy, and then with peter the great's russia. unfortunately, brâncoveanu made some mistakes and it all went downhill. long story short, his bad moves and the fact that his throne was wanted [when did that not happen, in general?] and therefore the plots made against him[such as, the sultan was told that brâncoveanu had saved large amounts of fortune and hid them] ended up with him being brought to constantinopole in 1714, with his 4 sons, imprisoned at the fortress of the 7 towers and tortured, the sultan hoping to find out where the believed fortunes were located.
how did they die? you may ask. well. not by torture.
here
let me explain.

basically. heads chopped off.  the sultan ordered for the bodies to be thrown in the bosphorus. his wife, with the help of the orthodox comunity in constantinopolis [if i remember correctly], fished the bodies from the water and burried them at a monastery nearby. [nowadays his body is in a church found in the center of bukarest, church also built by him].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Brancoveanu
or, you know, google him.

ok. have i bored you enough yet?
good.
now time for pics :))
i wasn't allowed to take pics inside, which sucks. especially since i love the chancery chamber and they still don't have any postcards [or anything for that matter] of it.
soo. this is the main gate. right at its left is a church built by him.

and now the palace

[from what i remember from what i've learned, that outside gazebo balcony thingy is smth characteristic for the brancovenesc style]
view of the balcony from the inside:

back to the palace now

 view of the palace from that main gate's tower thingy:

this is a pic of the inside that i took from the balcony:

right on the left is the chancery chamber!
i did take 2 pics on the inside. couldn't help. i love spiral stairs

 yeah i have to wash the bastards
 and at the bottom of the stairs i took a pic of the view. imagine having this view every morning [especially since i am pretty sure 300 years ago there were trees there, not houses. which makes it even better]

and now. pics of other properties of the palace.
view from the balcony. that s the main gate. [obviously] and over the wall you can see the church.

view from the gate's tower.

another one

this is under the palace, under the balcony:
 what it hosts depends. now there were religious paintings, for example.

and a statuary group representing minerva [the same thing can be seen on top of the targoviste gate. picture later on]

and noow. doors and gates. :))
entrance to what you just saw:

 main entrance to the palace

 see:D. mineeerva

aand last but not least, the bibescu chappel

 and i remembered from my last visit that the crypt is closed. so imagine my suprise when i tried the gate and i actualy could open it [and it made that awesome semi-creepy sound of rusty gate movement...thingy] [yeah. could swear it's not rusty :))]

but my dream of visiting it was soon to be over, as i reached the actual door and saw this

i obviously saw that before, but didn't remember. oh well. still would be so awesome to see the inside of the crypt.
 anyway.
it has stairs on both sides and you can get on top of the cript where you can find 3 tomb stones

and in the front of the crypt, on the left of the entrance, there's this thing

basically, it talks about george bibescu's life and all the good things he did.
but i really like the what's above the book.

really. really. like that.
i actually wanted to visit the palace again today and try to take a pic of the chancery chamber [well. there's a part of it i especially find absolutely awesome. you'll just have to wait!] but it was closed. today it's easter here. so almost everything is closed. but they would've made a looot of money if they would've had it open. the park [the palace has a lot of land around it, also belonging to it] was full of people and someone asked me about getting to the palace. they were there to visit it. too bad..


now i ll just have to check their opening hours and mybe i ll go back there this week for that pic i oh so much want.
hopefully i will manage to actually take it. hah.
 ok now, bye bye then.

p.s. guess who booked the room in sighisoara [medieval city in transylvania. also known for the fact that vlad tepes was born there. now that house is a restaurant with really good food!]
here
take a look
http://www.360tourist.net/view-tour/2883/360wa507d2e82eb41d
and the i'll be staying right in the heart of it, 1 minute away from the clock tower!