THE POENARI FORTRESS

The river Arges cuts its road through the Meridional Carpathian Mountains from north to south. It created a narrow path that doesn't hesitate to please the eye with his landscapes and wilderness. Maybe here the battle of Posada (1330) took place, between the Romanian and Carol Robert of Anjou's men, probably the first battle of the Romanians, as a nation, but for sure the decisive battle in the foundation of Wallachia.
In this mirific place, on a rocky spur, a lonely fortress, in the heart of wilderness, can be observed. It is the fortress Poenari.
Named after the old village Poenari, this fortress was build from the order of Vlad the Impaler, as the book "Letopisetul Cantacuzinesc" says. This book relates that Vlad the Impaler wanted to punish his boyars, and he ordered them to construct, with their own hands, the fortress. But the fortress had been build a century before Vlad the Impaler's reign. The folklore attributes it to another ruler, the Black Voivode, but, as much as we know, he only existed in legend. The two giant footsteps nearby are attributed to him too. Anyway, it is certain that the work done during Vlad the Impaler's reign was only a work of restoration or completion.
The fortress was really well fortified; it had walls of 2-3 meters thick and 5 defense towers. The fortress became a place of banishment for "hicleni" (or traitors), but, since the second half of the XVI-th century, it wasn't mentioned in documents any more. It was abandoned and laid wasted, but now it is in process of restoration.