Snagov Monastery

Snagov Monastery, from which today remained only one church, was situated on the island of lake Snagov, just a few kilometers north from Bucharest.
The Monastery got its fame when people found out that maybe here was the tomb of Vlad the Impaler. The legend says that, after the fight that he had with the Turks and the rival family of Danesti in 1476, when he died, Vlad the Impaler was taken, in secret, by monks from this monastery and Christianly buried inside one of the churches in the monastery. But the interment took place without any pomp, because the monks were afraid of the new ruler, which was a member of the rival family of Danesti. Of course, this hypothesis was studied and tombs were opened, but nothing is sure. In the pronaos of the remaining church a tomb was found. The gravestone was missing. In the rotten casket there were found the remaining of a man, covered in lavish clothes, that maybe was Vlad the Impaler. But in the hurry and wariness in what he was buried, did the monks have enough time to dress him with those rich clothes? Did Vlad the Impaler's body rest there? Surely the archeology will give us an answer as soon as possible, but, for now, mystery covers this answer.
In the past, Snagov Monastery was very large and owned many estates; it was the protégée of the Draculesti family. It is believed that the monastery was founded by Mircea the Old, the grandfather of Vlad the Impaler, or by one of the boyars from his Court. Vlad the Devil, the father of Vlad the Impaler, donated to the monastery a lot of land, and Radu the Handsome, the brother of Vlad the Impaler, gave it three villages: Vadul Parvului, Calugareni and Stroiesti. During Vlad the Impaler's reign, Snagov was the biggest and the richest monastery and it was believed that it offered shelter to the riches of the Romanian ruler.
After the death of Dracula, it remained a "safe" for the state's fortunes and represented a cultural center, because here, as in other medieval monasteries, were printed some of the first books in Romania.
Today, as we said, from the monastery remained only one church of three and a few walls. The archeologists study the place in order to elucidate the mystery of Vlad the Impaler tomb.