Although being a newly established commune for an administrative and territorial point of view, Sambata de Sus is an ancient settlement, fraught with history, culture and religion. The astonishing landscape offers a unique panorama towards Fagaras Mountains. People are hospitable and industrious, still conserving there traditions originated in some magical beliefs, before Christianity.
The mayor of Sambata, Ioan Croitoru, considers himself a lucky leader of this community, which peculiar vocation is the tourism, with special emphasis on the ecumenical one. The authorities are deeply involved in unfolding projects meant to support the rural development of the area.
?Cosntantin Brancoveanu? Monastery
The monastery is located at the foot of Mountains Fagaras, in a fairy tales environment: fresh and pure air, swift mountain springs, forests full of centennial trees. The history of the monastery begins in the 17th century; the first testimonies go back to 1654, when the village and the estate entered under the rule of Preda Brancoveanu, a squire from the south of the Carpathians. He has built a little wooden church, on the valley of Sambata River, for the hermit monks. Around 1696, Constantin Brancoveanu, prince of Walachia (1688-1714) got erected a monastery of rock and bricks.
208 years after its wrecking, in 1785, the Monastery Brancoveanu came back to life on Sunday, August 15, 1993, on The Assumption; the new church dedicated to the Saints Martyrs Brancoveanu was consecrated on the same occasion.
The Painters School
The manufactory of glass painting made the fame of the monastery. The painters school, established by Brancoveanu at Sambata, developed here the Brancoveanu?s style, first in the mural paintings of the churches from this part of the country, later in the wooden painting and the architecture.
The Museum of Brancoveanu Monastery possesses today one of the richest collection of ancient paintings on glass, dating back to the 18th-19th centuries, most of them maid on popular and naïve fashion, wooden icons on Brancoveanu style, sacerdotal cloths, a unique collection of ancient books, manuscripts, parchments, letters and a valuable collection of cult artifacts.
Prior Ilarion Urs leads today the 40 members of the monkish community.
A Gift from God
The Monastery ?Constantin Brancoveanu? is the gift through which God has blessed those marvelous places of Sambata de Sus. Tourists can find here both breath-taking landscape and consolation, self communion, soul hardening. Christians came from far away often enter this halidom to say their prayers
Studs, Trouts and Heights
Sambata de Sus is also a touring destination for the mountain lovers. If the weather allows, you can climb the heights across beautiful savage woods. The tourists came to enjoy the touring area, the famous stud of Sambata and the trout farm can be accommodated in the numerous villas, boarding-houses and hotels such as ?Diana? and ?Queen?s Flower Nitramonia?.
Investors can be granted lands to build villas and boarding-houses.
