The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-12-05
ROUMANIA'S ART WEALTH
The Land of Carmen Sylvia" Contains Great Many
Wonderful and Priceless Works of Art

From the Literary Digest

]
before us, gifts from the late King,
enriched with his signatures; and
they testify to his judgment and
skill, and show that the first sover-
eign of the united country was not
only a valiant soldier, but a pro-
found student of the art of his
own country, and Of the work of
| the artists of all the Western world.
His successor has every claim up
on the sympathy of English art
students in his many and grievous
troubles.
A vivid picture is given of Rou-
manian monasteries in L'Art ct les
Artistes (Paris) in number speci-
ally devoted to Roumania. One
esthetic purpose they served was
to keep hidden from the invading
foe priceless treasures of Byzantine
art. The most important of Rou-
mania's monasteries still exist, we
learn from this authority, who
names them. and adds:
They are in kind each an aero
polls, all small religious cities, hid
den in Karpathian wales and shell
tered by dark, thick forests. About
them reigns a great silence, which
is Interrupted only by the murmur
of crystal-clear streams and the
songs of birds. Some are situated
IN valleys on the shores of small
lakes bordered with reeds. Each
small religious city is surrounded
by an immense wall, with a high
tower in which is built the en-
trance-door. Within the wall stand
the community church, the ceme-
terry. the residence of the superior.
and the guest-house. where the
passing traveller enjoys the hospi-
tality of the community for three
days. All the traditions are piously
preserved in these monasteries,
where the same rule and the same
monastic life obtains as in the
past"
Curtea de Argos, we are told, is
beyond doubt the jewel of all Rou-
manian monasteries. Prince Nea.
goe brought the marble for its
construction from Byzantia, the
gold and silver art works from
Hungary. and employed artists of
Ladislaus II. As we have seen, it
was restored by King Carol I, who
lies buried there, with Carmen
SYLVIA" Queen Elizabeth of Rou-
mania. Of Curtea de Arges the
Times correspondent remarks:
This extraordinary building
was founded in 1917, by Prince
Neagoe and his wife Despina of
Servia. and was dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin.
The fifteen century was a per-
iod of considerable moment in
what we now term Roumania.
Mircea. the Waywode of Wallachia,
who died in l418, was responsible
for the foundation of two or three
ecclesiastical buildings, Stephen the
Great, Waywode of Moldavia
(1457-1504), for forty; but the
Prince and Princess to whom we
have just referred determined that
their cathedral should excel in
beauty all that had preceded it;
and in the days of its early glory
it must have been magnificent in
deed. Neagoe's successor. Theodo-
sius, continued the work of his
father, but it was Radul d'Afumati
who completed the building.
For a very long period the dis
tricts of Wallachia and Moldavia
were simply roads across which
the Turks passed in their expedi-
tions against Hungary and Tran
sylvania, and many of the fine
monastic buildings erected by the
Waywodes were altered, injured,
or DESTROYED. while Roumania was