Curtea Veche (Old Princely Court)

Curtea Veche, the Old Princely Court, is the oldest documented royal site in Bucharest and sits at Strada Franceza 31-33 in the heart of the Old Town in Sector 3. The court was founded in the fifteenth century and is traditionally linked to Vlad Tepes, who is recorded as issuing a charter here in 1459, the first document to name the city of Bucharest. Successive Wallachian princes expanded the complex until a new court was built elsewhere in the eighteenth century, after which the site fell into ruin. Visitors today walk through excavated cellars, brick foundations, columns and fragments of the original walls that were uncovered during archaeological digs in the 1950s, and the Bucharest Municipality Museum runs the site as an open-air and indoor exhibition. A bronze bust of Vlad Tepes stands near the entrance and is one of the most photographed corners of the Old Town. Next to the ruins stands the Church of Saint Anthony, the oldest surviving church in Bucharest, with interior frescoes and a working congregation. A visit usually takes around 45 minutes, including time to read the information panels covering the history of the princely court, and the best photo angles are from the raised walkway above the foundations and from the lane beside the church. The site is quiet on weekday mornings and fills mainly in the evening when the surrounding streets and Lipscani bars come alive. Because the court is a few minutes on foot from Manuc's Inn, Strada Lipscani and Piata Unirii, it combines easily with a half-day walk through the historic centre of Bucharest, Romania. Admission is modest, around 15 RON, and the ruins complement the more polished attractions nearby by showing the medieval layers beneath the modern city.