Room 210

Paul of Aleppo
The Syrian Arab Archdiocese, an orthodox christian, on his Arabic name Bulos ibn az-
Za'im, was a very cultured man, an relentless traveler, who in the middle of the seventeenth century
visited Valachia on several occasions, accompanied by his father, the patriarch by Antioch,
Macarius III Za'im, on canonical trips in order to gather mercy for the orthodox christians in Syria,
under the pressure of the Ottoman Islamization. Paul, on his Christian name, was born in Aleppo,
in northern Syria in 1627, and as young he remained orphaned by his mother, was educated by his
father, then Bishop of Aleppo in the spirit of the byzantine orthodox culture. In 1642 he became a
deacon, and two years later, at age of 17, he got married, preparing for a priestly career. He was
soon made archdeacon of Aleppo, Damascus, and of all Arab countries, after his father's election
as Patriarch of Antioch in November 1647, under the name Macarius III, to whom he became
secretary.
As the new patriarch needed resources to stop the Islamization of Christians under his
shepherd, cause only by money he could stop their abusive imposition on haraci (a greater demand
required by law only for christians in vassal territories not actually incorporated in the Ottoman
Empire) –by the sangeac-bei of Damascus, the Patriarch Macarie Za'im accepted the suggestion
of Vasile Lupu, the Moldavian prince (1634-1653), to come for the alms in Moldova, from where
he would pass with the same purpose to Wallachia to Matei Basarab (1632-1654) ) and then in
Ukraine of the hatman Bogdan Hmelnitki and in Russia of the tsar Alexei Mihailovici. It was a
long journey, which lasted about seven years (1652-1659), and where Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo
accompanied his father as secretary, witnessing the historical changes in Wallachia: the replacing
of Vasile Lupu with Gheorghe Serban, the death of Matei Basarab, the coming to the throne of
Constantin Şerban and his replaceing with Mihnea III, events that he related and sometimes he
was involved with. But he was not satisfied only with this, in the few passes through Wallachia
and Moldavia; Paul of Aleppo has also described monuments, churches and palaces, customs of
all kinds from cultural romanian environments, popular and ecclesiastical, official ceremonies,
customs, economic and social data and much more. Everything without a preconceived plan,
recording with savor the facts on the spot.
Of course, the arabic manuscript of the Patriarch Macari's Travels, preserved in few copies
and translated only at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the next one is for
romanians the most important writing of Paul of Aleppo. But there remained also other original
writings and transcripts after translations from Greek into Arabic made by his father, Macarie
Za'im. It thus translated, preserving implicitly, the oldest form of the Letopisis of Wallachia from
1292 to 1664, completed for the years 1658-1664 even in Syria. And the Patriarch Macarie III also
translated in arabic a greek (byzantine) chronograph, going from the fourth century until the end
of the sixteenth century, then transliterated by Paul de Aleppo, which so has come to our day.
But for the Comana area, the Archdeacon of Aleppo describes the monastery of Radu
Şerban from Comana, the first building from 1588, previous the one of 1700 that is visible today,
and the nearby palace at Coiani (Mironeşti), by the son-in-law of the latter mentioned, the
seneschal Constantin Cantacuzino, whom Paul of Aleppo and Macarie Za'im visited in september
1657. The two coming from Grădiştea, the village of the ex great Vistier Bunea Grădişteanul
(1653-1655), "on roads with bumps and through a great strait", they reach the Comana monastery
with the patronage of St. Nicholas, for which Paul of Aleppo leaves the only known description:
"It is a large, durable, surrounded by stone walls monastery. And at the four corners there are four
towers with vaulted galleries, around them, for strolling. One of them resembles one of the towers
of the monastery (Holy) Trinity in Moscow. The most delighted thing for me was the gaze on the
green grass meadow that stretches across all the monastery's courtyard with its fresh water and the
monk's cellars around it. This monastery is set in an island, surrounded by lakes and ponds, water
and impenetrable mud. And there is no way (leading) to her. We crossed by boat there. And the
river Danube is very close to it. They (the monks) say, "If the Emperor (of the turks) would came
to fight against it with his whole army, he would not be able to conquer it," which seems to be true,
because the position is very strong, between the lakes that never freeze, even in the harshest winter,
and sands under water and mud ".
That same evening Paul of Aleppo and Macarie Za'im with their suite visit the Radu
Serban's residence in Coiani, arrived in 1625, through his daughter Elina heritage, in the mastery
of her husband, the former great seneschal Constantin Cantacuzino, the two being the founders of
the Cantacuzino family in Wallachia. According to Paul Aleppo's important testimony, the village
of Coiani (now Mironeşti) was "seated in a high place that dominates the Argeş River". The nearby
boyar courtyard contained within the enclosure, the palace built after 1625, when it was established
here at the residence of his wife family, by C. Cantacuzino, and the old St. Nicolae church of the
courtyard, built before 1563 by Radu Serban's grandparents, jupâneasa Anca, from the Craioveşti
boyars from Vlasca, and her husband Neagoe the great Ban from 1560-1562. Paul of Aleppo, who
saw the buildings in Constantinople, is impressed by the C.Cantacuzino's building, which he
describes with admiration: "a great palace similar of the palaces of Constantinople. It is indeed
something worthy to admire in the architecture of the two main buildings placed one in front of
the other and that do not differ in any way from each other, with their domes and they are painted
entirely to imitate the rows of the colored marble. At the top of each cupola, crowning it, is a circle,
just like a solid piece of very good porphyry, and the rest is made in various faces, like the ones of
the marble.The sculpture is of a rare beauty and the carriages and the windows are wonderful.
Inside the enclosure there is a large church dedicated to St. Nicholas . "
It is clear that Radu Serban's son-in-law had built in Coiani with a palace with walls and
domes imitating the marble, with well-crafted windows, arranged in two main bodies, face to face,
therefore a palace according to the ones of Constantinople from where his imperial byzantine
family came from, a construction that had nothing to do with a boyar country residence. Nowhere,
the seneschal Constantin Cantacuzino, the swayer of many properties, has built such a monumental
building, of course a true tribute to the native residence of his wife of a royal family. Unfortunately,
today there is nothing left of all of this. A few years ago, the remnant of a small wall, which at
least indicates the place of the palace raised by Constantin Cantacuzino, was still visible. And the
church of the residence, founded by Radu Şerban's grandparents, was replaced in 1669 by his
daughter Elina, C.Cantacuzino's widow, along with his sons, the erudite Constantin stolnic and
Mihai Spătarul Cantacuzino, the founder of the Colţea monastery in Bucharest .
As for Paul of Aleppo, the author of the precious testimonies of September 1657 about the
Comane area during the time of Cantacuzino's successors, Radu Serban, he died in June 1669, in
Tiflis, Georgia, on his return from his last trip to Russia, not through the Wallachian lands, but
over the Caucasus. He was now a vicar of Damascus (where his arabic manuscripts were
preserved), but his great achievement remains the recording of the Patriarch Macarie of Antioch's
journeys in the Eastern Europe to which he took part. Three years later, but on the same day of the
month (1672 June 12/22), followed him in the world of shadows his father too, the patriarch
Macarie Za'im.

The Room 31
Lady Ilinca
He was the daughter of Nicolae Pătraşcu, the prince of Wallachia (1600) and of Lady Anca,
the daughter of Radu Şerban (1601; 1602-1610; 1611), for which she was told the entire life "lady"
(only since the phanariot era the rulers daughters were called "princesses"). Ilinca was therefore
the niece of two princes of Wallachia, Mihai Viteazul after his father, and Radu Şerban after his
mother. He was the third child of Nicolae Pătraşcu and Lady Anca, after Gabriel (death in 1622)
and Mihai Pătraşcu.
Ilinca was born in January 1624, at the time of her parents' wanderings in the lands of the
Habsburg Emperor. Raised and well educated in Vienna, probably in other imperial cities too, she
wrote and signed her entire life with latin letters: "I Ilinca daughter of Patrasco Voda," sometimes
sealing the papers with his grandfather's ring, Radu Serban. She was 16 years old in 1640 when
her mother returned from Vienna to Wallachia, bringing with her the bones of Radu Şerban and
Nicolae Pătraşcu, deceased in 1620 and respectively in 1627. The mother and daughter settled
from the beginning to the boyar residence of the family from Coiani (Mironeşti), near the Comana
monastery, founded by Radu Şerban, where Anca buried the bone of the father and husband in the
same crypt from the church narthex. Documents of the day say that "they were poor and lacking
in everything," meaning they did not have a revenue-generating domain, but they were the
descendants of famous voivodes and especially who had mastered many villages at their time, so
their situation soon improved. The residence of Coiani belonged to Elina in 1640, Lady Anca's
younger sister, married in 1625 with the later seneschal Constantin Cantacuzino, with whom she
founded the Cantacuzines lineage from Wallachia. Elina had returned from Vienna with her
mother, the widow of Radu Serban, immediately after his death in 1620, regaining posssession of
the domain of Radu Serban, for the Romanian custom of the time did not stop women (because
they did not have the right to the throne) to master the domains of the former voivodes. So the
poster C.Cantacuzino, who had built at Coiani a palace similar to the ones of Constantinople too,
housed her brother-in-law and her daughter Ilinca for two years in his house until the marriage of
the latter.
 Moreover, the daughters of Radu Şerban, Anca, Ilinca’s mother, and Elina Cantacuzino get
along very well, sharing rightfully the incomes of the parental domains, rare thing at that time.
However, Radu Şerban's domain, with its Coiani residence and the Comana monastery, remained
the property of Elina Cantacuzino, and then passed to the possession of her Cantacuzini successors,
while Ilinca received from 1641 the villages of the other grandfather, by paternal line, Mihai
Viteazul, "with the judgment of our lord (Matei Basarab-n.a) and all the counsel of the country."
Only that some of these villages had been passed through all sorts of hands or abusively redeemed,
so that the granddaughter of Mihai Viteazul and Lady Stanca started a long and difficult legal
battle to regain them. In this he had next to his mother, Lady Anca, the support of the seneschal
C.Cantacuzino, but also the benevolent vigilness of the voivodes Matei Basarab (1632-1654), with
whom he related on the line of the Craiovesti boyars, and Constantin Şerban (1654-1658 ), who
was even uncle after his mother.
Becoming a rich heir since 1643, the next year, at 20 years old, she married Eustratie
Leurdeanu, the son of the great chancellor Stroe Leurdeanu. Matei Basarab, who had no
descendants, took care of Eustratie since his childhood, selecting him from among his successors.
As such, he claimed his marriage with a relative, a prestigious successor of two voivodes. From
now on, Matei Basarab also strengthens the villages of his grandmother, Lady Stanca of Mihai
Viteazul, and even urges her to recover those who have come to other rulers.
Dar soarta schimbătoare își urmează cursul cu suișuri și coborâșuri. Pârât de adversari
invidioși că l-ar fi "trădat" pe Matei Basarab - după zvonul care circula atunci - Eustratie Leurdeanu
fuge la Constantinopol în primăvara 1647, domnul confiscându-i domeniul boieresc. Nu știm dacă
Ilinca l-a urmat; în orice caz, documentele vremii n-o mai pomenesc. Situația se schimbă în
ultimele zile ale lui Matei Basarab, când Eustratie Leurdeanu revine în Țara Românească, pentru
ca noul domn, Constantin Șerban, ținând seama că era soțul nepoatei sale, să-l numească mare
postelnic. Starea bună a familiei durează până în primul an al domniei lui Mihnea III (1658 - 1659),
când soțul Ilincăi, consecvent, desigur, poziției sale proturcești, care îl pusese în conflict, cum am
văzut, și cu Matei Basarab, refuză să ia parte la răscoala antiotomană proiectată de Mihnea. Drept
urmare, Eustratie Leurdeanu a fost executat din porunca domnului în august 1658, împreună cu
alți doi boieri, sub acuzația oficială de "viclenie".
Ilinca, rămasă văduvă și "fără feciori", continuă să se lupte, de data aceasta pentru
moștenirea rămasă în țările împăratului creștin după moartea fratelui său, Mihai Pătrașcu, în 1655.
Peste aproape un deceniu își înmormântează mama, doamna Anca, moartă înainte de 1667, în
pronaosul bisericii mănăstirii Comana, alături de fiul ei Mihai Pătrașcu, punând o lespede comună
peste ambele morminte. Apoi la scurt timp, Ilinca părăsește și ea această lume, între septembrie
1667 și februarie 1668, la doar 43-44 de ani, aflându-și odihna în același încăpător pronaos al
bisericii mănăstirii de la Comana, adevărată cameră a mormintelor familiei lui Radu Șerban.
Camera 32
Anca Doamna
Fiica cea mare a lui Radu Șerban, domnul Țării Românești (1601; 1602-1610; 1611), s-a născut
spre sfârșitul secolului XVI la reședința boierească de la Coiani (Mironești) a tatălui său, pe atunci
mare paharnic al lui Mihai Viteazul. Avea vreo 10 ani când chipul sau de copilă a fost brodat cu
fir de argint pe patrafirul dăruit de tatăl său la mănăstirea Mărgineni, iar copilăria și-a petrecut-o
la Coiani, în vecinătatea mănăstirii familiei sale dinspre tată, Comana, și apoi la curtea domnească.
În 1611 și-a urmat părinții și sora mai mică în exilul din țările împăratului creștin, alături de care
a rămas până după vârsta de 20 de ani, când s-a căsătorit, înainte de 7 iulie 1618, cu Nicolae
Pătrașcu, fiul lui Mihai Viteazul. Mirele avea 34 de ani, fusese și el domn al Țării Românești (1599
noiembrie - 1600 septembrie), instalat de tatăl său, dar apoi, după 1610, trecuse de partea lui Radu
Șerban, pe care l-a slujit credincios până la moartea acestuia (1620). În acest fel se uneau vechea
dinastie a urmașilor lui Basarab I, cu cea din urmă, a Craioveștilor-Basarabi, întemeiată de Radu
Șerban din Coiani. Cei doi soți rămân la Viena, dar Nicolae Pătrașcu, de-acum singur pretendent
la scaunul Țării Românești, stăpânea cu doamna sa și alte proprietăți la Bratislava și în împrejurimi,
pe lângă care împăratul i-a acordat și alte moșii, și chiar un castel în comitatul Nitria (azi
înSlovacia), pentru care el și apoi doamna Anca au trebuit, însă, să poarte lungi procese cu rudele
foștilor proprietari. Pe la începutul anului 1624, Nicolae Pătrașcu, îmbolnăvindu-se grav, rămâne
cu soția la Bratislava, după care în 1626 cei doi revin la Viena, trăind din pensia imperială care
venea cu dificultate. După moartea lui Nicolae Pătrașcu la Viena, înainte de 7 septembrie 1627,
Anca i-a înmormântat trupul la Györ (în Ungaria), unde se afla cea mai apropiată de Viena biserică
ortodoxă. Tânăra văduvă, care semna acum "Ana Radulia", cu numele voievodal al tatălui ei, s-a
aruncat cu mult curaj în lupta pentru dobândirea proprietăților soțului ei și a pensiei imperiale,
vădind o energie neobișnuită vreme de 13 ani, între 1627 și 1640.
Mistuită de dorul de țară, împovărată cu doi copii: Mihai (Mihnea) și Ilinca (Elina) [al
treilea, Gavril, murise în 1622] și hărțuită de creditori, doamna Anca a luat încă din 1629 legătura
cu domnul Țării Românești de atunci, Alexandru Iliaș, iar în anul următor a cerut împăratului
Ferdinand II de Habsburg îngăduința de a reveni în țară. Nu s-a îndurat însă să-și lase fiul, Mihai
Pătrașcu, încă nevârstnic, singur la Curtea din Viena, unde-și desăvârșea educația sub protecția
împăratului. Astfel că a mai rămas un deceniu la Viena, abia spre sfârșitul intervalului luând
legătură cu solii voievodului Matei Basarab (1632-1654), ruda sa pe linie Craiovească, care,
neavând copii, îl cerea împăratului pe fiul ei ca urmaș la tron. Astfel că la 29 mai 1640 Matei vodă
solicita protecția împăratului Ferdinand III pentru ca doamna Anca să revină "în patrie".
Împăratul consimte la 24 iulie, acordându-i acesteia carte liberă de trecere, cu sprijinul
generalului imperial de la Cașovia, și a principelui Gheorghe Rákóczi I din Transilvania. Iar la 3
august 1640 ordonă săi se plătească 1000 de franci (sumă foarte mare) pentru drum. Anca a plecat
spre țară însă abia la începutul lui octombrie 1640, pentru ?că între timp a ridicat osemintele
tatălui?ei, Radu Șerban, din catedrala vieneză Sfântul Ștefan, și pe cele ale soțului ei Nicolae
Pătrașcu, din biserica ortodoxă de la Györ. Cu acestea, convoiul doamnei Anca, două trăsuri și o
escortă de 16 călăreți, a trecut prin Austria, Ungaria Superioară și Transilvania, la 18 noiembrie
poposind la Brașov, împreună cu un logofăt trimis în întâmpinare de Matei Basarab. De aici
trecând la 23 a lunii pe la Râșnov, se îndreaptă spre Târgoviște, unde a fost bine primită de Matei
Vodă, la 25 februarie 1641 mulțumind lui Ferdinand III printr-o solie pentru bunăvoința arătată
față de ea și familia sa. De la Târgoviște se duce apoi la mănăstirea Comana, unde înmormântează
în pronaosul bisericii osemintele lui Radu Șerban și ale lui Nicolae Pătrașcu, sub o primă lespede
(aflată acum la Muzeul Național de Artă din București). Apoi se stabilește vreme de câțiva ani în
casa surorii sale mai mici, Elina, și a soțului acesteia, postelnicul C.Cantacuzino, ducând un trai
îndestulat alături de fiica sa Ilinca, ajungând chiar să ctitorească biserica zisă astăzi a Vergului din
București.
S-a stins din viață între 1664 și 1667 la peste 70 de ani, iar mormântul său, descoperit intact,
păstrând podoabele de aur de factură occidentală ale doamnei care petrecuse mulți ani în țările
Europei Centrale, se află în pronaosul bisericii mănăstirii Comana, în vecinătatea celui comun al
tatălui și soțului său, și alături de cel al fiului ei Mihai Pătrașcu, ucis în Moldova în 1655, la
întoarcerea dintr-o misiune imperială în Țara Căzăcească. Așa glăsuiește fragmentul de piatră
funerară care a acoperit, după moartea Ancăi, locul de veci al acesteia și al feciorului ei, fragment
aflat acum în muzeul mănăstirii Comana.

The Room 33
Elena, the wife of Radu Serban
At the end of the 16th century, the young boyar’s wife Elena, the Vlastar of Ban Udriste
from Margineni, from one of the oldest boyar belongings of Wallachia, who had given at the
beginning of the century also son-in-law of the valiant Voivode Radu of Afumati, arriving at the
residence of Coiani (Mironesti), Vlasca County, of the Paharnic Şerban, of the belonging equally
famous of the Craiovesti boyars, as his wife. Elena brought his husband, he also very wealthy, a
marked dowry of the properties of "Marginesc throne", not less than 17 villages with their incomes
and two mountains, the Prislop and the Comanic of Prahova County. That's how it is that the
belonging to the Cantacuzino Noble family, originating from the second daughter of Şerban and
Elena, he inherited the domains throughout the valley of Prahova, but also in Ialomita, which were
transmitted to the descendants until the 20th century.
Elena accompanied her husband his entire life in 1601, with the choice of the great Paharnic
Serban as a Voivode under the name of Radu Voivode (Radu Serban), reaching the Lady of the
country. Her Figure as a young wife of voivode, by the way the only representation, looks at us
with big eyes and tight hair, divided by half a path, from the portrait embroidered with silver wire
to 1607 on the stole of the Margineni Monastery. He has a side his eldest daughter, Anca, on
husband and a younger son, Ion Voivode Basarab. Anca will be in 1618 the wife of the voivode
Nicolae Patrascu, the son of Mihai Viteazul; but the son died before 1610, and a second daughter,
Elina, will be born until 1611, then becoming the mother of the wallachian Cantacuzino. Following
him the same year in his exile, Radu Şerban, banished from the Turks to the Imperial lands, Elena
was at his bedside when he closed his eyes in Vienna in March 1620, leaving through the will
drafted on the 9th month of his entire estate in the country and from abroad to the wife and two
daughters. On 16 March, Lady Elena attended the sumptuous funeral of the remains of Radu
Serban in the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. The grieving widow then she asked Emperor
Ferdinand II to pay off her husband's debts, on behalf of the House of Austria and an amount for
his return to the country "where I was born and I grew up", waiting with tears in the eyes of the
emperor's answer. This, honing the memory of Radu Şerban and his actions in the service of
Christendom, promised her the payment of debt through her son-in-law Nicolae Patrascu, who
remained in the Empire, and the importance amount of 1000 Florins for the road to Wallachia. As
a result, in the summer of 1620, the imposing cortege of Lady Elena and her youngest, nine-year-
old daughter, counting nine carriages and 34 people, outside the servants, was moving. The Road
was full of dangers, as The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) erupts, and the armies of the Prince of
Transylvania Gabriel Bethlen were headed to Vienna. But the Prince appeared merciful to his
former enemy's widow. Defended by Bethlen's orders, on October 5, 1620, Elena's cortege went
to Cluj, then headed for Brasov, where it remained almost three weeks (November 4-23, 1620),
then south of the Carpathians.
After returning to Wallachia, Radu Mihnea, then the Voivode in the throne, returned the
entire domain of Radu Serban. Generous, the widowed Lady rewarded those who had faithfully
served it "through foreign lands", giving even the village of Dobreni in Vlasca County, south of
Bucharest to Constantin the clucer, the Master of the Royal Court (the future Prince Constantin
Serban), to hold its rank, as an illegitimate son of her husband. He died alive before May 30, 1633,
after having witnessed his daughter Elina's marriage to Constantin Cantacuzino before 1625, who
was consequently ascended at the Medieval Household to the Postelnic, then building a large
palace at Coiani, following the model of Constantinople. Lady Elena was buried, of course,
according to the custom of time, in Comana Monastery Church, her husband's foundation, waiting
for Radu Serban's bones, to be brought here from Vienna in just seven years.

The Room 34
Nicolae Patrascu
Patrascu, the only son of Michael the Brave, then the son-in-law of Radu Şerban, born on
9 July 1584, benefited from an elected teaching, being prepared by his illustrious parent for a reign
he wanted hereditary. From 1597 he began to be the "voivode", he took part in diplomatic
ceremonies, and both the sultan in 1596 and the Christian emperor in 1598 recognized him as the
life heir of Mihai's reign. Starting in October 1599 to remove his enemies from Ardeal and
Moldova, Andrei Báthory and Jeremiah Movila, Mihai took his son with him in the battle of
Selimbar; together came triumphant in Alba Iulia on November 1, 1599, and they both vowed faith
to the nobles in the Transylvanian Diet. Then Mihai installed him the Principe Absolute in
Wallachia (1599 November - 1600), under the name of Nicolae Voivode (hence the double name
Nicolae Patrascu), but under his paternal authority, as a superior court. He was only 15 years old
and the sultan gave him the investiture flag. In the spring and summer of 1600 Mihai Viteazul
negotiates with the Polish soil and the imperial commissioners the recognition of the possession
of the three Romanian Lands for himself and his son, with hereditary transmission. Then Nicolae
Patrascu participates with Mihai Viteazul in the campaign to remove the old enemy Ieremia Movila
and his father decides to grant him the reign of Moldova, also under his authority.
Together with Mihai Viteazul, the Master of the three Romanian Lands in the summer of
1600, at only 16 years old, Nicolae Pătraşcu was at the peak of glory. From now on, however,
destiny has become turned on. In the autumn of 1600, the Transylvanian nobility revolted against
Mihai Viteazul, and his son came to his aid with the army of Wallachia, remaining with his father
and in his unfortunate campaign against the great Polish Hatman Jan Zamoynki, who also removed
him from his reign of 1600. Father and son parted forever when Mihai went to the Imperial Court
in Prague to obtain the help of Emperor Rudolf II, leaving his son, his Lady and his daughter in
Gilau, then Fagaras (1601-1602). In 1602 Nicolae Pătraşcu goes to the court in Prague to obtain,
like his father, the help of the Emperor. Repeat, after two years, Mihai's journey, passing through
Vienna at the end of 1602, received by the same archduke Mathias, emperor's brother, arriving in
Prague in 1603 in Rudolf II's courtyard, who received him in audience and later granted him the
rank of his Paharnic. But finally, tired of lived in the royal courtyard in Prague in the spring of
1608, Nicolae Patrascu flew to Transylvania, from where, without the help of the prince Gabriel
Bathory, he was trying unsuccessfully to regain the rule of Wallachia. The Voivode of it, Radu
Serban, captures him, it grows to his nose where he does not demand the reign and imprisons him,
but saving his life and not surrender it to the sultan. Later, the two reconciled, and Nicolae Patrascu
renounced the title of ex-voivode, taking the honorary title of Postelnic, accompanying Radu
Serban faithfully until his death in Vienna in 1620. Even in 1611 he led the avant-garde of the
army that banished Radu Mihnea, the Turk's man from Bucharest, restoring the reign of Radu
Serban, then participating in the campaign in Transylvania against the prince Gabriel Bathory, but
as Radu Serban was removed by the Turks in the fall 1611 accompanied him through Lvov, at the
court in Warsaw, to the emperor Mathias II of Vienna, who set up a place of refuge in Tirnavia
(Tarnava, Slovakia). In 1616, when Radu Serban considered him a "son", recognizing his title
"voivode", and in 1618, Nicolae Pătraşcu supported him in his attempts to regain the rule of
Wallachia, being himself a candidate for the throne of Moldova. Finally, at the beginning of July
1618 Niculae Patrascu became a son-in-law, marrying Lady Anca, the great daughter of Radu
Şerban, settling with his entire yard in the spring of 1619 in the town of Modor (today in Slovakia).
Although the Orthodox Rite, Radu Serban and Nicolae Patrascu, participated, with a high rank, in
the organization of the Christians' Order "Christian Militia" (Christian Army) in Vienna in 1618,
to liberate them from the Ottoman possession of Christians in Europe. But the outbreak of the 30-
year War (1618-1648) hijacked the crusade for the benefit of the Habsburg emperor, so that in
1619 Nicolae Patrascu and his troops contributed to the removal of the Transylvanian prince
Gabriel Bethlen from the walls of Vienna. After the death of his father-in-law Radu Serban in
Vienna in March 1620, Nicolae Patrascu participated in both the war against Bethlen and the
Polish-Ottoman Empire in autumn 1621, resulting with the defeat of Sultan Osman II near Hotin,
the last military episode in his life. He then deals with his properties near Bratislava, receiving
from Emperor Ferdinand II, among others, the castle Laszkar in the county of Nitria, which his
son Mihai Patrascu inherited.
 In 1624, a serious attack on the podgara puts him in bed for almost half a year in Bratislava,
to return to Vienna, the following year, sick and passing his time with Latin books borrowed from
the Imperial Library. He died alive before September 7, 1627, 43 years old, as he had counted, a
strange coincidence when his father Mihai Viteazul was assassinated, and his widow Lady Anca
buried him in the Orthodox Church closest to Vienna at Györ, near which he had a property. Over
13 years, in 1640, Lady Anca, returning to Wallachia, took with her and her father's relics from
Vienna and those of her husband in Györ. With two carriages escorted by 16 horsemen, the widow
crossed Austria, Slovakia and Transylvania, on November 18, 1640, was met in Brasov by a
logothete sent by his relative Matei Basarab, the Prince of Wallachia.
Lady Anca deposited the relics of Radu Serban and Niculae Patrascu in a common crypt in
the narthex of the church of Comana Monastery, founded by his father, under a slab (nowadays at
the Bucharest Museum of Art), whose inscription confesses that "both hard and swiftly for the law
and for the estate with the Turks, Tatars, and Hungarian heretics have fought". Then in the same
crypt were added the remains of other descendants of Radu Şerban, from the Cantacuzina branch,
under another slab, which is still visible today in the narthex of Comana Church, with which under
the floor is the tomb Lady Anca and her son Mihai Patrascu.

The Room 35
Vlad the Impaler
Voievode of Wallachia (1448; 1456-1462; 1476), was named by the Turks "Impaler" after
the "impalement" punishment applied to the invaders from the outside and the intern villains, and
in Central Europe "Dracula", after the father's popular nickname, Vlad Dracul. He was one of the
great leaders of the Romanians' struggle against the Turkish expansion. Thus, he linked his name
to the Giurgiu-Bucharest area in 1461, capturing in the spring the bead of Nicopole, who tried to
catch him by cunning. Afterwards, to thank God, in July the same year the great church of the
princely court in Targsor is celebrated, and in September a still more important place, the first
convent from Comana, endowing it with the village of Calugareni, a place strengthened by the
marshy waters of Caleniste-Neajlov (strategic area appreciated by Mihai Viteazul in 1595). Then,
in the following year, 1462, he advanced in the great confrontation with Sultan Mehmed II,
conqueror of Constantinople.
Beyond his tumultuous life, as a defender of the rule of Wallachia, and implacably steadfast
of thieves and thieves, Vlad Ţepeş definitively linked his name to Comane's surroundings, for here
at the end of 1476 he carried his last fight with the Turks, which brought his rival Basarab Laiota.
Being murdered in the same area, he was buried, of course, according to the Romanian custom, in
his nearest building, the Church of the Comana Monastery, which will still be 112 years old.

The Room 36
The Voievode Radu Serban
Branch from the Vlaşca of the Craiovesti boyars, the richest boyar from Wallachia at the
end of the 16th century, having 70 villages in all the counties of the country, Serban the great
Paharnic of Mihai Viteazul, with whom he fought against the Turks and the Polish, the winner of
the contender Simion Movila, after the death of Mihai was elected Prince of the country under the
name of Radu Voda (1601; 1602-1610; 1611). Having the natal residence from her mother's home
in Coiani (today Mironesti), on the high bank of Arges, it is no wonder that in nearby, in Comana,
the ruined monastery of Vlad Ţepeş, it demolished it in 1588-1589, while it was only the second,
building on its place its own monastery with walls and towers of the city, to which it will remain
bound until death and even afterwards.
Radu Serban establishes the Craiovesti-Basarabi dynasty, who dominated the political life
of Wallachia in the 17th century, and as a true follower of Mihai Viteazul, heroically participates
in the anti-Ottoman struggles of the Christian League, defeating the Tartars at Ogretin and
besieging the Turkish Belgrade in 1602, and then defeating near Brasov on the pro-Turkish princes
of Transylvania, Moise Szekely (1603) and Gabriel Báthory (1611) in battles worthy of his great
predecessor. Good thrifty in the interior, keeping close ties with the Christian world and the House
of Austria, Radu Serban supported Orthodoxy up to Mount Athos, without any injustice nor its
Comana foundation.
But the Sublime Porte did not forgive him, eventually slipping in 1611 to remove him from
the throne. But in the nine years of exile (1611-1620), in the imperial lands of Tirnavia, Casovia,
Nitra or Vienna, Radu Şerban became involved in all the political events in the Romanian lands
and in the anti-Ottoman projects of the Imperials until the last attempt crusade of 1618. Thus, in
March 1620, when, surrounded by his family, he died alive in Vienna, he was buried with great
fast, although he was Orthodox, in the great Viennese Cathedral of St. Stephen. Here his remains
remained for two decades until 1640 when his great daughter, Ancuta, brought them together with
her husband Nicolae Patrascu, the son of Mihai Viteazul, buried in 1627 in the Orthodox Church
of Györ (Raab). The passage of the carriage convoy left traces in the accounts of most of the streets.
And the relics of the two were buried in the church of the Comana Monastery, certainly, after Radu
Serban's old idea; a common tomb in which they are symbolically intertwined in eternity, the old
dynasty that was extinguished, the descendants of Basarab I, and the new one of Craiovesti-
Basarabi, and then other descendants of Radu Serban, from his other daughter , Elina Cantacuzino,
under a second slab, which is still visible in the church of Comane. Thus, it shelters the remains of
a great voivode of the Romanians, Radu Serban, unfortunately unjustly left to this day in the
shadow cone of the fame of his legendary ancestor Mihai Viteazul.

The Room 37
Mihai Patrascu
The son of Nicolae Patrascu and Lady Anca, therefore, the nephew of Mihai Viteazul and
respectively Radu Serban, was born in 1620, when his parents were in exile in the lands of the
Emperor in Vienna. Baptized Mihai, after his paternal grandfather, saying it to him Mihnea has
been raised and educated in the imperial court under the Emperor's protection. Remaining father
father in 1627, when he was just a child, his mother lingered for another 13 years in Vienna to
supervise his studies. From his maternal grandfather, Radu Serban, he had inherited the emperor's
duty to him of 4,000 florins and the monthly pension of 50 florins that his grandmother, Lady
Elena, left to return to Wallachia in 1620, whom he urges emperor Ferdinand II to continue their
studies. In 1634, when he was only 14 years old, he signed "Mihai voivode", using a seal with the
Wallachian coat of arms, and the emperor recognized his title. With a beautiful Latin writing, in
the years of adolescence, he addressed requests from the Emperor Habsburg and the imperial
authorities, claiming his royal rights in Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania and Partium (the
interior counties of Hungary), inherited from his forefathers of glorious memory, Mihai Viteazul
and Radu Serban. At the end of 1635 he even succeeded in acquiring much of the imperial debt,
but in 1637 he was also requesting the Kingsberg castle, belonging to his grandfather Michael the
Brave, and in 1640 demanding copies of all the documents concerning the property of Mihai and
his father, Nicolae Patrascu , starting with 1599. He was an educated and determined young man,
so in 1640, his mother, Lady Anca, considered that she could return to Wallachia with her daughter
Ilinca, leaving him alone, 20 years old, to the imperial court in Vienna under the tutelage and
protection of Emperor Ferdinand III.
But watching him by far was Matei Basarab, the Prince of Wallachia (1632 - 1654), his
relative on the maternal line, who, having no successors, wanted him to be his successor. Even in
1640 Matthew's messenger informed the emperor about Mihai Patrascu that the Prince of
Wallachia has no close relative to him, who held him his son, his successor, for the greater faith
left in the court of Augustus of His Majesty, in the service and under the protection of His Majesty.
And not only the voivode alone, but also the whole country, counts him as successor as the "son
of the homeland". Mihai Pătraşcu was at the same time a guarantee of Matei Basarab's anti-
Ottoman orientation along with the imperialists. As such, the messengers of the message spoke on
the road from Targoviste to Vienna, interested in the situation of Mihai Pătraşcu, his mother
sending letters, and Matei Basarab demanding that he be brought to Wallachia before his death in
1643.
But the Emperor and his counselors feared the opposition of the Turks whom they did not
want to break the peace. They did not consider its use in the last four years of the 30-year War, as
the young man Mihai Pătraşcu had offered. Ferdinand III considered it more important to send him
to Transylvania to attract the Romanians there from the Imperial side. At the same time, Mihai
continues his ties with Matei Basarab and his relatives in Wallachia, in 1646 obtaining the
exemption of Viennese customs for the goods imported by them in Nuremberg, Vienna, etc., and
in 1651 he is interested in the imported salt by the Emperor on the Danube in Wallachia. As early
as 1646, Mihai Pătraşcu signed as a "hereditary voivode" of Wallachia, in connection with Matei
Basarab's intention to make him his heir, and the emperor, who in 1651 entrusted him with a
diplomatic mission in Poland, recognizes this title, his protection distinguished all his possessions
as a recognition of the service to the imperialists. In September 1652, the grandson of Mihai
Viteazul and Radu Serban is preparing to leave in Wallachia, the emperor giving him a precious
golden girdle. But the rebellions of the servants-soldiers in the country have prevented this plan.
After the death of Matei Basarab in April 1654 and the reign of his uncle from his mother,
Constantin Serban (1654-1658; 1660), Mihai Patrascu renounced the throne of Wallachia,
orienting towards that of Moldova, less likely to of Transylvania, which years ago had mastered
them his grandfather Mihai Viteazul. It was thought that Mihai Patrascu, the emissary secretary of
the emperor to the Cossacks of Bogdan Hmelnitski, wanted to acquire Transylvania helped by
them and his uncle Constantin Serban and that he wanted to marry Rusandra, the daughter of Vasile
Lupu, the widow of Timus Hmelnitki, but his goal was to get Moldova's seat with the help of the
Cossacks. However, in just 35 years, in 1655, as shown by the fragment of the tombstone that
covered his grave, Mihai Patrascu lost his life in the country of Ukraine "slashed", and then brought
Moldova to the Comana Monastery, being buried in the narthex of the church here, between the
grand grave of Radu Serban and father Nicholas Patrascu, that of the mother Lady Anca, the
fragment of the slab mentioned, which is today in the lapidary of the Comana Monastery, being
meant to Mihai Patrascu's place of final resting, in which his costume with globular silver-gold
buttons, a tomb unmarked in the pavement of the Comana Church narthex over which the visitor
passes unknowingly, shelters the remnants of the old dynasty of the descendants of Basarab I. But
next to him, in the same narthex is a unique connection, and the graves of the new dynasty of
Craiovesti Basarabi, founded by his maternal grandfather Radu Şerban, as well as those of the
Cantacuzino mountaineers, coming from his little daughter, the lady Elina. cover the two graves
of the mother and son.
Mihai Patrascu's place of final resting, in which his costume with globular silver-gold
buttons, a tomb unmarked in the pavement of the Comana Church narthex over which the visitor
passes unknowingly, shelters the remnants of the old dynasty of the descendants of Basarab I. But
next to him, in the same narthex is a unique connection, and the graves of the new dynasty of
Craiovesti Basarabi, founded by his maternal grandfather Radu Şerban, as well as those of the
wallachian Cantacuzins, arising from his little daughter, Lady Elina.