Hârlău Princely Court

The Princely Court complex in Hârlău, Iași County, is a class A historic monument comprising two elements: the ruins of the princely court, first recorded in 1384 and rebuilt in 1486 and 1624, and the church of St George from 1492. The earliest mention of the court, and of the town of Hârlău itself, appears in a charter issued by Prince Petru I Mușat, drawn up “in the town of Hârlău, at the court of our beloved mother”, meaning Lady Margareta. Stephen the Great rebuilt the old court from its foundations in 1486, the work begun and completed within the same year according to the inscription discovered in 1871 and now held by the National Museum of Art of Romania. Six years later, between 30 May and 28 October 1492, Stephen the Great raised the princely church of St George as the court’s chapel. Under Petru Rareș, a native of Hârlău, the exterior of the church was painted in fresco by George of Trikala, among the first exterior paintings in Moldavia; it was destroyed by the restoration of 1904. The church has monumental Gothic windows in the narthex and served as a model for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Timișoara. Important moments in Moldavian history took place at Hârlău: on 12 July 1499 Stephen the Great signed the peace treaty with the Polish king John Albert here, and the church hosted the coronations of Petru Rareș, Joldea and Alexandru Lăpușneanu. The court declined after the capital moved to Iași, but between 1624 and 1626, following the fire that destroyed the court in Iași, Radu Mihnea moved his residence to Hârlău. He was buried in the narthex of the church, his remains later transferred to Radu Vodă Monastery in Bucharest. The best-preserved part of the old court is the princely bathhouse.