The Town of Horezu

Horezu is a town in the north of Vâlcea County, at the foot of the Căpățânii Mountains, with a population of about 6,500. The town's name comes from "huhurezi", the night birds that live in the surrounding forests. The town is internationally recognised for two UNESCO heritage treasures. The first is Hurezi Monastery, on the edge of Romanii de Sus village, founded by the ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu and built between 1690 and 1697. It is the largest monastic ensemble in Wallachia and the most representative example of the Brâncovenesc style — a harmonious synthesis of Byzantine, Romanian and Renaissance-inspired elements, with a carved porch, votive portraits and murals of great value. Conceived as the necropolis of the Brâncoveanu family, the monastery was also an important centre of culture, with a scriptorium, a printing press and a humanist library unique in south-eastern Europe in the early 18th century. It was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1993. The second treasure is Horezu ceramics, inscribed in 2012 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as a unique traditional craft. Practised for centuries in the village of Olari, the pottery uses local clay and a traditional tool called the "cornițel", and the pieces are decorated with emblematic motifs — the Rooster of Hurezi, the spiral, the snake, the wheat ear — in earthy colours. The town hosts the annual Potters' Fair, which brings together craftsmen from across the region. Horezu is worth visiting for its exceptional concentration of tangible and intangible heritage in a small area: a jewel-monastery of the Brâncovenesc style, ceramics recognised worldwide and living pottery workshops open to the public.