Câmpulung Muscel

Câmpulung lies in a long valley south of the Carpathians, on a route through the Bran pass toward Transylvania. One of the earliest residences of the princes of Wallachia, it also had a community of Saxon settlers. The Latin gravestone of Count Laurentius, who died in 1300, survives in its Catholic church and records an early leader of that community.

Although the princely court later moved to Curtea de Argeș, Câmpulung remained a market and religious centre. Prince Matei Basarab rebuilt the monastery associated with the old court and established a printing press here in 1635. Its religious books circulated beyond the town, serving Orthodox readers across the region. The town's churches and the road across the mountains recall its place in the early history of Wallachia.