ABBEY OF CÂRŢA

20 km east of Avrig, not far from the banks of the Olt river, the monastery of Cârța was built in the early ^13th century by Cistercian monks. Ravaged in 1241 by the Tatars, it was rebuilt, then abandoned in the ^15th century on the orders of King Mathias Corvin, in the face of the Ottoman threat. Only the choir of the abbey church (transformed in the ^18th century), the entrance tower and the ruins of the monastery itself remain of the complex, which is Gothic in style with Romanesque remains. Today, the abbey church is used by the Saxon Lutheran community.