Arheologia Cotrocenilor

  • TITLU în română: Arheologia Cotrocenilor
  • Subiect: An Archaeology of the Cotroceni District in Bucharest The present Cotroceni district comprises the site of the ancient village (1614) as well as the remains of the monastery built between 1679-1780, by the ruler Şerban Cantacuziono, on a wooden plateau descending towards the Dâmbovitsa river. Once a residence of the local rulers and kings, the monastic settlement became an interesting topic for the communist rulers who ordered its restoration and the re-dimensioning. Today, the palace shelters the Romanian Presidency. The urbanistic changes undertaken within this part of the Capital allowed the discovery and scientific study of mediaeval archaeological vestiges among which the villages of Grozăveşti (1492), Cotroceni, Lupeşti (1580) - all of them forming a group of old settlements covered up, today, by the central part of Bucharest. While, at their beginnings ( older than the documents attest ), these villages must have had their territories on the very shore of the Dâmbovitsa river, the frequently flooding waters must have determined a migration of the houses towards the cime of the nearby terrace. The clearest case is that of the Grozăveşti village, neighbor of the Cotroceni village, which had two nuclei, as is shown by the inhabitancies, graveyards, cereal storing pits, furnaces and so on. A similar situation is that of the Lupeşti village, higher than Cotroceni, on the Dâmbovitsa shore; and we are determined to consider that this village, too, had its territory shifted. The monastery was located outside the village, but within the territory of the Cotroceni landmass. Several archaeological discoveries attest that Şerban Cantacuzino founded the monastery on the place of a hermitage having as holy patrons the Saints Serghie and Vach. Tombs were found inside the monastic church, dated previously from the princely construction. The church, the princely residence, the kitchen, the monastic cells on the area separating the two interior yards, as well as the belfry - are all dating from Şerban Cantacuzino 's time. In the conditions of an archaeological campaign initiated in 1977, the only excavations possible were those undertaken within the church, accompanied by salvation diggings announced by the excavation undergone by the constructors. It was proved that the church had suffered serious da1nage during the 1802 earthquake, hence new walls were raised over the old foundation, using typical early XIXth century materials. The decision was taken of demolishing the church, so the Municipal Museun1 of Bucharest was solicited to exhume the members of the Cantacuzino nobiliary family, who were resting in the tombs indicated by tomb plates which had to be saved. All the tombs were found prophanated, with the exception of tomb M 4 B, the founder's tomb included (M 1 ). A great part of the saved lithic material ( columns, capitals, frames, tomb stones) were recently used in the re-making the church, the other objects being included in the patrimony of the National Cotroceni Museum.
  • Limba de redactare: română (şi un rezumat în engleză)
  • Secţiunea: Arheologie
  • Vezi publicația: Cercetări arheologice în Bucureşti: CAB
  • Anul publicaţiei: 2005
  • Referinţă bibliografică pentru nr. revistă: VI; anul 2005
  • Paginaţia: 247-270
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