Only the stairs with massive stone steps, which stop at the Chinese bazaar on Castanilor Avenue, remind connoisseurs that exactly at the place where the Sun Plaza shopping center is now located, there was a treasure: the luxurious Vaquereşti Monastery, an architectural monument of the 19th century. 18th century, “the crowning of the Brankov style in Wallachia.”

The most complete and largest monastery in Southeast Europe (the ensemble had an area of ​​18,000 square meters), the foundation of Nicholas Mavrocordat (1680-1730), the first ruler of the Phanariots in Wallachia and Moldavia, was destroyed in the 1980s with heavy machinery, including a three-ton a ball crane that crushed ancient brick walls.

Only a few remains were found at the site of this heritage crime, the fresco panels representing only 5% of the 2,500 square meters of wall painting that covered the interior of the Royal Church.

More than 350 stone elements were added to them, most of which are located in the Mogoshoaya Palace. Among them are three of the four monumental columns of the pronaos and columns from the vestibule of the church, from the pavilions of the chapel and the Royal House.

But today we do not know, for example, where the bones of Mykola Mavrocordatus, lost during the destruction, are located.

Read on B365.ro about the project to build a lapidary in the Mogoshoai Palace, which is to uncover and highlight the remains of the glorious structure and, implicitly, the evidence of sacrilege.