Snagov Monastery stands on an island in the northern part of Lake Snagov in southern Romania. It was first documented in 1408 and is probably a late foundation of Mircea the Elder. Around 1456 Vlad III ordered a prison, defensive walls and a bridge built here, and a funeral slab in the nave is linked to Vlad the Impaler, who was killed in 1476.
The present church was built in 1521 by Neagoe Basarab after an earthquake destroyed the earlier one. It is Byzantine with Romanian decorative elements and has exposed brick walls and a balcony on 16 pillars. The walls were painted in 1563, though the original paint survives only in the narthex.
The earthquakes of 1977 and 1986 damaged the church, and repairs were made from 1998 to 2000. Today it is open to the public.
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