Dracula's Tomb and Mogosoaia Palace, Private Tour from Bucharest

Hidden by woods and surrounded by the waters of the Lake Snagov, the Snagov Monastery was the most important spiritual and cultural centre of Wallachia in the feudal period. Built on an ancient place - where the archaeological finds have discovered clay pots of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, as well Roman and Byzantine coins - the monastery is one of the oldest monastic settlements in the vicinity of Bucharest.

Some legends say that after the ruler was murdered in 1476 by the Wallachian boyars in the forest at Balteni, the monks of the monastery would have taken the body and bury it in secret in the church. Inside the monastery there is a plaque showing that under a stone slab, right in front of the church altar, there is the grave of the great ruler.

Mogosoaia Palace is one of the most important historical buildings, representing a symbol of the Romanian architecture. Located about 15 kilometers from the center of Bucharest, Ilfov County, Mogosoaia Palace is a real honor for our country, being registered on the national list of historical monuments. It was built between 1698 and 1702 by Constantin Brancoveanu in the so called the Romanian Renaissance style or Brancovenesc style, a combination of Venetian and Ottoman elements. The palace bears the name of the widow of the Romanian boyar Mogos, who owned the land where the palace was built on.

After 1714, when Constantin Brancoveanu, together with his entire family, was executed in Constantinople, all the family’s wealth was confiscated by the Ottomans and the palace was converted into an inn. It was redeemed on the reign of Serban Cantacuzino, and then returned into the possession of his nephew, Constantin Brancoveanu until the early nineteenth century. But the construction has witnessed many disagreeable events over time. The palace was devastated during the Russian-Turkish war between the years 1768 and 1774 and also during the revolution of 1821, when the last descendant of the family, Grigore Brancoveanu, took refuge in Brasov, the building being occupied by the revolutionaries.

Located 25-30 km outside Bucharest, occupying an area of approx. 600 ha and with a length of 16 km, Lake Snagov is a river edge, the most important one on the lower Ialomița course. Due to its maximum depth of 9 metres, this is the deepest lake in the Romanian Plain area.

The shape of the lake is elongated and very sinuous, with many bays. The downstream area features the island that hosts the Snagov Monastery. The biodiversity of the area is formed of 4,200 species of fauna and flora, of which approximately 1,200 species are protected by law and 42 of them are even red listed.

The fish fauna, which attracts numerous amateur fishermen, is remarkable enough by the existence of 16 fish species: bleak, rudd, roach, bream, carp, Crucian carp, Prussian carp, tench, two species of gobies, eel, European perch, pumpkinseed, pike, zander, catfish. Sport fishing is allowed on Lake Snagov only outside the protected area (at a minimum distance of 500 metres upstream and downstream from it).