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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The exact founding date of the Cārţa monastery (Latin: monasterium beatae Mariae virginis in Candelis de Kerch) is unknown. A document from Konstanz, dated 17 April 1418, issued by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor states vaguely that the monastery was founded, built, and awarded rights and privileges by his predecessors. The statute of royal establishment is also pointed out in the act disbanding the monastery 27 February 1474, and was made ex auctoritate juris patronatus regii Matthias Corvinus. Cistercian documents from the 13th till 15th century gathered and analyzed by Leopold Janauschek mention the founding year of the monastery as being somewhere around 1202-1203.
The best approximation of the monastery's date of foundation can be obtained from a document issued by the royal Hungarian chancelry in 1223. This document states that the territory on which the monastery was built - delimited by the Olt River at the north side and its tributaries the Arpaşu River at the east, the Cārţişoara River at the west and the Făgăraş Mountains) at the south - was awarded by King Andrew II of Hungary, for the blessing of his soul, through the Transylvanian voivod Benedict (pro remedio animae nostre per fidelem ac dilectum nostrum Benedictum tunc temporis vaivodam assignari facientes). It is known that Benedict was Transylvanian voivod between 1202-1206 and 1208-1209. This means that the founding date must fall between 1202 and 1209. An additional document, the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order from 1206, further narrows the date of founding. This document mentions the presence of a Cistercian monk from Transylvania, most probably from Cārţa (abbas ultra Sylvas in Hungaria, filius abbatis de Egris), at the Citeaux Abbey, in Burgundy, the main abbey of the Cistercian order.
Summing up this historical data, the date of the monastery's founding by the King Andrew II of Hungary can be established as occurring between 29 May 1205 and 14 September 1206. 29 May 1205 is when Andrew II became king of Hungary and 14 September 1206 is the day when the works of the Cistercian Order's General Chapter began, when the existence of the first monk of Cārţa is documented. The colonising convent was most probably the mother abbey in Igriş (Latin Egris, Hungarian Egres), in the Banat plain, today located in Timiş County, Romania. Filiation reports between the two monasteries can be dated from 1206, 1368 and 1430. |
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