Stavropoleos Monastery

Stavropoleos Monastery was founded in 1722-1724 by Archimandrite Ioanichie Stratonikeas, who owned all the land around it. He also allowed for the construction of the Stavropoleos Inn, the cleanest inn in Bucharest at that time, also on his land. The income of the inn was used to increase that of the monastery and to maintain it. Practically, the U-shaped inn surrounded the monastery.

The inn and the annexes of the monastery were demolished at the end of the 19th century, by order of the town hall, due to their poor condition and the impossibility of maintaining them. So the monastery remained only a church.

At the beginning of the 20th century, architect Ion Mincu designed the building next to the monastery, in a Romanian Revival style. Today, it hosts the annexes, the administrative spaces, a collection of old icons and religious objects, and the lapidary. The entire building can be admired from the inner courtyard of the monastery. Fragments recovered from churches demolished during the communist regime were brought here for safekeeping.