Cârța Monastery

Cârţa Monastery is a former Cistercian (Benedictine) monastery in the Ţara Făgăraşului region in southern Transylvania in Romania, currently a Lutheran Evangelical church belonging to the local Saxon community. It lies on the left bank of the Olt River, between the cities of Sibiu and Făgăraş, close to the villages of Cârţa (German Kerz, Hungarian: Kerc) and Cârțișoara (German: Kleinkerz). The monastery was probably founded in 1202-1206 by monks from Igriș abbey (daughter house of Pontigny abbey), and was disbanded in 1494, when the apostolic legate Ursus of Ursinis ratified Cârţa Abbey’s attachment to the Provostship nullius of Sibiu. The Cistercian monastery introduced and helped develop French Gothic art in the region.

The exact founding date of the Cârţa monastery (Latin: monasterium beatae Mariae virginis in Candelis de Kerch) is unknown. A document from Konstanz, dated 17 April 1418, issued by Sigismund, king of Hungary and 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, king of Hungary. 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.

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