Comana Monastery, situated at 33km South of Bucharest near Comana village, is a foundation of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, commonly known as Vlad Tepes “The Impaler” and largely identified with Bram Stocker’s character “Dracula”. In the time of increasingly growing Ottoman threat, that was a surveillance outpost for the princely residence towns of the sub-Carpathian area (Bucharest and Targoviste). The place was once an island in the middle of the marshes, and the access inside the enclosure was only permitted on a wooden bridge, easily burned in case of the frequent attacks of Turks and Tatars.
This first monastic foundation ruined in time, and was rebuilt in the late 16th century by Radu Serban, a member of the powerful Cantacuzino boyar family. In 1699, Serban Cantacuzino restored the monastery. New cells were added to the existing ones, the walls were raised and repaired and an elegant pavilion in Brancovan style was built.