Romania – The Chief architect Manole

Nine stonemasons and their master Manole were finding a place to build a monastery, ordered for his memorial by the Wallachian prince Negru Voda.

But due to an unknown reason, the walls of the new building were continuously collapsing. In a prophetic dream, Manole was advised to bricken into the wall the first woman coming to them.

It happened that Manole’s wife Anna showed up. So the craftsmen had to keep their vow and immure her alive within the church walls. Thus the monastery could be finished.

Once completed, the prince was pleased by the beauty of the monastery, but he ordered to remove the ladders, and so Manole and his craftsmen remained out-of-the-way on the roof.

In an attempt to escape, they made themselves pairs of wings from shingles and tried to fly from the roof, but all of them crashed to the ground and transformed into stones. On the place where Manole had crashed, a well “with bitter and saline water, watered by tears” (as the ballad sings) has spring out.