Case file · Folklore / legend
Master Manole and the monastery of Argeș
The Romanian ballad of Master Manole, who walled his wife Ana into the monastery of Curtea de Argeș (consecrated 1517) so its walls would stand, was first published by Vasile Alecsandri in 1852.
1852 CE · 45.15, 24.68 · status: legend
The account
In the ballad the prince, fearing Manole would build something finer elsewhere, removes the scaffolding, and the master builders fall to their deaths; a spring rises where Manole lands. A well near the monastery is still called Manole's fountain.
The sceptical view
The ballad shares the foundation-sacrifice motif with Rozafa and Skadar; it is not a record of a real event.