On the road leading to the Arnota monastery, on the left bank of Bistrita, a carved stone holds you for a few moments. The locals say this is the “Lady’s Chair” and the legend says that this is the spot where Lady Elena, the wife of King Matei Basarab, rested whenever she visited the church that her husband had built. It is said that a little higher on the mountain, King Basarab hid his treasures and marked the spot with a cross. The treasure hunters ravaged the land in search of the cross and when they found it, they threw it in the ravine and started digging. They changed the fragile equilibrium of the stone wall and caused a landslide. They all fell and the treasure remains even today at the bottom of the cleft.
The church is still standing, small and gracious. Among the icons, two are depicting royal figures, carved in wood and painted during the reign of Matei Basarab. One represents the archangel Michael, to whom the church is bequeathed. Inside there are portraits of historic figures, members of the royal family, all circling his portrait. Lady Elena’s portrait is on the wall opposing the one that supports her husband’s and next to her there are Barbu, Calea, Datco, husband of Calea and father to Preda Bracoveanu, who in turn is the uncle of Matei Basarab, a child that will later become the father of Constantin Brancoveanu and Danciu the Mighty, the father of Matei Basarab. Under the portraits there are two graves. The one next to the wall is made of whit marble. It is decorated with a raven bearing a cross and on the sides there are the sun and the moon. The raven sits on a shield that is adorned with spearheads, chains, and flags.
A real “battle ground” on the grave. The tomb also supports a Latin inscription: “Here lies Matei Basarab who went to God. Once he was the ruler of Walachia, a valiant and sage man who built the Lord many churches. He was never defeated, he was praised, hated by enemies, loved by friends. He made his realm rich and ruled until the year of the Lord 1654.” We do not know who lies in the other grave for his wife was buried in the Royal Church in Targoviste. Time erased the inscription that was said to provide information as to the whereabouts of the buried treasure. The only clue is the cross, but it fell in the arroyo many years ago and no one really knows where it was exactly.
Odobescu said that the treasure was “right on the edge of the cleft that went into the river Bistrita.” The locals say that the treasure will be revealed to the one who really deserves it by way of a roaming flame that will flutter over the location. If indeed the “spirit of the fortune” was ever shown to someone it was not to reward the brave but to tempt the covetous. There were many that met their doom at the bottom of the abyss or in the waters of Bistrita…