Doamna Marica Brâncoveanu

Doamna Maria (Marica) Brâncoveanu (circa 1661 – 1729) was a Princess consort of Wallachia by marriage to Constantin Brancoveanu (r. 1688–1714). Maria from Popesti was the niece of the Prince Antonie of Wallachia and enjoyed an exquisite education, unusual for the girls of her time. She married Constantin Brancoveanu in 1674. She supported and actively participated in the culture policy of her spouse. She had books printed in Romanian, Greek, Slavic, Arabic, Turkic and Georgian, and founded libraries with Western books. She is especially known for her support to the St Sava convent. After the deposition of her spouse in 1714, she was brought as a prisoner to Constantinople by the Ottoman along with the rest of her family. Her spouse, her 4 sons and her son in law were executed in the presence of the Sultan Ahmed III.and of Embassadors of Sweden, France, Venice and Russia in Istanbul on her husband's birthday. She was eventually released, and exiled to Kutai, near the eastern shore of the Black Sea. She was allowed to return to Bucharest in 1716, by her relative, the Prince Nicolae Mavrocordat. In 1720, she managed to have the supposed remains of her spouse brought back to Wallachia and buried them in Sf Gheorghe church, founded by her husband, in Bucharest. There is highly improbable, that the remains (a skull and some bones), which she bought from greek monks of Kamariotitsa monastery, really belong to the decapited Prince, as the heads were exposed for two weeks on the Imperial Gate in Istanbul and the bodies were thrown in the Bosforus, immediatedly after the executions.

After the return to Wallachia, Maria Brancoveanu experienced a tense time, under the pressure of her rapacious daughters ans venal sons in law, for the heritage of Constantin Brancoveanu.

The place of her grave is unknkown. The presumpted venues in this respect: Sf Gheorghe Church in Bukarest, Church Dintr-o Zi and the Church in her native Petresti have been infirmed by archeological research.