The town of Curtea de Arges lies 38 km northwest of Pitesti, at the foot of the Fagaras mountains, in the Arges river valley.
Written documents give evidence of the fortified town of Arges since 1330, whereas during the Middle Ages, it was the second capital of Wallachia after Câmpulung and before Târgoviste. The Court of Arges stronghold includesthe oldest church in Wallachia, the Princely Church. Built by Radu Negru, the founding prince of Wallachia, otherwise known as Basarab I and his son, Alexander, the Princely Church has front sides made of apparent bricks and river stone.

It is decorated with painted frescoes, actually the first samples of Romanian painting (14th.c), which, though observing Byzantine tradition, are very much alive and personalized, and thus much closer to Giotto's art styles than to the rigid mannerism of the Greek masters. A more impressive monument, the Episcopal Church, or the Monastery of Curtea de Arges, was founded by prince Neagoe Basarab between 1514-1517, on the site of a metropolitan church which had been raised in the 14th century and acknowledged by the Archbishopric of Constantinople in 1359.