History of Curtea de Arges

The town traded with Transylvania, focusing on the town of Sibiu, with which it had a direct road crossing the Olt Valley and Țara Loviștei. The commercial area of the town was around the court and the St. Nicholas in Târg Church, where the bazar was located.

Decline

This Argeș court was the residence of the Wallachian hospodars until Mircea I of Wallachia, included.  The following rulers used both Argeș and Târgoviște as the seats of the court and traveler Johann Schiltberger mentioned that in 1396 both cities were capitals. During the 15th century, the court was used alternately with the one in Târgoviște, but in the 16th century, the capital was completely moved to Târgoviște and the Argeș court was rarely visited.

Argeș was one the most important towns in Wallachia in the 14th and 15th centuries, but starting with the 16th century, its importance began to fade. The Orthodox Metropolitan seat was moved to Târgoviște in 1517, while the Catholic bishopric ended its activity in 1519. A fall in the trade with Sibiu and Brașov also lead to a population decline.

After the Curtea de Argeș Monastery was built during the rule of Neagoe Basarab, the rulers of Wallachia favored it and, apart from donations (part of the town's domain), they gave it rights over the town. The monastery presided over trials in the marketplace and it was allowed to build customs house and mills. This eroded the autonomy of the town and led to further economic slump.