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The research project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation takes Dr Mihai-Dumitru Grigore to Targovishte, capital of Wallachia around 1500 and a centre of power of supra-regional importance. Not only the famous Prince Vlad III with the surname Drăculea lived there, but also the monk Nikolai, who as Nephon II became Metropolitan of Thessaloniki and Wallachia and Patriarch of Constantinople. As metropolitan, Nephon advocated a strict Orthodox order in Wallachia, intertwined the church with the state and contributed to the fact that it's political identity was strongly articulated through Orthodoxy. For in the field of tension between the Latin and the non-Christian neighbours, a cultural-religious identity was needed that could contribute to the stabilisation of the rule.