The date the works at the new palace have started is not known. On the eastern belvedere, the rotive carved above the porch door states: “This palace, built from the bottom and adorned by the enlightened and anointed prince, H.M. Voivode Costandin Basarab, given as a present and inalienable legacy to his second son, Stefan B[rancoveanu], this beautiful house was finished up in A.D. 1702, in the month of September, on its 20th day.” It was inaugurated on the same day as the church (September 20), yet fourteen years later.
The palace is placed on the lake border, on the south side of a rectangular courtyard. In the centre of precinct’s eastern side, the watch-tower above the entrance gate was built at the beginning of the 19th century. The guardrooms in the vicinity of the gate “defend” the access into the palace.
In the eastern corner of the courtyard, on the right side of the entrance, there is a pyramidal-roofed building whose portico is supported by eight columns. It is a cuhnia, the palace kitchen, consisting of five rooms, a central one linked to other four smaller pieces. “The kitchen proper – Grigore Ionescu wrote -, placed in the middle, is a square-base prism topped by an octagonal vault, whose facets, curved towards the centre, end up in a tall lantern tower pierced by narrow small windows: chimney and ventilation alike.” The cuhnia is quite distant from the palace in order to prevent fire – like at Potlogi -, but this position had also some disadvantages, which Antonio Maria del Chiaro, Brancoveanu’s Italian secretary, did not hesitate to quote in his memoirs: “… the meals are very copious, but the courses [...] are always cold, because, according to Wallachian custom, the cuhnia is placed in a corner of the courtyard, therefore rather far from the house.”
On the northern side of the palace precinct/courtyard, leading to the orchard, there is a monumental gate, remarkable for its gable, decorated with neo-classic statuary dominated by goddess Minerva. The sculpture, carved in 1820, had previously adorned one of the entrances the ban /highest official/ Dumitrache Ghica had at his Bucharest residence.
In the eastern corner of the precinct/courtyard, one can see a massive construction, whose architecture aims at matching the ensemble’s by copying some of palace’s specific elements. The building stands out due to its large portico supported by brick columns – at the ground- and first floor -, inspired by cuhnia’s portico. This stately and original structure was built in the second half of the l9th century by Prince Nicolae G. Bibescu (1830-l June 1890), the then owner of the estate, and is known as Elchingen Villa, called after his wife, Helene-Louise Ney d’Elchingen (3 April 1842-5 July 1893), granddaughter of Marshall Michel Ney. In the 1930s, Martha Bibescu’s daughter, Valentina, and her husband, Dimitrie Ghica-Comanesti, conferred the villa a Brancovan style appearance following G.M Cantacuzino’s plans.
The palace at Mogosoaia benefits of a regular, rectangular plan, having two decrochages on the side towards the lake and two on the opposite side; its structure has three levels: basement (cellar), ground-floor and first floor. The cellar is both large (l6.05 × 14.10 m.) and massive: a solid central pillar divides it into four rooms, covered, each of them, by a cupola propped on pendants.
The ruling prince’s servants used the ground-floor eight rooms. The first floor was wholly occupied by the Brancoveanus; it consisted of three apartments: voivode’s (two rooms and the great spatarie /reception hall/, where the Divan ceremonies used to take place), his wife’s (two rooms, nowadays a larger hall) and a smaller one. On the lake façade, a wonderful loggia of Venetian inspiration stands for the most refined architectural element of the palace. Considered “the most beautiful and richest model of Romanian civilian architectiure,” the loggia, with its six stone columns propping five accolade archways, is framed by two slightly decroches belvedere towers (added during l860-l880 restoration), remarkable for their columns adorned with generously carved stone capitals.
The eastern façade has also a particular element: a belvedere supported by eight stone columns, having a richly decorated balustrade. The tower is accessed via an exterior monumental staircase joining the façade, a characteristic encountered at the Brancovan residences from Potlogi and Hurezi Monastery. The belvedere vault preserved some of its original mural painting, figuring geometric and stylised vegetal motifs. At the first floor – probably, in the spatarie -, 2 m. high scenes of a great fresco narrated ruling prince’s voyage to Adrianople (1703) and his meeting with the sultan. Fragments of the fresco did survive until the middle of the 19th century, but most of the painting, stuccowork and inner decoration were destroyed in 1775.
