May 00 - The 'Mace' or Buzdugan tower, part of Corvin castle aka Hunyadi castle (Gothic-Renaissance, 1446-80), Hunedoara, Transylvania

Dracula-esque - in fact Dracula (Vlad III or Vlad Tepeš) attended here at the court of the Hungarian warlord János (John) Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara in Romanian), hero of Belgrade and father of Matthew Corvinus (the celebrated Hungarian 'Renaissance king" [TM]) who imprisoned Vlad for 12-14 years at Visegrad on the Danube in Hungary. (Why don't they tell you that at Visegrad? I didn't know that when I was there. Ironically, the locals here have begun to falsely claim that Vlad was held captive in a dungeon in this castle [again, rather than at Visegrad], and ticket sales and proceeds will have risen accordingly.) However Dracula was crowned voivode of Wallachia here, and soon entered into a political alliance with Hunyadi, notwithstanding that his father Vlad Dracul II had been assassinated and his elder brother Mircea II had been blinded and buried alive by the boyars of Târgoviste, both on Hunyadi's orders several years earlier.

 

- This castle is so famous and so celebrated by Hungarians that a smaller facsimile was built to scale in a park in Budapest for the millenial Honfoglolas celebration in 1896.

- Much of the castle was behind scaffolding when I was here, so this is the best shot I could get. Here's a much better view.: www.flickr.com/photos/denmartin/36092192783/in/photolist-...

- This, "the Buzdugan Tower (a buzdugan is a type of mace) was solely built for defensive purposes." (Wikipedia)

- The huge, gothic, atmospheric labyrinth that is Corvin castle is right from your childhood fantasies. (A friend had the FP 'castle' in this e-bay video which I coveted when I was a little kid.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwGLxN5IjEk ) It's one of the largest castles in Europe, and could be the most impressive for its age. "It's moated to a depth of 30 m.s and is approached by a narrow bridge upheld by tall stone piers, terminating beneath a mighty barbican, its roof bristling with spikes, overlooked by multitudes of towers." (RG) A small oval fortress with towers was built on this site, that of an ancient Roman camp, by Charles I of Hungary (of the Anjou line) in the early 14th cent., which was then given to John Hunyadi's father, Voicu Hunedoara, a Romanian noble, by Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary and Croatia, as severance in 1409. (Legend had it that Hunyadi was Sigismund's illegitimate son, which is why he gave the castle to his nominal father.) Hunyadi inherited the castle, took up residence in it, and initiated its reconstruction in 1446, the same year in which the Diet elected him Regent. Following his death in 1456, new commissions were initiated by his son Matthias Corvinus in 1458 to construct a renaissance-style wing, and baroque additions were later added by Gabriel Bethlen, prince of Transylvania (1613-29), from 1618.

- "Within is an extravaganza of galleries, spiral staircases and gothic vaulting, most impressively the Knight's Hall, a great reception hall with rose-coloured marble pillars. On the 2nd pillar a carved Latin inscription reads "this work has been performed by the great and handsome Iancu de Hunedoara in God's year, 1452.' Frescos on the wall of the Hall depict medallion portraits of the Bethlen family and their acquaintances." (RG) According to one site online, these include Wallachian and Moldavian voivodes Matei Basarab and Vasile Lupu.

- Other significant parts of the castle, which contains over 50 rooms, include the massive, double-walled 5-story-high defensive tower named "Nje Boisia" ("Don't be afraid" in Serbo-Croatian, as it housed Serb mercenaries, members of the castle's garrison, during the 15th cent. Ottoman invasion) and the 30 m. high hanging gallery, preserved from Hunyadi's time; the Capistrano Tower (named after St. John of Capistrano, the Franciscan friar who at age 70 led a crusade against the invading Turks together with Hunyadi at the siege of Belgrade in 1456); the 'Council hall'; a narrow gothic chapel with a high ceiling (15th cent.); the 'bear pit'; etc. A subterranean room near the entrance was held out in 2000 to have been a prison cell and 'torture chamber'. In the Corvinus wing, a fresco depicts the legend of the raven from which the name of Hunyadi's descendants 'Corvinus' originates. (See below) And In the castle yard, above the 30-m.-deep 'Turkish well', an etched inscription in Turkish reads "he who wrote this inscription is Hasan, who lives as a slave of the giaours [the infidels], in the fortress near the church."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-7SdiM7kwI

- www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/2/2/85/htm

- www.youtube.com/shorts/eJKrsnpBw7c www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwhCFCVnsoc

- youtu.be/gcN7wF9DjZA?si=R-67zHyvTk5METRL "It's siiick."

 

- Update Jan. 2025: I just saw Robert Eggers' homage to Murnau's 'Nosferatu' in the theatres, in which this castle, filmed on location, is the clear stand-in for 'Castle Orlok' (ie. 'Castle Dracula'), as seen in the moon-light beyond the draw-bridge as the caleche carries Nicholas Hoult towards it. [Update April '25: See it, with this tower at the left, from the 14 sec. pt. to 23 sec.s in this clip from the film.: youtu.be/yHa5G41tRkg?si=eq-YWTjiLr6pkPDi ] When Hoult cuts his thumb while slicing his bread soon after he arrives and the Count perks up and Hoult emotes (in what I found to be the most intense scene in the film), the head of a short stone statue by the fireplace, which looked familiar, turns slightly towards him. I've just confirmed that it was modelled on the effigy of John Hunyadi in Alba Iulia. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_John_Hunyadi.jpg Wow. I call that attention to detail.

- Update, April '25: Here it is, already. The count has more to say in this clip re 'the eve of Szent Andras' (St. George's eve, April 23, in Dracula; St. Andrew's eve, Nov. 29, is "the Romanian Halloween") than he did in the cut shown in the theatre. See Hunyadi's effigy at the 3:45 min pt. youtu.be/Fu9V7cY6OGI?si=mG7fwBBaJ03cfuAg I wondered what I might've missed in that castle in light of a detail like that. This article filmandfurniture.com/2025/03/the-design-of-nosferatu-the-... discusses Orlok's impressive coffin youtu.be/lmBwJGR3lks?si=D1nYiXIwrrtZahb3 which features heptagrams, skulls, wolves' heads and images of 'Dacian dragons' "inspired by the ['Draco' or 'Wolf-dragon' on the] Trajan column" seen at the 5:40 min. pt. in the video in the link below, with the head of a wolf and tail of a dragon and which featured on the Dacian battle-flag. Wolves, the 'Wolf-dragon', and a white werewolf (a high priest transformed into 'the Great White Wolf' in Transylvania by the Dacian god Zamolxis to lead the wolves and protect Dacia, the earliest werewolf [6th cent. BC] known to mythology anywhere) were central to ancient Dacian mythology and cosmology, and to the history of the famous Dacian 'Wolf warriors' (of course), as discussed (I think) in the film in the next link, lacking subtitles sadly, at the 3:42 min. pt. (See the ritual circle in which I slept at its centre one night [see below] at the 2:30 min. pt.) youtu.be/_O48gg5oY6Y?si=RRghelCOyHNY-pSz

 

- Re: the ethnicity of the celebrated Mattei or Matthias Corvinus, the Hungarian 'Renaissance king'. (I'll cut and paste the following into the description of a photo taken at Visegrad, Hungary when I get @ to scanning it sometime.) Corvinus' paternal grandfather was ostensibly one Voicu or Vajk, a Romanian noble. The identity of his father's mother is in question. His father Hunyadi (or Hunedoara) rose and rose through the ranks as a result of his abilities and military successes, and came to be known as 'the Hero of Belgrade' and posthumously as 'the White Knight' (a name resulting from a misreading of Blachus/Vlachus for Blancus in Western Europe, see below), took power as Voivode of Transylvania in 1441, and was then elected Regent of Hungary. But, again, he was a Romanian who would presume to rule Hungarians. A helpful rumour began to spread, and became a legend sedulously fostered during the reign of his son Matei or Matthias, that Hunyadi's father had been cuckolded by none other than Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary and Croatia, and that Hunyadi was his illegitimate son. Matthias' new moniker Corvin or Corvinus alludes to a far-fetched tale that while Sigismund was travelling in Transylvania, he met Hunyadi's mother and that some romance transpired /b/ them after which Sigismund gave her a special gold ring later to be given to the resulting, unborn child. One day while Hunyadi was a boy, a raven espied his shiny ring while he was playing with it, swooped down to nab it and flew off with it. Hunyadi cried out for help, the raven was shot with an arrow, and the ring, proof that he was Sigismund's son and not 'just some Vlach (Romanian)', was retrieved. 'Corvin' is a reference to corvus, Latin for raven, and an image of a raven with a ring in its beak was made central to Corvinus' family crest, and can be seen here at Hunedoara in both frescos and stone reliefs, and elsewhere in Hungary too.: youtu.be/WJgpXJfipeU?si=cHJLjW_evrS7XzzB (An interesting passage follows from Sandor Csernu's 'Myth, Propaganda, and Popular Etymology: János Hunyadi, "White" or "Vlach" Knight?': "Matthias and his environment, possibly infected by the mood of the frustration over the "low" origins of the king, and the concomitant compulsion to prove, apparently did not "buy" the "White Knight" version, that is to say, the connection of Johannes Blancus - Chevalier Blanc to János Hunyadi. Of course, in the Hungarian court everyone knew or at least guessed that Blanc was actually Blak, and therefore Blancus was actually Blachus/Vlachus, and that in this form probably irritated Matthias, who could be best infuriated by references to his low origins, as Bonfini tells us. It would seem that the Roman descent established by Bonfini, as well as the story of the paternity of King Sigismund also originating from him but elaborated in the text of Gáspár Heltai, were the result of that collective frustration, too.") Corvinus could never have acceded to the crown of Hungary if he had been openly ethnically Romanian, at least on his father's side. (It was much more acceptable in Buda that he be the son of a bastard raised by a cuckold and an unfaithful mother than the son of a 'legitimate' Romanian 'Vlach' noble. Think about that.) Rather, he might have endeared himself to the Hungarian nobility by taking such pains to distance himself from his ethnicity and heritage. I'd elaborated on this point earlier to suggest that his inclination to distance himself from his Romanian roots might be one reason for Corvinus' refusal to assist Vlad III Dracula and for arresting him and confining him for @ 12 years. With some more reading, I've learned that Vlad's captivity had everything to do with $$; Corvinus made peace with the Turks (with a cession of territory in SE Europe) so as to keep Catholic Christendom's war chest for himself. The evidence is excellent that Corvinus plotted to frame and defame ole Vlad, which he did, and how (with the enthusiastic assistance of some Transylvanian Saxons), and that Corvinus, the celebrated 'Renaissance king' (TM) of Hungary, was a real jerk. That said, he's celebrated in Hungary today as one of the greatest kings of medieval Europe. He raised taxes to create a standing army, one of only 3 in Europe at that time, conquered Vienna and expanded his empire. But the Austrians were easier pickings than the Ottomans in the 1460s. Hungary would fall to the Turks at Mohacs 66 years after Corvinus imprisoned Vlad and put that war chest in the bank to then be spent on libraries, palaces and frescos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVBymgg6VHU

 

- I arrived in the town of Hunedoara (Hoon-aye-dwarah) late in the afternoon and was soon invited to stay for a night as a guest at the home of a local family. They were great hosts, of course. At supper I asked why in northern Transylvania the locals still put garlic round their windows (something I'd read or heard somewhere en route). For protection from vampires? The son (who was studying English at school) said, very deadpan (IF he was kidding), "no, that's for the werewolves." I didn't know if he was serious and I changed the subject, but that could've been an interesting discussion if he was.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_z3IoagFP0

 

 

- I spent most of the next day exploring this castle, which had exhibits in cases in either the 'Knight's Hall' or the Diet Hall or both, toured every inch of it, and then late that afternoon I retraced part of my route of the day before hitching north up the 687 and east along the E79 and 68 to Orăștie I think (as I passed through it again the next day), and then south on the twisty 705A and up n' up into the hills, and then walked part of the way up to the ancient site of the Dacian fortress and temple of Sarmizegetusa Regia (Sar-mee-zeg-ah-toosa).

 

- The site at Sarmizegetusa Regia is extensive, a grassy expanse on artificial terraces with the ruins and remains of ancient Dacian temples and walls and such from the days of Decebalus, Trajan and the Roman conquest of 102-106 A.D.

- "Sarmizegetusa Regia was the Dacian capital and the most important military, religious and political Dacian centre before the wars with the Romans. Erected atop a 1200 m. high mtn., the fortress, comprising 6 citadels, was the core of a strategic defensive system in the Orăștie mtn.s. The site also contained residential areas with dwellings, workshops, and a sacred zone." (Wikipedia) It was designated a 'World Heritage site' by Unesco in 1999, which I didn't know when I was there.

- "The fortress is a quadrilateral formed by massive stone blocks (murus dacicus), constructed on 5 terraces, on an area of almost 30,000 m²s." (Wikipedia) This area was overgrown and all I could see of it or saw of it was a lengthy, low, 3-m.-thick wall of large, dressed, stone blocks. I was told by a lift en route that the locals believe there's much gold to be found there and that metal-detecting enthusiasts are drawn to the place.

- The sacred zone includes the sites of rectangular temples which can be seen in outline and which contain round limestone and andesite bases for long-gone wooden columns in regular arrays. The most enigmatic sacred feature is the site of a large circular sanctuary on which modern squared beams have been inset upright into ancient post-holes in the shape of a D, which is within a larger concentric circle, which in turn is surrounded by a low stone kerb. www.flickr.com/photos/askjellr/34522664022 (I'll scan a photo or 2 of my own.) A large, flat, andesite stone disc, "the 'Andesite Sun', seems to have been used as a sundial" or as an altar.

- "Civilians lived below the citadel itself in settlements built on artificial terraces. A system of ceramic pipes channeled running water into the residences of the nobility. The archaeological inventory found at the site demonstrates that Dacian society had a relatively high standard of living."

 

- It was getting late (I'd made good time and was lucky to get there) and I was prepared to camp, but there was no-one around up there, no-one. So I put down my ground sheet and sleeping bag in the middle of the site of the D-shaped temple and slept right there under the stars, surrounded by those concentric circles of standing beams. Why not? (You'll see it here at the 2:30 min. pt. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O48gg5oY6Y&list=TLPQMjQwMzIw... [There are plenty of videos that discuss the temples on youtube, but I can't find one in English.])

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_E4mqYA-_c

 

- "Towards the end of his reign, [the Dacian king] Burebista [r 61-82 AD] transferred the Geto-Dacian capital from Argedava to Sarmizegetusa, which served as the Dacian capital for at least 150 yr.s, and reached its zenith under King Decebal [aka Decebalus]. Archeological findings suggest that the Dacian god Zalmoxis and his chief priest played a central role in Dacian religious worship at this time." In Book IV of his 'Histories', Herodotus writes that "the Getae are the bravest of the Thracians and the most just. They believe that they are immortal ... and that the one who dies joins Zalmoxis, a divine being. ... Every 4 yr.s they send a messenger to him [a human sacrifice?] who is chosen by chance." Finds at the site also provide evidence of the Dacian skill in metallurgy, and of their technical and scientific knowledge, including "a medical kit in a brassbound wooden box containing a scalpel, tweezers, powdered pumice and miniature pots for pharmaceuticals; and a huge vase, 0.6 m.s high, 1.04 m.s wide, bearing an inscription in the Roman alphabet: DECEBAL PER SCORILO, i.e. ‘Decebalus, son of Scorilus’." (Wikipedia)

- In the 1st Dacian War (102 AD), Trajan invaded and defeated the Dacians who made concessions with the surrender of their territories of Banat, Tara Haţegului, Oltenia, and Muntenia in the region SW of Transylvania. However, in the years 103-105 AD, the Romans accused the Dacians of failing to respect the conditions of their surrender in 102, and sacked and burned the city in 106 (which is recorded on Trajan’s famous column in Rome). The city's walls had been partly dismantled at the end of the war in 102 AD, and were rebuilt as Roman fortifications. They were destroyed again and were rebuilt following the successful siege of the site in 105-106 AD. The Romans established a military garrison here, but later the capital of Roman Dacia was established 40 km.s further west, and was named after it - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRP0fh1IrPw I missed the extensive ruins of the later Roman city, which include an oval amphitheatre.

 

- The next morning, I explored @ the overgrown fortress for a spell, and then headed downhill and back up north walking and thumbing it to the city of Orăștie. Walking through town I came upon a funeral procession in which the hearse was an old-fashioned, black, horse-drawn carriage with the casket under a canopy held up by 4 pillars, one in each corner, with little statues of angels atop each corner of the canopy (I can be that specific as I took a photo, from a distance), and which was being pulled on its route between blocks of communist-era apartment bldg.s. It was as if it had just been pulled through a door to the past.

 

- I hitched back east a little ways and then south, east, and south again down the E79, along the twisty part down through the Defileul Jiului park all the way to Târgu Jiu, having left Transylvania and entered Wallachia. The area just west of that road has much ancient history and there were a few misses near Roman Sarmizegetusa, incl. 13th cent. churches at Densuș and Sântămăria-Orlea with 14th and 15th cent. frescoes, the former cannibalized from a 4th cent. Roman mausoleum, and the famous Iron Gate, the narrow pass where the Dacians were finally defeated by the Romans in 106.

 

- Târgu Jiu is famous for the art of its native son Brâncuși (Bran-choosh), specifically his 'Infinity column', 'Gate of the Kiss" and "Table of Silence". I knew he had some work to be seen in parks there, but I wasn't keen and didn't make the time to go look for it. Now I wish I had or that I'd known how close that column was to the 67 and my route, only @ 150 m.s. It's photogenic, and it's hard to believe I didn't see it walking or being driven past it. ? The column, "inaugurated in Oct. 1938, has a height of 29.35 m.s, is composed of 16 octahedral modules superimposed, and was dedicated to Romanian soldiers who fell in 1916 in battles on the banks of the Jiu river." (Wikipedia) It's now on the Coat of Arms of Târgu Jiu Municipality. ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloana_Infinitului#/media/Fi%C8%99...

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=grrwy3gOV78 Update: 'Brâncuși['s] Monumental Ensemble', the column, the 'gate' and the 'table', have been designated a 'World Heritage site' by Unesco in 2024.

 

- From Târgu Jiu I hitched east and NE along the 67 to the 144 and up to the Horezu or Hurezi monastery. I had an interesting and entertaining experience on that route which I write about in my description to another photo here: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/2796780209/in/photostr...

- Misses in the vicinity of this route include "the Polovragi cave, once believed to be the abode of Zalmoxis, the Dacians’ chief deity, ... [now] renowned for the stalactites in its “Candlesticks Gallery”, and in "a beautiful grotto", the "Womens' cave" with 2 "impressive illuminated passages" in one of which "the skeletons of 183 cave bears [!] have been discovered". (RG)

 

 

- The Hurezi or Horezu 'monastery' (it's now a convent), is the most important in Wallachia. Again, I stayed there overnight as a guest and as a 'pilgrim'. Founded in 1690 by Prince Constantine Brancoveanu, it's "a masterpiece known for its architectural purity and balance, the richness of its sculptural detail, the treatment of its religious compositions, its votive portraits and its painted works." (Wikipedia) It's most famous for the fine frescoes that cover the walls and ceiling and the 10-pillared porch of the 'Great Church (1693) at the centre, created by 12 artists under the direction of Masters Constantinos and Ioan /b/ 1692 and 1702, and which represent the advent of the Brâncovenesc style. These include a gallery of royal portraits of Brancoveanu and co. "The school of mural and icon painting established here in the 18th cent., and which developed the Brâncovenesc style, soon became famous throughout the Balkans." www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHQdwbgCb38

- There's a large fresco of the last judgment in the porch by the entrance, with an instructive scene of the damned in a river of fire, each individual beneath writing or labeling to warn the faithful as to what sins he or she committed or the details of their punishment, I presume. The river of fire flows into or out of the mouth of some angry, toothy monster. Some of the damned wear robes covered in crosses (priests?) and bow on their knees to a demon; the rest are nude, and many are stooped with things hanging with ropes from @ their necks. The artist was no Hieronymus Bosch, but it's an attempt.

- The complex is home to 5 churches, a 'Sanctuary for the infirm', rows of cells behind arcades on 2 floors @ the interior of the quadrangle, the abbey, a bakery, bell-tower, a library, etc. I don't recall, but I would've toured the 2 art galleries (if they were open in 2000), and the Treasury with its icons and such.

- This monastery is another Unesco site (the only cultural Unesco site in Wallachia).

- From the porch I watched as a priest blessed individuals one by one in a crowd gathered @ him with a group of nuns, all standing outside by the entrance to the church.

 

- Politically, Brancoveanu had sought to distance Wallachia from its Ottoman overlords (in part as he hoped to keep some of the huge taxes they demanded for use in his building projects). At the outbreak of a Russo-Turkish War in 1710 he sought an alliance with the Russians and with the Habsburgs, while he was also prepared to fight for the Turks if they seemed likely to win. He had hoped to be buried in the 'Great church' at Hurezi, but his sarcophagus remains empty as the Sultan accused him of treachery and he was arrested and then tortured and beheaded with his 4 sons on Aug. 15, 1714 at Yedikule in 'Stamboul'. (RG)

 

 

- From the Hurezi or Horezu monastery, I walked and hitched down country roads /b/ green, restful apple and plum orchards back to the 67 (I took a photo of a black horse resting on its knees in the shade by one of those country roads) and hitched east along that twisty road and the 73C to the famous Mănăstirea Curtea de Argeș (Cur-tee-ah de Ar-jesh).

 

- Curtea de Argeş ('The Court upon [the river] Argeş') was Wallachia’s 1st capital according to the Wallachian chronicles. They recount that Radu Negru crossed the Carpathians from Transylvania to found that city and Câmpulung in 1290. In 1330, Charles I of Hungary organized an expedition against the "unfaithful" Wallachian Voivode Basarab I and destroyed the Argeș stronghold. After 1340, a new royal court was built at Argeș, and it was here that the Metropolitan Orthodox Church of Wallachia was founded in 1359. The town traded with Transylvania, focusing on the town of Sibiu, to which there was a direct road north crossing the Olt Valley. In the 15th cent., the court in Argeș was used alternately with that in Târgoviște, which became the capital in the 16th cent. The Orthodox Metropolitan's seat moved to Târgoviște in 1517." (Wikipedia)

- I toured the iconic 'Dormition of the Mother of God' Orthodox cathedral built by the legendary Master Manole from 1512 to 1517 at the north end of town. It was renovated in 1875-85 by Frenchman Lecomte de Noüy who "grafted on all the Venetian mosaics and Parisian woodwork" in the interior, in which the church founder, and kings Carol I (1866–1914) and Ferdinand (1914–27) are buried. "Resembling the creation of an inspired confectioner, it’s a boxy structure enlivened by whorls, rosettes and fancy trimmings, rising into [4 belfries], 2 [smaller, cylindrical] 'twisted' belfries [at the front], and 2 [larger] octagonal [ones behind]." (RG) The 2 cylindrical belfries are distinctive and emblematic as their long, slit-thin windows or openings all slant dramatically from the lower right to the upper left to give the impression that the belfries had been twisted, one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. It's a simple effect, but I don't think I've seen anything like it anywhere else. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nov1IdfFUJg

- "Legend has it that Manole was marooned on the roof of the church when Prince Neagoe Basarab, who had commissioned him to build it, ordered the scaffolding to be removed to ensure that he could not repeat his masterwork elsewhere. Manole tried to escape with the use of wings made from roofing shingles, only to crash to his death, whereupon a spring gushed forth creating 'Manole's Well' nearby. The story is perhaps one of a crude form of justice, for legend also has it that Manole had immured his wife within the walls of the church, for at the time it was believed that 'stafia' or ghosts kept buildings from collapsing." (RG)

- "United Romania's first modern king, Carol I of Romania, renovated the Curtea de Argeș monastery and selected it to be a royal necropolis in 1886 ... for the Royal House of Romania (a branch of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty), including himself, Ferdinand I and Queen Marie, [et al.]" (Wikipedia)

- "On July 7, 1947, the total rainfall in Curtea de Argeș was 205.7 mm (8.10 in) in 20 minutes, which is a world record." (Wikipedia)

 

- More Dracula: When I was @ 11 or 12 I read Radu Florescu's 'In Search of Dracula'. (This 'In Search of' episode from the Leonard-Nimoy-narrated TV series was based on the book. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLy19ttRzpU ) One thing Floresu discovered in his research was that the only candidate for the title of 'Dracula's castle', one built or reconstructed by and/or belonging to Vlad II Dracula, is the mountaintop ruin of Cetatea Poenari (Poe-eh-narry), 20-25 clicks north of Curtea de Argeş. And so a hike up to that castle was in the cards, handy as it was to the church of Master Manole and the 1st or 2nd capital of Wallachia, and as I'd heard it has great views north into the Carpathians (the best mountain views that I'd have in fact /b/ the High Tatras and the Rila mtn.s in Western Bulgaria). Having toured the Orthodox Cathedral and its grounds at Curtea de Argeş, I headed north to one of the quiet little villages just south of the castle (Corbeni or Căpăţânenii Pământeni [say that 10 x fast]) where I rented a cheap room and hit the hay early with plans to get up before sunrise, which I did and hiked over to and up and up the 1,480 steps to the fortress. It was compact (1/3rd of it had collapsed in 1888) but impressively situated with walls above steep cliffs. The view to the south was of mtn.s across the river-valley below that I'd just crossed, and the view to the north was of a steep, green ridge facing the castle, the gorge and the Argeș river below, and of the ridges and peaks stretching beyond it, with small clouds rising from below. (I'll scan photos that don't do the view justice.) I saw all the nooks and crannies, took my time so as to see the light change as the sun rose, and had the whole place to myself before heading back down after a couple of hours or less. On the stairs I met an older man walking up who might've been the custodian or ticket-seller (although there was no gate), who gave me the stink-eye. (I'd just gone up for free, and I bet tourists have climbed up at night and camped up there for something to do, like I'd done in the temple at Sarmizegetusa.)

 

- "It was to here, in 1457, that the survivors of Vlad Tepeş' massacre of the boyars in Târgovişte [a myth, as contemporary records attest] were marched to begin the construction or the repair and consolidation of his castle. This is the real 'Dracula’s Castle'; his only connection with the popular Bran castle is that he may have attacked it once. ... The Poenari castle, or part of it, had been built in the early 13th cent. and would become a primary citadel of the Basarab rulers in @ the 14th cent. It was then abandoned and fell into ruin, but Vlad appreciated its strategic location and potential. It contains the crumbling remains of 2 towers within; one, prism-shaped, was the old keep, Vlad’s residential quarters, from where, according to legend, his wife or concubine flung herself out the window in 1462 during a successful siege by the Turks, led by Vlad's 1/2-brother 'Radu the handsome', declaring that she “would rather have her body rot and be eaten by the fish of the Argeş” than be captured. Legend also has it that Vlad escaped via a secret passageway leading north through the mountains. According to other accounts, he escaped on horseback, fooling his pursuers by shoeing his mount backwards or by affixing horseshoes that left the impression of cow prints." (RG)

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIj28GQsuoM

 

- Walking and hitching back into town down the 7C that morning, I was offered a lift by a British tourist clear across to Bran where he was heading, and although I'd planned to tour the old centre of Curtea de Argeş, I couldn't say no (with my eye on the clock and the calendar). The turn-off for the 73C was north of it, but I wish I'd asked if he'd seen or might like to see the 'Princely Church' in the Court of Argeş, the oldest church in Wallachia (1352) (with "wonderfully alive" frescoes [1384], and in which Radu Negru, founder of Wallachia, and other early Basarab rulers are entombed."[RG]). So that was a miss. www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8cmH0kdBYY De Noüy had plans to renovate or reconstruct the Princely Church as well, but historian Nicolae Iorga managed to get legal backing to stop him.

 

- From Curtea de Argeş we headed NE up the twisty 73C and the 73 and took a stop just south of Câmpulung to tour the excavated and preserved remains of the Roman fort or castrum stativum of Jidava, "part of the Limes Transalutanus defensive line, [@ 235 km.s in length,] destroyed by the Goths in 244 AD." (RG). (I've also read that the fort was destroyed by the Carpi, aka the Carpiani. - ?) A stretch of the stone enclosure wall and a curtain tower on the wall had been reconstructed, as well as hypocaust in the praetorium. The sites of bldgs. within the citadel were outlined with the bases of walls. We probably toured the small museum there too, with coins, etc. found on the site of the camp, but I don't recall.

- This had been the strongest Roman camp of the limes Transalutanus. Its ancient name is lost to history. Built of stone, it guarded the access to Wallachia through the Bran-Rîşnov (Cumidava) pass. The citadel was quadrilateral, covered an area of 98.5 x 132 m.s., and had 4 gates and square towers at the corners and 4 in the curtains (I think). The wall, 1.8 m.s wide, is preserved to a height of 2 m.s. Inside were found the remains of a praetorium, officers' quarters, a horreum (grain store), bathing facilities, and hibernalia (barracks) (2nd - 3rd cent.s). The camp was built /b/ 190 and 211, during the reigns of Commodus (180-192) and Septimius Severus (193-211.). The composition of the garrison was legionary with auxiliary detachments, and a troop of Eastern archers (Cohors I Flavia Commagenorum) was stationed there until, as excavations have revealed, the citadel was burned, destroyed and abandoned in haste during the reign of Philip the Arab (244-249), less than 60 yr.s after it had been built, when the Romans lost all the limes Transalutanus. Dacia was the last territory to be conquered by Rome and the first to be abandoned. (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites) www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxYEvSGp3D4 "Just beyond the gates [of the camp are] vestiges of a Roman colony, variously identified with Romula, Stepenium and Ulpia Traiana." (Wikipedia)

 

- Otherwise we missed all the sights and sites of Câmpulung, a town we drove through, said to be Wallachia's 1st capital "after the Voivodate was forged @ 1300" (RG), which include the Negru Vodă monastery, attributed to the 13th-cent. Black Prince, much of it reconstructed in 1837 with a chapel from 1718. (RG) Câmpulung had been another segregated Saxon city, founded no later than 1300 but by the 15th cent. the Romanian and Saxon communities had merged, unlike in the Siebenbergen. New Romanian churches were built near the Catholic areas, and some Romanian județs were elected. Bogomil Bulgarians [persecuted as heretics in Bulgaria, and officially condemned at the Synod of Tarnovo by Tsar Boril in 1211] settled in a Șchei neighborhood (Șchei is old Romanian for Slavic), and there was a leper colony on a hill o/s the town with its own church and mill. (Wikipedia).

- En route we would've passed (but I don't recall) the Mateias Mausoleum, a lighthouse-esque memorial on the site where Romanian troops repelled a German offensive over 45 days in 1916. The remains of more than 2,000 Romanians who died there are kept in a large glass chest in the ossuary, and beautiful mosaics decorate the walls and ceiling. (RG) Oh well.

 

- From Jidava and Câmpulung, we continued up the 73C towards Castle Bran, the most popular, touristy sight or site in Romania, crossing back into Transylvania from Wallachia en route.

(See the next photo).

Done