Radio România Internațional

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  • The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum.

    The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum.

    A new documentary exhibition has been made available to visitors on the premises at Bucharest’s Municipality Museum. Playing host to the new exhibition in the Museum’s main building, the Sutu Palace, located in Bucharest’s City Center.

    The theme is “The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum”. The curator of the exhibition, Mihaela Rafaila of the Museum’s Modern and Contemporary History Compartment has revealed, for us, the underlying intention in staging the exhibition.

    „Through the temporary exhibition themed ‘The first Cantacuzins in the heritage of Bucharest’s Municipality Museum’ I intended to introduce to the lay public some certificates written on paper or on parchment, in the Slavonic and Romanian languages, with Cyrillic letters, where the members of this important family of the 17th and 18th centuries are mentioned in their capacity as witnesses, through the dignities they held as part of the Princely Council, but also through the selling-purchase acts they signed at that time or issuing charters or decrees, such as the case of ruling princes Serban and Stefan Cantacuzino. “

    The first of the great dignitaries, men of culture and even vaivodes who were members of this boyar family in Wallachia was court marshal Constantin Cantacuzino, who was born in 1598 and assassinated in 1663. He was the central figure as part of the exhibition hosted by the Bucharest Municipality Museum.

    „As an outcome of his being married to vaivode Radu Serban’s youngest daughter, princess Elina or Ilinca, as she was called around the house, Constantin Cantacuzino began his ascension according to Wallachia’s high-office positions scheme. Apart from his personal fortune, inherited and amassed, the court marshal benefitted from his wife’s dowry, which enabled him to have his 11 children, six boys and five daughters, relate to the most distinguished Moldavian and Wallachian families of boyars.

    Benefitting from a special education, court marshal Constantin Cantacuzino was a great lover of books. Having INTINSE economic and diplomatic relationships and also enjoying the respect especially from the ottomans, court marshal Cantacuzino at that time was known as vaivode Matei Basarab’s secret councillor, being a towering figure of Romanian politics in the 17th century.”

    Here is curator Mihaela Rafaila, briefly introducing to us the great dignitary’s wife, Elina Cantacuzino (1611-1687):

    “In turn, Elina proved her special qualities: she was forgiving of her husband’s murderers, tenacious in her bid to rescue the house after the disappearance of the family’s STALP, cautious in distributing the fortune among her children, loving towards the boys, whom she gently advised to have a truly brotherly relationship, manly because of the journey she took to the Holy Places. “

    What are the documents the Bucharest Municipality Museum exhibition brings before visitors, which are highly relevant for the history of this distinguished Romanian family ?

    “As part of the exhibition, the name of the founder of the Cantacuzino family in Wallachia, Constantin Cantacuzino, is mentioned for the first time in the act of June 8, 1626, in his capacity of witness of the Princely Council, the dignity he held being that of great court marshal. ”

    The exhibition themed The First Cantacuzins brings three volumes before the public, important for the history of Romanian culture. The exhibition lays special emphasis on the Bible of Bucharest, also known as the Bible of Serban Cantacuzino, the first complete translation of the Bible into Romanian, published in 1688.

    Mihaela Rafailă:

    „On display as part of the exhibition we also have three books ‘The Holy and Divine Gospel, composed following the structure of the Greek Gospel’, printed at the behest and with the financial support of ruler Serban Cantacuzino, in the year 1682. Then there is The Bible, also known as ‘The Bible of Bucharest’, as well as ‘The Political and Geographical History of Wallachia’, whose author was identified by the great historian Nicolae Iorga as being province governor Mihai Cantacuzino.

    Then again, speaking about the Bible of Bucharest, it represents the first complete translation of the Divine Writ, made at the command of the Most Kind-Hearted Christian and this our enlightened ruler Ioan Șerban Cantacuzino Vaivode. It was printed on filigree paper.

    The covers are wooden panels bound in leather, whose decoration was made through hot pressing. The editing of the Bible represented an important stage in the process of imposing the national language as liturgical language, at once being a reference monument of the printing press art of Wallachia. That once and for all set the path the ecclesiastical written language would take.

    The Bible was widely spread in the Romanian principalities, Wallachia, Moldavia and in Transylvania and even reached Poland, when a copy was given to former metropolitan bishop Dosoftei, who was in exile. Another copy was in the possession of Pope Benedict the 14th, the copy, as we speak, is kept in the Library of Bologna University. The displayed copy circulated in Transylvania, the counties of Alba and Hunedoara. “

  • Princess Apafi of Transylvania

    Princess Apafi of Transylvania


    Rarely featured in official documents or in history books, the private lives of rulers or nobility are rather difficult to document, and private correspondence or diaries are the main sources in this respect. This is all the more true when it comes to the wives of those powerful men-the women who sometimes stood in for their spouses and even influenced the course of history.



    One such woman was Anna Bornemisza, wife to the last but one prince of Transylvania, Mihai Apafi I, who left behind a substantial correspondence thanks to which we can now research the dramatic situation of the principality in the last half of the 17th Century.



    Anna Bornemisza came from old Transylvanian nobility, but was also related to the nobles in Wallachia. In fact, the Apafis were quite close to the Brâncoveanu family, and owned properties in Făgăraș Country, including the Făgăraș Citadel where the princely couple even lived for a while.



    Mihai Apafi I ruled between 1661 and 1690, in a troubled period for Transylvania. Professor Șarolta Solcan told us a few things about the princesss life.



    Șarolta Solcan: “Anna Bornemisza came from an aristocratic family in Oradea, which made her feel not quite safe among the high-ranking nobles of Transylvania. This is why she brought with her trustworthy people from Oradea, including Mihai Teleki, the son of her cousin, who became chancellor of Transylvania after 1680. Anna Bornemisza was right by her husbands side from 1661 until her death in 1688. She was greatly involved in the ruling of the country, in the management of the princely estates, while the prince was busy with his hobbies: reading, philosophy, clock collection. At some point he was even criticised by his contemporaries, who said he was better suited to be a priest than a ruler. But the fact that his wife was very much involved in the countrys politics was also heavily criticised in the society of the time. Yet, in spite of the criticism, Anna Bornemisza was a strong personality in the Romanian political scene.”



    Anna Bornemisza was the one who paid the ransom for the prince to the Crimea Tatars in 1660, after a disastrous military campaign in Poland. And she was also the one who substituted for her husband in the daily affairs of the principality, when Mihai Apafi I was either away on military campaigns, or isolated and deep in his reading. Here are some more details from Professor Șarolta Solcan:



    Șarolta Solcan: “Anna Bornemisza is believed to have been born around 1636. We know that she got married on 10th June 1653 with the would-be prince Mihai Apafi I, and had a troubled life with him. Apafi I ruled for a long time–until 1690-and his rule was freight with tensions, both for himself and for Anna Bornemisza who was always by his side. During his reign there were conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Austrian Empire over control on Hungary. More than once, the two empires would ask for Transylvanias support and would threaten the principality and its ruler.”



    In private, the princess of Transylvania always lived in fear for her husbands life and amid worries for her children, many of them sickly and dead by an early age. These constant fears, the difficult political situation of the country and the frequent epidemics threw her into a deep depression. The documents of the time mention the princesss “ailment in the head,” which triggered her fixation with spells and charms. Her obsession that someone was using spells to harm her eventually entailed the witch hunt and witch trials in late 17th Century Transylvania. Under these circumstances, in 1682 her health collapsed, and she became a person ruined on the inside, as a contemporary described her.



    Anna Bornemisza died in 1688, and was initially buried in the vault of the Mălâncrav church (in todays Sibiu County), a church commissioned by her family. Later, in mid-20th Century, the remains were taken to a Reformed church in Cluj. Professor Șarolta Solcan concludes:



    Șarolta Solcan: “She was a very strong woman who, in spite of her extreme physical fragility, fought against a mind-set hostile to women, which denied women the right to take part in political decision-making. This idea was so deeply rooted that it was common even among women themselves. The daughter of another Transylvanian aristocrat said a womans mind was not fit for ruling a country. But Anna Bornemisza disagreed.” (tr. A.M. Popescu)