In the lineup today: two pupils from the Grigore
Mosil National Informatics College in Brasov win the biggest robotics contest in
Europe, the only engraving representing Vlad the Impaler from Romania is put up
for sale, Bucharest hosts the Japanese film festival between November
17-19, this and much more in the next 10 minutes.
Tag: Vlad the Impaler
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Happening in Romania
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Romanians and the Ottoman Conquest of the Balkans
The period of Ottoman advancement into Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries was a period of confrontations and coexistence, rather than a period of open warfare. However, in 1453, Sultan Mehmet II put an end to this period of transition, conquering Constantinople and centralizing power in the hands of a single sovereign, starting with himself. Before the conquest, from around 1360 to 1453, Romanians got accustomed to the pattern of confrontation and coexistence with the Ottomans, just as the rest of the Balkans.
This pattern of coexistence of the two worlds, that of the Christian inhabitants of the Balkans and that of the Oriental Ottomans is known from the documents of the era, and it finally led to a fusion between the two types of culture and civilization. What was initially a clash between the Christian and Muslim worlds gradually became an interdependence, resulting in a synthesis in which religious practices and the customs of everyday life formed very similar patterns of behavior.
Each of the political actors in the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest obviously saw to their own interests. In order to see them through, they sometimes clashed, sometimes collaborated with the Ottomans, who sometimes provided just the help they needed. Before living alongside the Ottomans, however, in the second half of the 14th century, Balkan Christians resisted their advance. However, the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, and Albanians, sometimes helped by Romanians, were eventually overcome. Swiss historian Oliver Jens Schmitt is a professor with the University in Vienna specializing in the Medieval history of Southeast Europe. He told us that major Christian leaders who fell in battle with the Turks were fewer than those who collaborated with them:
“Most of the Christian princes of the Balkans cooperated with the Ottomans. The list of these Ottoman partners is substantially longer than that of princes who fought them uncompromisingly. Some of the Christian princes who fell in battle were the Serbian leaders in the 1371 Battle of Maritsa, Despot Uglješa and hist brother, King Vukašin, Albanian warlord Balša II in 1385, Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, Wallachian princes and voivods Mihail, in 1420, Dan II, Vlad the Impaler, and Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. Those who were executed include the father of Albanian Prince Skanderbeg, Ioan Kastriota, the last Italian duke of Athens, and the last Bosnian king, along with a number of Bosnian boyars, such as some from the Kovacevici and Pavlovici families.”
According to an anonymous chronicler, Turks like Christians quarreling. Which is true, considering that Christian elites hired Turkish mercenaries to fight their rivals, and sometimes the Turks arrived as mercenaries and ended up staying as the masters. The Ottomans created a belt of vassal states, dependent states that intervened massively in internal Ottoman politics, as seen in the long Ottoman civil war between 1402 and 1413. Historians believe that after the 1371 Battle of Maritsa, which the Serbians lost, the Balkans start acquiescing to Ottoman domination. Romanians thus end up forming the first line in the confrontation with the Turks, with the first major battle being led by Wallachian prince Mircea the Old at Rovine, in 1395. Oliver Jens Schmitt told us that the Serbs had already become faithful allies for the Turks:
“Serb boyars Marko Krajević and Konstantin Dragaš fell in the battle of Rovine in 1395, fighting on the Ottoman side against Mircea the Olds Wallachia. This death in battle of the two Serb leaders shows the essential guiding line of Ottoman conquest. Without help from their vassals, especially Serbian boyars, the Ottoman offensive would not have been possible. In all the essential events of the Ottoman conquest in the Balkans, Serbian boyars were on the Ottoman side: at Rovine, at Nicopole, where Stefan Lazarevicis cavalry tipped the scales for the Ottomans, at Ankara, where the same riders fought to the bitter end at the side of Bayezid I, after most Muslims had fled, or in 1430, when Grigore Brankovici helped conquer Salonika, then under Venetian rule. Even in1453, Serbians showed up at the battle for Constantinople, not as defenders, but as troops on the side of the Ottomans.”
Wallachia, the principality north of the Danube, was in a similar situation. Signs were emerging of cooperation with the Ottomans, even of Ottoman suzerainty. Here is Oliver Jens Schmitt:
“There was regional splintering, boyars were looking long term at working with the Ottomans or with Hungary, even though, at least in an early stage, most princes joined one camp or the other depending on the political and military situation at a given time. Which is why it is not easy to fathom who used ambitious local boyars, the Ottomans or the Hungarians at any given time. These local rulers believed they were bolstering their regional power through cunning maneuvers, or by often switching sides. The rapid succession of princes in Bosnia and Wallachia is mostly explained by these power plays. Among the Romanian voivods who favored the Ottoman side we can quote Radu II Prasnaglava, Alexandru Aldea, and Radu III the Handsome.”
The year 1453 marked the end of a long period of transition. It was the year when Romanians south and east of the Carpathians started adopting a different cultural model, which would last for over four more centuries. -
History as a show
‘We want the
children of today to also play Michael the Brave and Vlad the Impaler, not only
Superman and Batman’. This is the creed of the organizers of the Historical
Festival at the Gates of Bucharest that took place in the first weekend of
November.
The festival
welcomed its visitors with practical workshops, medieval riding, archery and
sword fighting workshops, with traditional dishes and crafts such as
blacksmiths’ crafts, pottery and peasant sandal making. The venue for the
festival was the Mogosoaia Palace, located almost 15 km away from Bucharest.
The building of the palace was started by ruler Constantin Brancoveanu in 1698,
and it was finalized later, on September 20th, 1702.
We took an
imaginary leap back in history, to discover the medieval way of life recreated
at the Palace. Wearing a fur coat and a nobleman’s hat, one of the presenters
of the event, Razvan Popescu, explained us the coordinates in space and time.
Razvan Popescu: To locate the event in time, we are in the Middle Ages at the
Mogosoaia Palace, but anyone can let their imagination run free. The festival features
a never-seen-before event, an execution, an impalement, in which the impaled
man did not die. This all happens here in Mogosoaia.
Visitors could
watch the Change of the Guard at the Palace several times. The guards of the
Neamtu Citadel left behind, temporarily, the Land of the Aurochs to participate
in the Historical Festival at the Gates of Bucharest. The young guards
coordinated by father Filip were the special guests of the festival. They
revealed aspects of the old life and customs through their clothing, weaponry,
fighting techniques and traditions. Children took archery lessons and also
learned how to make medieval heraldry pieces.
Next Razvan
Popescu will tell us what happened on the last evening of the festival:
Razvan Popescu: Famous artists from Belarus played medieval music. On the last evening
of the festival people could see many spectacular things, circus moments and
historical reenactments. Then followed the bagpipe players from Transylvania
and the Metropolitan Circus from Bucharest with the Marinof Troupe who put on a
spectacular show. And there was one more moment, the White Wolves, with
Dracula, a historical reconstitution.
‘Dracula – the
Come Back’ was the title of a historical reconstitution show organized by the
White Wolves Cultural Association, whose objective is to secure, preserve and
promote history and the national values by reenacting the moments that defined
the Romanians as a people, as a nation.
Within the association, professional actors and
stuntmen got together to once again bring to the public’s attention history as
performance. With details on that, here is one of the initiators of the
project, Bogdan Jianu, actor and stuntman.
Bogdan Jianu: The White Wolves means history through
performance. It kind of came out naturally. God took us by the hand and set us
on this path: to reenact moments of history. And that compels us to provide
historical documentation for each scenario. Meanwhile history teachers joined
us, as well as experts with the Military Museum, these people are giving us a
hand and checking the accuracy of the scenarios we reenact. Of course we are
trying to wear the right attire for these scenarios, which we dramatize and
season with stories of various kinds, so that they can make up a whole, a
performance in its own right. And we do that so that people can easily get a history
lesson. It is also engaging, it is also a little bit of adrenaline rush, as all
the stunts happen a few meters away from them, they see explosions, they see
people in flames, they see falling horses. It is so very spectacular!
The White Wolves Cultural Association has been doing
reenactment shows since 2013, evoking personalities in Romanian history that
should not be forgotten and stimulating children to get involved in interactive
learning. And that, because we found out that wherever they stage their
performances, The White Wolves have always found children and local volunteers eager
to take part in their performances.
Craftsmen were also present at the Mogosoaia Palace.
The premises saw blacksmiths, coppersmiths or gypsy women presenting their
authentic apparel, but also wood carvers or seamstresses of flax embroidered
blouses, or felt tunics.
From the locality of Nucsoara in Arges county, Ion
Rodos came to the palace with some wooden sculptures and told us about what
they represent.
Ion Rodos.:
Traditionally-carved spoons, inspired
from history, from stories, from fauna, flora, very old traditional motifs
borrowed from museums. As you can see, here I also have the Infinity Column,
the Household Blessing, which used to be placed on roof tops, I have the
Nucsoara Blackcock as well, my own creation, which is the official symbol of
the commune, pendants carved in plum-tree and nut-tree wood, the Dacian Wolf
pendant, Edelweiss, which I make out of a fir tree branch; carve them with my
knife. I have spinning tops just like those I used to play with when I was a
kid. I’ve also made some flutes.
The Palace has also enticed us with traditional food
and drinks hand-made by the townspeople, who were so happy to take part in such
a celebration.
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September 20, 2017 UPDATE
WEATHER Two people were killed by lightning in eastern Romania on Wednesday, when 16 hundred consumers were left without electricity by the gale force winds. Code yellow or orange alerts have been issued for almost the entire territory for atmospheric instability, strong winds and heavy downpours. Over 4 thousand firefighters backed by technical equipment are in stand-by ready to intervene in the most affected regions. School classes have been shortened in some of the most affected areas including capital city Bucharest, where people have been recommended to remain indoors during the storm. The authorities fear a storm like the one on Sunday that swept over 15 counties in the country’s west, center and north killing 8 and wounding 140 people. The gale-strong winds felled trees and electricity poles, blew away roofs and billboards and turned vehicles upside down. Water and electricity supplies have been disrupted and so has road and rail traffic in the affected regions. Weather is cooling all over Romania in the following 24 hours with heavy downpours in the west, north, center, east as well as in the hills and mountainous areas. Snowfalls are expected at altitudes above 18 hundred meters. Maximum temperatures are expected to range between 12 and 27 degrees Celsius.
LAW The Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies, gathered in a plenary session in Bucharest, have issued a declaration on the new education law in neighbouring Ukraine. The Romanian MPs say they are following with concern and maximum attention the latest developments generated by the recent adoption by Ukraine’s Supreme Rada of this law which drastically infringes upon the rights to education in the native language of the ethnic Romanians in Ukraine. They are launching an appeal for a fast settlement of this situation, by well intended actions and goodwill, in the spirit of cooperation, inclusive dialogue and the strict observance of European standards in the field of national minority protection, abiding by the relevant multilateral and bilateral agreements, that Ukraine is a signatory to. On Tuesday, the Hungarian Parliament adopted a similar resolution, condemning the new law, which –in the opinion of the Hungarian MPs- does not observe the commitments made by the Kiev authorities and infringes upon the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine. The law drastically limits the access to education in the native language of many ethnic minority communities in Ukraine. This stipulates that Ukrainian should be the only teaching language in high-schools and faculties, and education in the languages of the ethnic minorities is possible only in nursery and primary schools. Almost half a million ethnic Romanians are living in neighbouring Ukraine, most of them in the Romanian territories annexed by the former USSR in 1940, following an ultimatum, and taken over by Ukraine, in 1991, as a successor state.
BUCHAREST Romania’s capital city, Bucharest on Wednesday celebrated 558 years since it was first mentioned in documents. The name of today’s city was first mentioned in a document issued in 1459, by the then ruler of Wallachia, the famous Vlad the Impaler. In order to mark the event, the city hall has organised over the past few days, open-air parties, concerts, vintage costume parades, fairs and exhibitions. Bucharest became Romania’s capital city in 1862. In the inter-war period, Bucharest was dubbed “Little Paris”, due to its elegant architecture. Romania’s main economic engine, Bucharest is considered to be a city difficult to manage, because of an old and insufficiently developed infrastructure and of heavy traffic.
MEETING On Wednesday in New York, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis met Pavel Filip, the Prime Minister of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country. Iohannis said that Bucharest must institutionally assist the ex-soviet republic. On Tuesday, the head of the Romanian state, who is currently attending a UN General Assembly session, assured its head, Miroslav Lajcak, of Romania’s support in the efforts of reforming this organisation. The Romanian official has also held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Estonia, Egypt, Serbia, with the president of the European Council with NATO Secretary General as well as with leaders of the main Jewish organisations in the USA.
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Wallachia during Vlad the Impaler’s reign
Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula, was ruler of Wallachia for the first time in 1448. It was a short stint, while his second stint as a ruler, also the most relevant one, began in 1456 and lasted until 1462. Vlad the Impaler would also be ruler of Wallachia for the third and last time, in 1477. Two months into his reign, at the age of 45, Vlad the Impaler was killed in a court plot.
Vlad the Impaler was a man of his time. He ascended the throne for the second time when he was 25, with the support of Iancu of Hunedoara, the then ruling price of Transylvania, in a bid to ward off Ottoman expansion in Europe. Historian Stefan Andreescu provided us with a detailed account of the circumstances in which Vlad the Impaler took over the throne of his father Vlad Dracul.
”In 1456, another great clash between the Islam and Christian Europe took place, which ended up in the resistance to the siege of Belgrade, which was a successful one. However, it took more than a century and a half to conquer Belgrade. Being fully aware of what was going to follow, Iancu of Hunedoara resumed his policy of strengthening the line of River Danube, which meant that he needed a reliable ally on Wallachia’s throne. Vlad the Impaler came from Transylvania, but he also enjoyed domestic political support, since there was a group of boyars who recognized him as their ruler.”
An authoritarian and anti-Ottoman ruler, having spent his youth as a hostage at the Sultan’s court, Vlad the Impaler was adamant in eradicating the anarchy which at the time was rampant in Wallachia, a principality he sought to include in Christian alliances.
With details on that, here is historian Stefan Andreescu again :”He would ascend the throne in the wake of decades of clashes and turmoil. It was, if you will, an age when anarchy reigned supreme and to that effect he tried to secure domestic support and crush all prospective pockets of opposition that posed a threat to his throne. In the Slavonic version of the Tales about ruler Dracula and also in their German version, there is evidence of the extremely harsh measures he took, and one such measure was the one against a powerful family since Vlad had been attacked. It was the uprising mounted by Albu, who wanted to seize the throne. He did not carry it through, and proof of that is the fact that it was also a faction of boyars who denounced him to the High Porte when he stopped paying the tribute and sought to join a Christian alliance deaded by Pope Pius the 2nd. “
Vlad the Impaler relied on a couple of allies. First and foremost, he relied on Iancu of Hunedoara, who was his protector, then on the king of Hungary Matthias Corvinus and the Moldavian ruling prince Stephen the Great.
Stefan Andreescu: ”Stephen the Great and Vlad the Impaler were cousins. Stephen the Great seized the throne of Moldavia in the spring of 1457, with the support of Vlad the Impaler. In 1476 the latter was, for the third time, reinstated on the throne of Wallachia, with Stephen the Great’s support. However, before that, in 1462, conflict had flared up between the two rulers when Stephen the Great unsuccessfully attempted to seize the Chilia fortress. That fortress was actually Wallachia’s opening post to the sea, through the Danube. According to the historian Nicole Iorga, it was Stephen the Great ‘s responsibility to protect that highly important point from the Ottomans. The conflict had a strategic motivation, yet in the long run the blood ties turned out to be stronger.”
In the battles he fought against the Turks, since he was always outnumbered, Vlad the Impaler avoided an open confrontation. His most important success, a psychological one, actually, was the famous night attack in 1461.
Stefan Andreescu once again: ”He resorted to tactics which proved successful, the earth was scorched, fountain water was poisoned, there were also the gory visual messages, so to speak, and by that I mean the field of pales, with Ottoman soldiers and all sorts of villains being impaled near Targoviste. One of his best-known exploits aimed at terrifying the Ottomans was the night attack, which was an unusual action. There are several descriptions of that attack, and also an Ottoman chronicle giving an account of the panic caused by that attack, which targeted the Sultan’s tent, as he wanted to kill Mehmet the 2nd. A Pontifical Legate, Nicolo of Modrusa, sat down and talked to Vlad the Impaler when he was imprisoned in Buda, and described the attack. The other commander, who was supposed to attack the Ottoman camp from the opposite side, got scared and did not start the attack. It was only Vlad the Impaler’s army corps that, under the light of the torches, advanced to the center of the camp, but they missed the Sultan’s tent, Janissaries closed ranks and the Impaler had no choice other that to withdraw.”
It was also Nicolo of Modrusa who left a written description of the Impaler, which was quite similar to the famous picture depicting the Wallachian ruler in the Ambras Castle in Tirol. “Vlad the Impaler was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a thin reddish face in which very long eyelashes framed large wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bulls neck joined his neck to his wide shoulders, with black curly locks hanging around them.
(Translated by Eugen Nasta)