Neamţ Citadel

Neamţ Citadel (Romanian: Cetatea Neamţ) is a medieval fortress located near Târgu Neamţ, Neamţ County, Moldavia, Romania.

Lack of reliable information on the origins of Neamţ Fortress had resulted in several hypotheses whose reliability was often questioned. A number of prestigious historians and philologists, as A.D. Xenopol, B.P. Hasdeu, D. Onciul etc., said that - according to the papal bull of 1232 - the Teutonic Knights of Bârsa had built between 1211-1225 on the eastern slope of the Carpathians a castrum muntissimum that only the Neamţ Citadel could be. The Germanic (Teutonic or Saxon) hypothesis was acquired by many of Romanian historians, from the name of the fortress (in Romanian, Neamţ means German).

Later, the hypothesis on the beginnings of the citadel could be reconsidered. Thus, in the material dating from the lowest layer of citadel, revealed by systematic investigations carried out, were identified coins from the reign of Petru I Muşat (1375-1391). This is a definite proof that Neamţ Fortress was built in the second part of the reign of Petru I, during which Moldova has experienced a continuous political and economic development. A monument like Neamţ Fortress is a large building, which required a huge effort and considerable material resources. The only force capable of undertaking such initiatives was provided by the princes of the era of consolidation of the feudal state of Moldova.


The Entrance

Neamţ Fortress was clearly documented a few years later, in 1395, during the expedition of King Sigismund of Hungary in Moldova. Not irrelevant is that "The Neamţ from mountains" is mentioned in the Russian Chronicle that describes the cities to the east of the Carpathians, dated between 1387-1391, which could refer both to the city and the citadel.


The Courtyard

The fortress was built on a rocky triangular spur, with height of about 480 m above sea level and 80 m above the level of Neamţ River (or Ozana). It has a rectangle with unequal sides shape, adapted to the configuration of the terrain. The northern and southern sides are 38.5 and 37.5 m long, the eastern side have a length of 47 m and the western side is 40 m long. Specific for the defense system of the fortress is that the towers of the four corners were not placed outside the walls, but directly into the frame walls, and this because the natural fortifications on three sides not allowed their building outside. In front of the fourth side (N) is a ditch dating from the 15th century. The walls were 12-15 m high and 3 m thick, and are strengthened by 18 exterior buttresses.


Council Hall

In 1475, during the reign of Stephen the Great, on the northern side were added four rounded bastions, 30 m high, and the walls were raised with 6-7 m. The new access road into the citadel is represented by an arched bridge, finished by a drawbridge, and supported on 11 stone pillars with prismatic form. The exterior fortification system included also ditches and palisades.


Weapons Room

The garrison had currently 300 soldiers. The fortress was besieged many times by Hungarians, Turks, Tatars, Cossacks, Austrians, Polish, and had a particular importance in the defensive system of Moldavia. Practically, during the 14th-18th centuries, any major event in the history of Moldavia was linked, in a way or another, to the citadel.


The Prison

In the 18th century, it lost any political or military importance and began to deteriorate. During the reign of Mihail Sturdza (1834-1849) the citadel was protected and in 1866 was declared a historical monument. Between 1968-1972, the walls were reinforced, without the reconstruction of the missing portions. Nowadays, the fortress represents one of the most visited objectives of the region.

Panoramas by Michael Pop, from www.360trip.ro.

Mihai Eminescu Memorial House in Ipoteşti

Mihai Eminescu (January 15, 1850 – June 15, 1889) was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea (approx. The Youth) literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul (The Time), the official newspaper of the Conservative Party. His first poems volume was published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna to study when he was 19. The poet's Manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14.000 pages, were offered by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on January 25 1902. Notable works include Luceafărul (Evening Star), Odă în metru antic (Ode in Ancient Meter), and the five Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems he frequently used metaphysical, mythological and historical subjects. In general his work was influenced by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Mihail (as he appears in baptismal records) or Mihai (the more common form that he used) was born in Botoşani, Moldavia, Romania. He spent his early childhood in Botoşani and Ipoteşti, in his parents' family home. In 1850, the family brought an estate in Ipoteşti, 8 km from Botoşani, where was built a house with three rooms: the family saloon, an office and a bedroom. In this house the Eminovici family lived until 1878.


Mihai Eminescu Memorial House

The poet's mother, Raluca, brought for 250 gold coins a little church, that became the family's private chapel. Behind this church are the tombs of Gheorghe and Raluca Eminovici (Eminescu's parents) and of two of his brothers, Iorgu and Nicu. Here is also a symbolic tomb of Mihai Eminescu.


The bedroom

The house where Mihai Eminescu lived remained unused for years and became a ruin. In 1934, the house was rebuilt on the same spot, and was transformed in the first memorial house of this great poet. This house didn’t respected the original structure and was demolished and rebuilt in 1979 after the original projects, on the old Eminovici house foundation. The furniture is partly original, partly from the middle of the 19th century.


The study room

The Memorial contains: the Childhood House, the Eminovici Church, the village church founded by Nicolae Iorga and Cezar Petrescu, a peasant house that belonged to the last owner of the estate - Dr. Papadopol, a library and a museum.


The dining room

The Ipoteşti Memorial has a rich cultural patrimony with many items belonging to the Eminovici family (furniture, crystals, porcelain, silver covers, and old house items). The library contains 32 photo-prints of the poet's manuscripts, letters to Veronica Micle and Titu Maiorescu and many valuable books. Also at Ipoteşti is placed the Eminescu bust made by Gheorghe Anghel.


The private chapel


The church (outside)


The church (inside)

Google Maps

Panoramas by Michael Pop, from www.360trip.ro.

Ion Creangă Memorial House

Ion Creangă (March 1, 1837 or June 10, 1839 – December 31, 1889) was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes. A defrocked Romanian Orthodox priest with an unconventional lifestyle, Creangă made an early impact as an innovative educator and textbook author, while pursuing a short career in nationalist politics.

Ion Creangă was posthumously granted several honors, and is commemorated by a number of institutions in both Romania and neighboring Moldova. These include the Bojdeuca (tiny hut) building in Iaşi, which, in April 15, 1918, was opened as the first memorial house in Romania. Restored the same year and again in 1933-1934, it houses an important part of Creangă's personal items and the first known among Creangă's portraits, painted by his contemporary V. Muşneţanu.

"Bojdeuca" in Iaşi

Another memorial house dedicated to Ion Creangă is located in Humuleşti, a former village which has since been incorporated into Târgu-Neamţ city, Neamţ County, Moldavia, Romania. The house was built in 1830 by Petrea Ciubotariul, the grandfather of the writer and it was inhabited by the descendants of Ion Creangă until 1959. In 1937 the house was restored by the care of great historian Nicolae Iorga.

The Memorial House in Humuleşti, painting by Aurel Băeşu

In 1944, Sofia Grigoriu (born Creangă) donate the house to the Association of Romanian Teachers. The house became a museum by a decree of 1959, but the memorial house was opened to the public in 1960. The building was donated to the state by his successors in 1965. During the following decades, it reportedly became the most visited memorial house in Romania.

The Ion Creangă Memorial House (Outside)

The museum represents, beyond its historical, literary, and sentimental significance, a specific item of folk architecture of the period and ethno-cultural area. Under the broad shingle roof, the walls built in heavy beams covered with a clay layer, establishes a single room with narrow windows and a lobby where you could just spin. The low entry is sheltered from rain by a narrow porch, and behind the house a wooden roof with one slope protect some household items and agricultural tools with a certain ethnographic value.

The Ion Creangă Memorial House (Inside)

Exhibits presented are characterized by simplicity, common sense and modesty specific to the Moldavian peasant, generating a strong sense of piety, not only for what they represent to the memory of Ion Creangă, but because they are genuine testimonials of people and popular tradition of region.

The Ion Creangă Theme-park in Humuleşti (Târgu-Neamţ)

Ion Creangă Memorial House on Google Maps

Panoramas by Michael Pop, from 360cities.net.

Iulia Hasdeu Castle

The Iulia Hasdeu Castle is a folly house built in the form of small castle by historian and politician Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu in the city of Câmpina, Prahova County, Romania.

The only descendant of Hasdeu family was Iulia, a prodigy child, born on 14th November 1869 and dead eighteen years later, on 17th September 1888 from an unmerciful tuberculosis. At the age of 11 she graduated at "St. Sava" Gymnasium and the Music Academy of Bucharest (piano and canto). As a pupil of the "Sévigné" College of Paris, where she continued her secondary school studies, Iulia aroused her teacher's admiration for her brilliant intelligence. She took private lessons in drawing, painting, piano playing and canto. She continuously wrote poems, prose and theater plays. At 16, she attended the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at "La Sorbonne" in Paris. Meanwhile, Iulia attended courses at the School of Higher Studies in Paris. Her literary creation was to appear posthumously, under her father's careful watch, at "Hachette" Paris, in three volumes.

Deeply affected by his daughter's death, an event that dramatically shook and changed his life, Hasdeu started in 1893 to build a castle on a small piece of land in Câmpina. He claimed that his belated daughter provided the plans for building the castle during sessions of spiritualism (which took much of Hasdeu's imagination and time after Iulia's death). The building was completed in 1896. The castle is built based on the magic numbers 3 and 7, having, for example 3 towers, 3 underground rooms and steps formed of 7 steps each.

The ceiling of the main tower

The main entrance to the castle is a huge door made of stone, supposedly fixed on a diamond bearing. On the outside of this door is written the sign of Hasdeu's family and two texts: first is "pro fide and patria"(for God and country) and second is "e pour si move" ("nevertheless it moves") which encourages visitors to press this door of stone, which is easily opened and permits entrance to the castle. The door was sided by two stone thrones, on which there were carved Iulia’s main seven reincarnations, the twelve laws and the Pythagorean symbols (the pentagram and the seven circles). On each throne there was a woman sphinx, guardian of the entrance. Above the door there was the Eye of the World, and on the crenels one could read a date: July 2, the day when B.P. Hasdeu used to symbolically celebrate his two Iulias: his wife and his daughter.

The lateral doors had grids that symbolized the Sun; therefore they were painted in yellow and green-shaded blue. The exterior covers were provided with stained glass painted in the same shades, and above them there were two symbols: the cross in vertical position and beneath it the crescent in horizontal position. The windows of the Castle also had grids and stained glass intersected by a cross, and in the interior, on both sides, there were parallel mirrors. The role of the parallel mirrors is symbolic: with their help, all that get through there is infinitely re-created.

The ghosts' table

Inside, the monument is decorated with a fresco and marble, in various colors. In the tower from the left of the edifice there are the guest hall and the living room, both rooms being decorated with capital columns. In the living room there are the family portraits, painted on the wall, surrounded by laurel crowns. In the tower from the right, there are: the scholar’s office, the dining room and the room for the spiritualist sessions.

Chairs made for ghosts

The mural painting of the first two halls has flowers as main element, and they are the most lighted rooms during the day, because the Castle is orientated towards North, the right tower towards East and the left tower towards West. The room for the spiritualist sessions was obscure and on the walls there were painted symbols: an angel’s head, a triangle, a butterfly (as noticed in a photo of the original mural painting) and, most probably, other undiscovered symbols. Nowadays, the mural painting of this room hasn’t been restored.

A spiritualist manuscript and some ectoplasm photos will satisfy the curiosity of the visitor who asks himself how Hasdeu talked to his dead daughter. Through direct automatic writing, using cultured mediums, B.P.Hasdeu was receiving answers to questions related not only to Iulia's spirit, but also to his father's, Alexander, and to his grandfather's, Tadeu.

Sometimes, the written communications were reinforced by photographic sessions, the scientist being a pioneer of spiritualist photography in Romania. Since 1994 the Iulia Hasdeu Castle has been housing the "B.P.Hasdeu” Memorial Museum which displays furniture, personal belongings of Hasdeu family, photos and original documents, manuscripts, Hasdeu's reviews, many pictures made by Nicolae Grigorescu and Sava Henţia.

The study room of B.P. Hasdeu

From "B.P.Hasdeu" Memorial Museum, The Alexis Project. Photos by Adrian Gheorghe.

Cetatea Chioarului

Cetate, former Cetatea Chioarului (Magyar: Kővár), is located in Berchezoaia village, Remetea Chioarului commune, Maramureş County, Romania.

Political and military centre of Chioar, "Cetatea de Piatră" (the Stone Stronghold) was raised in the 13th century (but mentioned only in 1319 as Cheewar), on an isolated hill at a bend of the river Lăpuş. The stronghold is situated at 400 m altitude, on the saddle of a hill surrounded by the waters of the Lăpuş which make at the hill foot a strait among the rocks.

It was attested again after 1372, in an undated document, as a Royal citadel. In 1378, the stronghold was donated to the voievodes Balc and Drag, and to their brother Ioan, the descendants of voievode Dragoş from Maramureş, who kept it until the last representative of the family died (1555).

Between 1599 and 1600, the stronghold and the domain were handed over to Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave) who unified the Romanian Principalities. This is when Chioar became a district (part of a comitat (county)) with certain autonomy.

After 1662, Mihai Teleki was nominated captain of the Stronghold Chioar; later on, his family extended its influence over the whole region. By the end of the century, Rákoczi’s revolt spreads over Transylvania and the inhabitants of Chioar take the opportunity to rise against Teleki. After the Satu Mare Peace (1711), the Austrian nobiliary authorities decided the demolishment of the Chioar Stronghold in order to prevent the anti-Habsburg forces from regrouping, and it was blown up in 1718.

From The Castles Catalog. Images from Castele si cetati din Europa.

Lainici Monastery

Lainici Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox monastery located 32 km from Târgu Jiu, Gorj County, Oltenia.

In 14th century St. Pious Nicodemus of Tismana was sent in Northern Oltenia to support Romanian Orthodoxy and he sat in a cave near the today Lainici Monastery. Later, a hermitage was founded here. The importance of the settlement was noted by Empress Maria Theresa, who, by general Bukow, destroyed between 1750-1765 hundreds of Orthodox settlements in Transylvania. The hermitage, although not belonging to the Austria-Hungarian empire but located a few kilometers from the border, fell victim to the great anti-Orthodox persecutions of imperial court in Vienna.

Later, the hermit Athanasie gathered around the ruins a community of 30 monks. The boyars (noblemen) Sărdănescu, Brăiloiu, Fărcăşanu, Poenaru, Măldărescu, Bengescu, and Mageru constructed the monastery during the reign of Ioan Caragea between 1812 and 1817. Tudor Vladimirescu, who wanted to raise the country against the Turks, was hidden in the monastery for a while. In 1817 the Turks had devastated the settlement, and not finding Tudor, they beheaded the monk Maxim, dispelling the congregation. During the World War I, the Germans devastate again the monastery, restored in 1926 by pious Visarion Toia and six monks.

The exterior of the church has been divided into two separate registers by a frieze built of brick having the shape of a semicircle. The paintings, which were done in fresco, have been well preserved in the porch. The tower has the shape of a square and serves as a belfry too. Its frescoes were painted in 1860 by craftsmen of the Painting School of Târgu-Jiu.

The church was renovated in 1984. There have been constructed also modern outbuildings and facilities in the eastern and southern parts of the monastic complex, whereas the old ones have just been restored. An art collection that incorporated icons, liturgical objects and old printed books is also accommodated within the monastery.

In 1990 commenced the construction of a new church. Construction activities have also been initiated on two monastic outbuildings: one of them has been designed for the members of the monastic community, and the other one has been designed for the administrative offices and for the library of the monastery.

Place of pilgrimage of Romanians throughout the country, Lainici Monastery is called "Bride of the gorge" (it is located in Jiu Gorges), due of its strong white facade.

Sârba, a traditional folk dance

Sârba (meaning Serbian [dance] in Romanian) is a lively Romanian folk dance. Musically the term Sârba is usually applied to a lively 2/3 or 2/4 melody with triplet grouping, giving a 6/8 feel. It can be danced in a circle, line, or couple formations and was historically popular not only among Romanians, but also Ukrainians, Hungarians, East European Jews, and the Poles of the Tatra Mountains, or in dances such as the Serbian Čačak and the Bulgarian fast Pravo Horo. It is fast-paced and triplets are usually emphasized in the melody. The Sârba is still popular in Romanian traditional music and in Klezmer music.


In dance, the Sârba mostly refers to a lively 3-measure structured social dance, this is generally referred to as 'common Sârba'. The similar slower Brâul bătrân with Sârba belongs to a very ancient and widespread dance form throughout the Balkans.

Sârba is found in the same areas as Hora with the highest variety of variants being found along the sub-Carpathians. Unlike Hora, an open circle formation is the norm, apart from south Oltenia where it is generally danced in a closed circle.


The common Sârba alternates between traveling or resting phrases and phrases for improvisation or more complex steps. The dancers at each end are the leaders, with other dancers joining into the middle of line during the dance. In some areas there are Sârbe with a number of figures where the change of figure is indicated by commands from the leader. The other main type of Sârbe have a fixed choreography and are possibly newer. Ciuleandra is a specific type of Sârba from north Oltenia and Muntenia. It is danced in small circles, which change places with other small circles in the dance area.


Fixed form dances to Sârba music are also generally known as Sârba.

Dances with commands (the leader uses commands to determine the sequence) to Sârba type music, often with a 3-measure motif, have many names other than Sârba but are classified as Sârbe.

From Eliznik.