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History of an interesting region in Transylvania
The Făgăraș Land is an old Romanian state formation on the territory of Transylvania. Geographically located between the Olt and the Meridional Carpathians, the Făgăraș Land is considered the starting point of the founders of Wallachia. It was caught between the interests and pride of the Hungarian Kingdom and those of the Romanian lords throughout the Middle Ages, and suffered invasions of the Tartars. The memory of the latter is preserved in the collective memory of the locals, especially in the legends about the rocks that girls chased by attackers have jumped off. Many of the villages of Fagaras are arranged in pairs, one in the Olt meadow and the other in the mountain. Over time, there have been differentiations in the folk garment and traditions between the couple villages, but also between neighboring couple villages. These differences strengthen the community identity of the Făgăraș Land villagers and indicate the existence of significant intangible cultural heritage resources in the area.
Făgăraș Land: Historical Landmarks
The Făgăraș voivodeship, with its first documented mention in 1222 as terra Blachorum, is one of the oldest Romanian state formations on the territory that will be later called Transylvania. It was, at same time, one of the last Romanian state formations with an existence of its own inside the Carpathian Arch, due to its geographical position in an area where “the penetration of the Hungarian rule was slower and later” [1, p.241]. According to documented mentions, the voivodeship commanded, in the 13th Century, the citadels of Făgăraș, Comăna de Sus and Breaza. At the end of the century, the voivodeship’s territory was under the rule of the Hungarian Kingdom (according to the documents of the Transylvania’s Diet from Alba-Iulia, 1291). In the time between its first documented mention and this moment are located the events that tradition calls the settling of Negru-Vodă: following battles with the Hungarian army heading South, the voivode Radu of Făgăraș Land had to withdraw from Făgăraș citadel to the one at Breaza, where he suffered a new defeat; due to this, he decided to go beyond the mountains, together with some of his subjects [2]. This is how the voivodeship of Făgăraș disappeared from history and the core state of Wallachia (Romanian: Țara Românească, literally The Romanian Country) was established beyond the mountains. The connections between the Romanians from north and south of the Southern Carpathians were older. Nägler shows that “it is not excluded that the idea of the donation of Almaș and Făgăraș to the rulers of Wallachia in the 14th Century was a continuation of rulers from the previous century” [3, p.213]. Under the rule of Vladislav Vlaicu, Făgăraș Land came under the rule of Wallachia. That given its position between the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, Wallachia was under double suzerainty for a long time [4].
King Matei Corvin set up a district of Făgăraș, that he offered to the Universitas Saxonumin 1469, as a compensation for the wrongs caused to Saxons by the incursions of Vlad Țepeș in the south of Transylvania. The Romanian population of the district was not at all pleased by the decision of the king, ˮthe Romanians in Făgăraș took prisoners the delegates of the Saxons who were coming back from king Matei Corvin and destroyed their Donation Diploma, and afterwards they moved onto attacking possessions" .
After the battle of Mohács (1526), the Romanian nobleman Ștefan Mailat, from Comăna de Jos (Lower Comăna), obtained rule over Făgăraș Land. Ștefan Mailat, becoming a voivode of Transylvania, tried to use the conflicts between the pretenders to the throne of the Hungarian Kingdom in favor of acknowledging the status of an autonomous principality for Transylvania. His approach was not a successful one. After his death in prison, in Constantinople, Făgăraș Land changed its rulers several times.
In 1599, Făgăraș citadel came into the possession of Mihai Viteazul, who, according to the habit of the Transyvanian princes, offered it to his wife, Lady Stanca. After the death of Mihai Viteazul, the citadel was offered to other princes’wives: Catherine of Brandenburg, the wife of Gabriel Bethlen, Zsuzsanna Lórántffy, the wife of György Rákóczy I, and Anna Bornemisza, the wife of Mihail Apáffy I. In 1691, by the Diploma Leopoldinum, the principality of Transylvania came under Austrian rule. In the meantime, over the 17th Century, the Brâncoveanus and Cantacuzinos from Wallachia acquired important properties in Făgăraș Land.
The legislation and social structure of Făgăraș Land were close to those in Wallachia in the Middle Ages, an expression of historical connections (related to origin, according to tradition) and administrative ones among the territories on either side of the Southern Carpathians. The rulers of Wallachia in the 14th Century made donations to the inhabitants of the area, thus contributing to the occurrence and strengthening of the class of Romanian boyars in Făgăraș Land. It is a matter of a (chronologically) first class of boyars [2]. To them were added the boyars lifted in rank from among the serfs. The latter received nobiliary decrees in a first stage in exchange for some knightly duties of defending Făgăraș citadel, and later on, in the 17th Century, against payment. The territorial-administrative reorganization imposed by emperor Josef II (1782) consigned to Făgăraș county Saxon localities beyond the Olt and entrusted administrative responsibilities to some imperial clerks, but in 1790 in Transylvania, the old organization by counties, districts and seats by boundaries significant from an ethnic point of view was readopted.
From 1849, following the end of the revolution, in which the Făgărăș Legion took part by fighting against Hungarian revolutionaries, Transylvania became a province ”directly dependent on the Imperial Court in Vienna”[2, p.37]and in 1850 Făgăraș district became a component of the Sibiu Military District.
Then, until the reestablishment of the autonomy of the Transylvania principality in 1860, the Court in Vienna tried a multitude of administrative organisation variants of the province. Between 1860 and 1865, the Romanians in Țara Făgăraș obtained acknowledgement of Romanian as the official language of the district, were appointed in different adminsitrative positions and sent devoted representatives to the Diet. Its dissolving in 1865 and the convening of a new Diet, which voted for union of Transylvania with Hungary, interrupted the ascending political path of the leaders of Făgăraș Romanians. Until the Great Union in 1918, their energies focused against the Austrian-Hungarian regime that became official in 1867; their actions ”being for the most part tending to radicalization, including not recognizing Hungarian laws and opposing with vehemence increasingly frequent tendencies of magyarisation”.
The above succession of historical landmarks highlights the frequency of political and administrative changes in Făgăraș Land from the first mention of the Romanian state formation up to its integration into Romania after WWI. Beyond these frequent changes, arguing their impact at the level of the outlining of community identities, unfolds a number of dramatic trials. Repeated invasions of the Tartars [3], punishment incursions executed by Vlad Țepeș, angry with the inhabitants of Făgăraș because they sheltered some of his rivals to the throne of the Wallachia [4] and, later, the campaign of imposing Catholicism led by General Buccow upon the order of Empress Maria Theresa are a few of the trials. The memory of Tartar invasions is kept in the legends about maidens of the villages who would to throw themselves off rocks instead of becoming captive. According to the results of the field research carried out in 1918 within the project CarPaTO (The Mapping of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Făgăraș Land), on the side of the valleys toward the mountains, valleys that go through the pair of villages Comăna de Jos/de Sus (Lower/Upper) and Veneția de Jos/de Sus, in the east of Făgăraș Land, such rocks are located in tradition and the elders from Veneția de Sus recount about the tresses of maidens found at their base. Also according to tradition, the upper villages were formed as a result of the withdrawal of villagers from the path of the invaders. In the 1460 incursion, Vlad Țepeș had razed the entire village of Șercaia and its repopulation was needed two years later [4]. Almost all the villages under the mountain preserve in their toponyms the memory of the old Orthodox monasteries and hermitages destroyed by Adolf Nicolaus von Buccow and in collective memory stories of martyred monks and laymen.
To all these adds the ardent anti-communist resistance organized in the Făgăraș Mountains in the first decade after change of regime in Romania in 1947. The Carpathian Făgăraș Group led by Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu is one of the longest lasting resistance groups. Its members have benefitted continuously from the help of the villagers in Făgăraș Land.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publica..._Peculiarities
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