The Castle of a Ruler of Hungary and the Birthplace of Modern Romania
The Plan for Today
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| Romania |
For most of the 120km outward journey the road followed the valley of the River Mureş in an arc north of the most direct route. We returned to Sibiu via Alba Iulia.
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| The positions of Sibiu, Alba Iulia and Hunedoara. All three counties are traditionally part of Transylvania |
An Introduction to Hunedoara
Unlike our journey to Sibiu, todays departure was on a fast and uncongested road.
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| The E68 west from Sibiu |
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| Hunedoara County |
I am not sure exactly when we entered Hunedoara County, but for the last few kilometres we left the main road and headed southwest, through another linear town of unknown name before reaching Hunedoara around 11.00.
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| On the road to Hunadoara |
Hunedoara shares with Buckingham the distinction of not being the administrative centre of the county that bears its name. Deva, the Aylesbury of Hunedoara County, is a 15-minute drive further north. Unlike Aylesbury, though, it is not significantly bigger than the city it usurped, both having 50-60,000 inhabitants - but Hunedoara has by far the better castle.
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| Hunedoara Castle |
Hunedoara: Some Recent History
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| Hunedoara City |
The first local steel mill dates from 1667, but the 18th and 19th centuries saw slow growth and by 1850 Hunedoara’s population was still
less than 2,000. The industrial revolution eventually arrived in the 20th
century and the village soon became a town. Growth accelerated further after the
1947 communist take-over. Industry was prioritised and Hunedoara became Romania’s
largest steel town. By the late 1980s the population was almost 90,000.
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| Overlooking Hunedoara from the castle |
The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 saw the market for Romanian steel shrink dramatically and mills started closing The demise of the Ceaușescus gave people freedom to move and seek out new opportunities. Young people fled to Bucharest, while after 600 years voluntary exile, most ‘Transylvanian Saxons’ (see Sibiu) returned to Germany. When Romania joined the EU, the exit accelerated, Hunedoara lost 16% of its population between 2011 and 2021, dropping to just over 50,000 inhabitants. The flight of the young has left Hunedoara with the second oldest average age of any Romanian county. But neither hope, nor steelmaking have gone entirely, ArcelorMittal are investing in modernising the Romanian industry and currently produce steel billets, reinforcing bars and specialty steels in Hunedoara.
Hunedoara: Hunyadi and Corvinus
A man known, in English, as John Hunyadi, Hunyadi János in Hungarian and Iancu or Ioan de Hunedoara in Romanian started constructing a castle here in 1446. A second phase of building a decade later was the work of his son Matthias Corvinus. Much later, when the great days of castles were over,
it fell into disrepair. There was an attempt to turn the castle into a palace
in the 17th century and a fanciful 19th century restoration. It now belongs to
the Romanian Ministry of Culture.
I lack the expertise to know which bit was
built when, so here are my pictures of Hunedoara Castle as it is now,
interleaved with some of the historical background.
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| Across the moat to Hunedoara Castle |
A keep was built on this site by Charles I,
King of Hungary and Croatia (ruled 1308-1332). For reasons lost in history Sigismund
of Luxembourg, King of Hungary and Croatia (r 1387-1437) gave the keep to Voyk
Hunyadi, a Wallachian knight in the royal court. Voyk died between 1414 and
1419, passing the keep on to his son John.
King Sigismund noted the young Hunyadi’s
organisational skills and military prowess in campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.
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| Courtyard, Hunedoara Castle |
Sigismund died in 1437. The Hungarian crown
was usually, but not automatically passed from father to son; kings had to be elected
by the Diet, a parliament of the rich and powerful. Sigismund had no son, and his
daughter was obviously unsuitable, so the Diet chose his son-in-law Albert the
Magnanimous (though to the Jews and Hussites he persecuted, magnanimity was not
his most obvious quality).
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| The bear pit |
Albert also found John Hunyadi invaluable
in his efforts to keep Transylvania out of Ottoman hands. However, he
discovered sharp metal objects were not the only danger of campaigning and
after two years on the throne he died of dysentery.
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| Chapel, Hunedoara Castle |
Albert’s first son was still in utero
when his father died. When the Diet eventually met to elect a successor, they
rejected the by then infant Ladislaus the Posthumous and chose Władysław
III, same name different spelling, who was already King of Poland. He was
better qualified, being a grown-up (well he was 16) and had several years’
experience of monarching.
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| One of the Hunyadi/Corvinus family |
John Hunyadi had been right-hand man to
two monarchs, so a third was easy. Władysław lasted four years until he and
Hunyadi led the Varna Crusade. It started well but finished with defeat and Władysław’s
death.
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| Rear Tower, Hunedoara Castle |
The only choice left was Ladislaus the Posthumous, and the Diet made Hunyadi one of his co-regents, and later sole regent, Governor of Transylvania and Captain General of Hungary. Effectively John Hunyadi ruled Hungary.
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| Lynne and Vlad walk the long corridor, Hunedoara Castle |
The Turk-Basher, as he was known, was rich, powerful and popular. If he was not a Hungarian National hero before his defeat of the Ottoman
Sultan Mehmet II at the Siege of Belgarde in 1456 he was afterwards, while Pope
Pius II wrote ‘Hunyadi did not increase so much the glory of the Hungarians,
but especially the glory of the Romanians among whom he was born.’ He also
called him Athleta Christi (Christ’s Champion).
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| John Hunyadi from the Chronica Hungarorum 1488 (Public domain) He does not look that fearsome! |
For all his political skill and swordsmanship, Hunyadi had no defence when plague broke out in the Crusader camp. He died at
the height of his powers on the 11th of August 1456.
The now teenage Ladislaus the Posthumous
flexed his muscles, arresting Hunyadi’s two sons. In March 1457 he had the
elder (another teenage Ladislaus) executed for murder, and released the younger
brother Matthias.
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| The family crest, from the keystone of the Knight's Hall |
The main feature of the Hunyadi family crest was a single crow, corvus in Latin which was the official language of the Hungarian Empire and would have been understood by any educated person. This explains why Hunedoara Castle is sometimes referred to as Corvin Castle and why Hunyadi's sons used the surname Corvinus.
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| Back out into the courtyard, Hunedoara Castle |
Ladislaus died suddenly in November 1457
aged 17. His supporters claimed he was poisoned, but the cause of death was
more likely leukaemia or plague. The Hungarian Diet met the next year and
declared 14-year-old Matthias Corvinus king. He was the first Hungarian monarch
not from one of Europe’s great dynastic families. He ruled for 32 years, and apart
from military campaigns, he reformed the administration and welcomed the Renaissance
into Hungary. He was a patron of the arts, founded a Royal Library and was a
keen builder, including of his own castle at Hunedoara.
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| Exit from the Castle |
Leaving the castle we paused for coffee, had a look round the stalls outside and acquired the obligatory fridge magnet.
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| Hunedoara fridge magnet |
Then Vlad drove us the 80km to Alba Iulia.
Alba Iulia
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| Alba Iulia |
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| Alba County |
Long ago, the Romans settled here, calling the town Apulum. After they left, Slavs moved into the ruins, naming their settlement Bălgrad, meaning
"white castle" or "white town.” Incoming Hungarians translated
this name and added a twist of their own, calling it Gyulafehérvár meaning "white
castle of Gyula" a reference to Gyula II, a 10th century Hungarian warlord.
The Romanians translated it back into Latin(ish), Alba being the feminine
singular of “white” and Iulia for Gyula – who displayed as much femininity as your
average medieval warlord.
Alba Iulia has long been the seat of the Roman
Catholic diocese of Transylvania and from 1526 to 1570 was capital of the
Eastern Hungarian Kingdom which morphed into the Principality of Transylvania. Most
importantly to Romanians, the Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared in
Alba Iulia in December 1918 and four years later the coronation of King
Ferdinand I and Queen Marie took place in the Orthodox Cathedral.
Hunedoara was about the Hungarians in Transylvania, Alba Iulia is about the Romanians
Alba Carolina Citadel
We did not really visit Alba Iulia, we visited the Alba Carolina Citadel. The Citadel is one of the star shaped fortresses that
popped up all over continental Europe after the French military architect
Vauban came up with the idea in the late 17th century. This one was built
1715-38 when the Hapsburgs ruled Transylvanian and gets its name from the Holy
Roman Emperor Charles VI (Carol VI in these parts). In the 20th century it was
repurposed as the ceremonial quarter of the city.
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| Model of the Alba Carolina Citadel, Alba Iulia |
We approached over a bridge heading for the gap between the Orthodox Cathedral (left) and the Catholic Cathedral on the right.
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| The Orthodox Cathedral is edge of photo left, the Catholic Cathedral is in the central |
The guards were friendly, if a bit stiff…
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| Lynne and a guard, Alba Carolina Citadel |
…and there was a reminder than not everything here has military connections….
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| Monk and children, Alba Carolina Citadel |
…though the equestrian statue of Mihai Viteazul looks a little aggressive. Michael the Brave (1558 – 1601) was Prince
of Wallachia from 1593, became Prince of Moldavia in 1600 and was also de facto
ruler of Transylvania. It was the first time the three principalities with
majority Romanian populations were under the same (Romanian) ruler. Michael
the Brave is thus a symbol of Romanian unity.
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| Mihai Viteazul, Alba Carolina |
A little further along is a cracked bell. Cracked bells seem to resonate with some people - the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, and
the huge Tsar Bell in Moscow’s Kremlin come to mind – but I do not understand
why.
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| Mircea Roman's cracked bell, Alba Carolina Citadel |
But this is not actually a cracked bell, it is a sculpture by Mircea Roman, one of Romania’s leading artists. Common themes in his work,
ChatGPT tells me, are human suffering, resilience, and the passage of time.
Make of that what you will.
Lunch
Two thirty is well past my lunch time, but I am not the sort of person to moan about it! Fortunately, there was a café just along from the cracked bell.
In the Bucharest post I compared Romanian breakfasts to those we had enjoyed in Moldova in 2018, lamenting their lack of variety and
the absent pleasures of Moldovan pastries, sweet and savoury. I did not mention plăcintă, -
flaky pastry envelopes filled with cabbage and dill or soft cheese, as they are
a little heavier and usually served at lunch. We were delighted to find
plăcintă on the menu here and promptly ordered one each.
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| Lynne and plăcintă, Alba Carolina Citadel |
If plăcintă is deemed too heavy for breakfast in Moldova, in Romania it is just too heavy. One between us would have been ample, and a little more filling and a little less pastry would have improved it. For Moldovan plăcintă see my Purcari Post.
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| Where's the filling? |
Back Through the Citadel
Having entered through the west gate we had walked far enough to exit via an eastern gate known as Poarta a III-a a Cetății (the 3rd gate of the Citadel) if only to photograph
it.
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| The Third Gate, Alba Carolina |
Then we started to walk back. The citadel was built over the Roman fort of Apulum and the later Slavic citadel. There is a place where
you can look down into the past, but it is not very photography friendly
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| A portal into the past, Alba Carolina Citadel |
The Creation of Modern Romania
We are used to Europe consisting of a finite number of countries whose well-defined borders each encompass a nation-state, but this
was a 19th century idea.
The Romans left in the 3rd century CE and the Slavs arrived a couple of centuries later. By the end of the first millennium there
was a large group speaking a Slav influenced Romance language which
could be called early Romanian. Most lived in the intermittently warring and sporadically
independent principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. By the end of
the 16th century the first two were usually under Ottoman control, while the third was part of the
Hungarian Empire.
Eventually the decline of the Ottoman Empire allowed Moldavia and Wallachia to come together and form the first ever Romania, which became a fully independent kingdom in 1881 under Carol I.
At the outbreak of World War I, Carol's instincts were to support Germany - he and the Kaiser were second cousins - but he died before the end of 1914. Ferdinand I succeeded his uncle, and argued for a vacillating Romania to join the war in support of the Triple Entente (UK, France
and Russia). With some misgivings Romania eventually became involved in 1916, and joining the winning
side proved a good move.
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| King Ferdinand, Alba Carolina Citadel |
Modern Romania was born in Alba Iulia in the aftermath of the war. Opposite the statue of Mihai Viteazul are two rows of stone plinths, each one - there are 25 - surmounted by the bust of someone who played an important part in the 1918 Union of Transylvania and Romania.
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| Some of the Founders of modern Romania |
There was diplomacy to be done and treaties to be signed, and four or five smaller areas to be considered before the union was
certified and Greater Romania came into existence in 1920. Ferdinand was now
king of a country twice the size of the one he had inherited. It was time for
King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie’s belated coronation which took place in the
nearby Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in October 1922.
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| Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, Alba Carolina Citadel |
St Michael’s Catholic Cathedral
Finally, we returned to Hungarian Transylvania by visiting the Catholic Cathedral (Romanians are largely Orthodox).
The first cathedral was started in 1009 under Stephen I of Hungary. It was destroyed and rebuilt after unfriendly visits from the
Mongols (1241), Saxons (1277), and Ottomans (1439).
The last rebuilding was driven by the Archbishop of Esztergom, and the Regent-Governor of Hungary, John Hunyadi (yes, him again). There
have been improvements and alterations since, but no major rebuilding.
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| Catholic Cathedral, Alba Carolina Citadel |
The interior is plain, as catholic cathedrals go.
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| Inside the catholic cathedral, Alba Carolina Citadel |
There is a memorial to Márton Áron (Hungarians put the surname first), who is buried nearby. He was bishop from 1938 until his resignation in 1980, just months before his death. An outspoken critic of the Nazis during
the war, Yad Vashem honoured him as one of the "Righteous Among the
Nations" for his efforts to stop the deportation of Romanian and Hungarian
Jews. He was a strong advocate for religious freedom and human rights during
communism and spent time in prison. In 1992 Pope John Paul II started the
canonisation process, which continues today at the unhurried pace of the
catholic church.
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| Márton Áron Memorial, Catholic Cathedral, Alba Carolina Citadel |
There is also the grave of John II, King of Hungary (1540-70) and more importantly to us, the grave of John Hunyadi.
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| Tomb of John Hunyadi, Catholic Cathedral, Alba Carolina Citadel |
The effigy has obviously seen hard times, but like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Hunyadi would doubtlessly
regard it as ‘just a scratch.’
We then returned ro Sibiu where the narrative continues – in
the previous post.
Romania: An Introduction
Part 1 Bucharest
Part 2 Cozia Monastery and Sibiu
Part 3 Hunedoara and Alba Iulia
Part 4 Biertan and Sighișoara
Part 5 Rupea and Brașov
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