SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership 2nd LTT Activity: 4th – 8th June 2018, Târgoviște, Romania Project No: 2017-1-IT02-KA219-036568_3 1 SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” ROMANIA – THE PLACE OF THE FAIRY TALES PELEȘ CASTLE- The Story of a Queen Located in Sinaia (44 km from Brasov and 122 km from Bucharest), Peles Castle is one of Romania’s most important museums since it was the final resting place for several Romanian monarchs including King Carol I, who died here in 1914. The castle was built in 1899–1902 by order of King Carol I, as the residence for his nephew and heir, the future King Ferdinand (son of Carol's brother Leopold von Hohenzollern) and Ferdinand's consort Queen Marie. In 2006, it was decided that the entire complex, including Pelișor, a museum and tourist site, is the legal property of the King Michael I of Romania. It is a place chosen to be the location for another fairy tale, the most recent film A Christmas Prince (2017) Queen Elisabeth of Romania Carmen Sylva, as she calls herself by her nom de plume, a name compounded from her fondness for song and wood, was by birth a princess of Wied, one of the many tiny principalities with which Germany abounded. At the time the princess was born namely, December 29 1843, her family, one of the oldest among small German princelings, had by their kindliness and culture made them beloved of their subjects. In 1868 Prince Charles of Hohenzollern had been chosen ruler of Roumania, and in the autumn of the next year he came to the Rhine to remind the Princess Elizabeth of her desire to rule over that kingdom. Even so it was a little while before she could consent to resign her fiercely cherished independence, but she yielded, and in November of the same year he took her to his home amid the Carpathians. Arrived in her new home, she at once threw herself 2 SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” with native ardor into all her new duties. She learned to read and write Roumanian, she made herself acquainted with the needs and requirements of the land, and soon saw that she had not been wrong when, years ago, she had aspired after this throne as one which would give her a noble work to do. While keeping herself carefully aloof from the entanglements of politics, the result of her endeavors was soon felt more beneficially than those of cannon or diplomatists. She founded schools, hospitals, soup- kitchens, convalescent homes, cooking-schools and crèches; she encouraged popular lectures; Her fairy tales were inspired by the local folklore, but contained motifs encountered in German tales, thus being an interesting combination of reality and imagination. PELIȘOR CASTLE Pelișor was designed by the Czech architect Karel Liman in the Art Nouveau style; the furniture and the interior decorations were designed mostly by the Viennese Bernhard Ludwig. There are several chambers, working cabinets, a chapel, and "the golden room". Queen Marie herself, an accomplished artist, made many of the artistic decisions about the design of the palace, and participated in its decoration, including as a painter. Queen Marie considered Art Nouveau a weapon against sterile historicism, creating a personal style combining Art-Nouveau elements with Byzantine and Celtic elements. The official hall, simple and bright, is decorated with oak-wood cassetons. The paintings, drawings and water-colours feature Maria with her children. King Ferdinand’s solemn study resembles the German Neo-Renaissance from Peles. “The Golden Bedroom” is furnished with pieces made in 1909 in the arts and crafts workshops at Sinaia, to the Queen’s plans and drawings. Maria’s study, arranged in an interior dominated by Brancovan-style columns, has a fireplace that is specific to Romanian interiors. The chairs and desk are decorated with Maria’s symbols: the lily and the Celtic cross. It was the Queen’s wish to spend the last moments of her life in the Golden Chamber. Here, the gilded walls are decorated with thistle leaves that resemble the emblem of Scotland, Maria’s native land. 3 SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” THE STORY OF A QUEEN’S HEART Queen Marie died at Pelișor on July 18th 1938, at 5.38pm. Two days after her death, the Queen’s body was brought to Bucharest, where it lay in state in the Cotroceni Palace’s white drawing room. Thousands of Romanians filed past to see the body of their beloved Queen. Her body was taken and buried at the Curtea de Arges monastery, but her heart was enshrined in a small golden casket, emblazoned with the emblems of Romania’s provinces and laid to rest in the Stella Maris Chapel in her palace of Balchik, as she had wished. Queen Marie’s heart had been covered with the Romanian flag on one side and the British flag onthe other, symbolic for the two countries that the Queen had loved. However, when South Dobrudja was returned to Bulgaria in 1940 during World War II, the Queen’s heart was transferred to Bran Castle. Her youngest daughter Princess Ileana built a chapel there especially to house the heart, kept inside two silver boxes and then placed within a marble sarcophagus, in its own special niche. In 1995 a plaque was erected to commemorate the fact that the Queen’s heart had formerly been deposited here to rest. But the Communist Regime later seized Bran, removed the Queen’s heart and had it – together with the silver boxes – put in the National Museum of Romanian History in 1971, where it has remained for the last forty years, that is until 2015. Now the heart of the Queen is to be laid to rest at Pelisor Castle, in keeping with the wishes of King Michael of Romania, Queen Marie’s grandson. It is poignant to ponder the Queen’s heart returning to a Castle that she loved, with whose design she was so deeply involved and within whose walls she died. Whilst her body remains in the Curtea de Arges monastery, the Queen’s heart will find its final resting place there. 4 SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” BRAN CASTLE 1211- The Teutonic Knights – “Ordo domus Mariae Sanctae Theutonicorum Hierosolimitanorum” – a catholic religious order formed in Palestine during the late twelfth century by German crusaders, received Țara Bârsei (“Terra Borza” or “Burzenland” – a country named after the Cuman tribe of Burci) from King Andrew II of Hungary. The purpose of this gift was to establish the Teutons in the area and to defend the Southeastern border of Transylvania from the Cumans and the Pechenegs. The Teutons erected a fortress in Bran (a Turkish name meaning “gate”), before they were driven away from the area in 1226. 1377 On November 19, the office of the Hungarian King Louis the Great – Louis I of Anjou – issued a document granting to the people of Brasov (“Kronstadt” – The Crown’s City) the privilege of building a castle. Through this document, the Saxons of Transylvania (“Sachsen” – a population of German origin that came to Transylvania in the twelfth century), from the region encompassing Brasov, were urged to participate in the building of Bran Castle, which was previously named “Dietrichstein” or “Törzburg” in German, “Törcsvár” in Hungarian, and “Turciu” in Romanian. 1388 In 1388, the castle’s construction was complete. The Castle was built on a steep cliff between Măgura and Dealul Cetăţii (“fortified town’s hill”), with an exceptional view of the nearby hills, Moeciu Valley and Valea Bârsei. It served the role of customs – holding 3% of goods transferring in and out of Transylvania – and the role of a fortress – the castle stood at the Eastern border of Transylvania and was used in an attempt to stop the Ottoman Empire’s expansion. The castle was inhabited by professional soldiers, mercenaries, and the storyteller Ioan de Târnava, wrote about “the English brigands and ballista soldiers” of the fifteenth century. The lord of the castle was elected by the King, usually from among the Saxons, and whose role was increasingly important in the history of Transylvania. By the end of the fifteenth century, the castle’s commander also held the title of Vice-Voivode of Transylvania. 1407- The Castle was given as fief (“property given in return for loyalty”) by Sigismund of Luxembourg to his ally, Prince Mircea, the Elder of Wallachia, where he could escape to in case of an attack by the Turks. After the death of the Romanian Prince in 5 SEMINARUL TEOLOGIC ORTODOX “SF. IOAN GURĂ DE AUR” 1419, due to the political instability of Wallachia, Sigismund took over the castle and entrusted it to the Princes of Transylvania. 1441- The Turks raided Transylvania, but John Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara) defeated them in Bran. Iancu, Prince of Transylvania, who needed the support of the Saxons at the border, reinforced the promises granted to the inhabitants of Brasov by Mircea the Elder and by Sigismund. 1459- Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) was allied with Bran and Brasov during his first reign (1448) and through the start of his next reign, after the Princes -of Transylvania requested that he handle the anti-Ottoman resistance at the border. During his second reign (1456 – 1462), however, his army passed through Bran in early 1459 to attack Brasov, in order to settle a conflict between the Wallachia Voivode and the Saxons, who requested higher customs taxes and supported his opponent for the throne. Vlad the Impaler burned the city’s suburbs and murdered hundreds of Saxons from Transylvania, provoking the Saxon community to seek revenge by later mentioning in reports that the Voivode were a tyrant and extremely ruthless.