Roumania Past and Present

J >> James Samuelson >> Roumania Past and Present

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[Illustration: TRACERY ON EXTERNAL SHIELD.]

Within, the building is less interesting; it is dimly lighted by the
narrow windows, artificial light being furnished by means of numerous
candelabra during divine service. The secondary dome is supported by
twelve Arabic pillars, and the walls and domes are decorated with
frescoes of the orthodox kind--the Saviour, Virgin, and Apostles, with
scenes from the Old and New Testament, also with portraits of princes
and bishops of the See. The length of the building inside is about 76
Vienna feet, the greatest breadth 41 feet. The height of the two domes
is 86 feet and 81 feet respectively, and of the smaller cupolas 66 feet.

If the architecture and ornamentation of the cathedral are beautiful,
the historical records which it contains are even more interesting. It
is true that great uncertainty hangs over these, as over all other
Roumanian chronicles, but certain facts in connection with the building
and its history are well established.

[Illustration: TRACERY ON EXTERNAL SHIELD.]

Its archives have been carried off by the invaders who, from time to
time, sacked and plundered its valuable treasures; but several
inscriptions inside and outside of the church, some of which are in the
Servian and old Slavonian language, and others in Roumanian, throw light
upon its history and construction.

First, however, we must inflict upon our readers a little legendary
lore, which, although it illustrates the uncertainty of the early
history of the country, will give them a glimpse of the national thought
and feeling in the past. According to tradition the cathedral was
founded by 'Neagu Voda,' of whom we shall speak hereafter; and it is
said that whilst he was a hostage at Constantinople he built a
magnificent mosque for the Sultan, who allowed him to take away to his
own country the surplus materials, and that from these he constructed
the cathedral after his own designs. A still wilder legend makes one
Manoll or Manole the architect, and it is said that he had several
master-masons associated with him in the work, but that the efforts of
the combined masons failed to raise the building. Neagu Voda had
commanded them on pain of death to proceed with it, when Manole, to save
their lives, proposed that they should follow the old custom (legendary
let us hope) of building up a woman in the foundation; and it was
decided that the woman who first made her appearance with the provisions
for her husband on the following day should be the victim. They all
swore to keep the fact secret from their wives; but Manole was the only
one who kept his word, and consequently his wife Utza was the first to
appear.

'He took her by the hand at once
And led her to the building,
Then pointed out where she should stand,
And he began to build:
"Be, my beloved, without fear."
She did not interrupt his discourse.

'The other masons in astonishment
All look at him with terror,
And all stand at a distance,
For they dare not venture near;
When he softly speaks to her,
And with haste builds her up.

'"This joke is not good,
Manole, my beloved;
Reflect that I am a mother,
And that I am bringing up your son."
But Manole still jokes
And hastens as much as he can.

'Up to her breast he had built up,
And she sweetly sings to him;
The strong wall bruised her,
And she swims in tears,
But when he had finished,
The wall more than overtopped her.

'This was the remedy:
And the wall was able to stand;
And after this the monastery
Ceased to fall any more;
The wind, the earthquake do not shake it.
Utza within the wall upholds it.'

Thus far the poet;[43] but the legend does not end there. The boasts of
the masons were so arrogant after the cathedral was completed that
Radul, or Neagu (for he is called by both names), gave orders for the
scaffolding to be removed, and left them to die of hunger on the roof.
Manole and his companions sought to save themselves by constructing
parachutes of light wood, but as each attempted to descend he was dashed
to the ground and turned into stone. Manole himself was the last to make
the attempt, but when he approached the parapet he was horror-struck at
hearing the plaint of his wife as he had heard it when he was building
her up in the foundation, and, losing all sense and power, he fell to
the ground. From the spot where he fell dead a spring of clear water
gushed forth, and a fountain which was erected there is still known as
Manoll's.

And now to pass from fiction to fact. According to the inscription upon
a tablet outside of the church, it was founded by Neagu Bassarab, a
prince of Wallachia, to whom we shall refer hereafter in our historical
sketch. He is reported to have been very pious and patriotic, to have
founded many monasteries and restored the cathedral of Tirgovistea. He
died about A.D. 1520, and was buried in the church at Ardges.[44] He
did not, however, live to complete the cathedral, for another tablet
within the church says that John Radul, or Radul d'Affumaz, to whom
reference will also be made in our historical summary, caused the
paintings to be executed in 1526.[45]

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the church was desecrated
and plundered by ruthless invaders, Christians (Hungarians) as well as
Mohammedans, who carried off its treasures, which are said to have been
of great value. In 1681, however, Prince Serban Cantacuzene, of whose
good deeds we shall speak hereafter, completely restored the cathedral,
as appears from the Roumanian inscription on a tablet outside near the
portal. This inscription is quaint and interesting, and deserves a place
in any work professing to deal with the history of the country. After a
number of deeply pious and moral reflections it goes on to say:--

'Therefore Nyagoe Voivode Beserab, of happy memory, the great
grandfather of my wife on the mother's side, who was a pious and
God-fearing man, when he was invested with the government of
Wallachia, did, amongst many other good deeds, cause to be erected
a large and splendid monastery in this town of Argesia, along with
the other cloister buildings in the vicinity, for the worship of
God and in honour of his sainted mother; which monastery, as it may
readily lie imagined from the high wages paid to the workmen
engaged in its erection, must have been a very costly undertaking.
After a considerable period the foundation and steps began to give
way, either through some error of the builders or owing to the damp
caused by long-continued rains which loosened the stones. About
that time I, Johann Scherban Kantakosino Beserab Voivode, in the
name of God, was entrusted with the government of my ancestors. As
soon as I became acquainted with the dilapidation of the monastery,
I at once resolved to restore the building of my ancestors in order
that the memory of that famous prince (Nyagoe) might not be
forgotten, and I sent our boyard Dona Pepano as superintendent with
numerous workmen, and thereupon restored the whole building where
it had suffered damage, and bolted with iron the stones which had
loosened, that they might thus continue to hold together, and then
I further determined to endow the sacred monastery with the income
from the hill[46] of Menesti, near Ardges, to hold and enjoy its
entire revenues. These shall be in support of the holy monastery
and in eternal remembrance of us and our ancestors.

'In the year 7190, the 26th August.

'This happened under the Metropolitan Kyr Theodosius.'

At the close of the eighteenth century Ardges was constituted a
bishopric, and at the beginning of the present, Bishop Joseph was at
great pains to renew and restore several portions of the cathedral. The
inscription commemorating this event is brief:--

'To the glory of the Holy Trinity, to the glory and praise of the
Holy Virgin Mary the Mother of God, this church was restored where
it was injured by the rain. Where, however, the colour was only
obliterated, it was repainted; at the instigation of Joseph the
first Bishop of Ardges, in whose time also other work was done,
under the Metropolitan Dositheos and Prince Constantine Ypsilanti.
The superintendent of the work was Meletin (of the Monastery). In
the year 1804, 25th October.'

Besides having suffered at the hands of barbarians of various nations,
this beautiful fabric has from time to time been injured by earthquakes;
but it has survived all these calamities, and has been frequently
repaired, restored, and beautified since the beginning of this century.
The property and incomes of monasteries have been largely applied to
secular purposes, and amongst those whose resources have been much
curtailed is that of Ardges. It is to be hoped, however, that, either
through State support or private benevolence, this beautiful monument of
mediaeval art and valuable historical record may not again be allowed to
fall into decay, but may long remain what it is at present, undoubtedly
the gem of Roumania.[47]

[Footnote 41: An excellent monograph, beautifully illustrated, of this
cathedral was published by Ludwig Reissenberger (Braumueller, Vienna,
1860), to which we refer the reader for further details concerning it.
Our two woodcuts showing the tracery are copied from that work, but the
autotype plate is from a photograph by Duschek.]

[Footnote 42: Reissenberger calls it 'Grobkalk.' Similar stone is found
in the neighbourhood.]

[Footnote 43: There are several versions of the legend. In some the
prince is called Negru Voda, in others Negoije Voda, and in others again
Radu Negru. The poem has been translated by Hon. H. Stanley, _Roumanian
Anthology_, p. 215 (Hertford: Stephen Austin), an expensive and
beautifully illuminated drawing-room book, containing some Roumanian
poems in the vernacular, and others translated into English.]

[Footnote 44: The date on the tablet is 7209. This is Anno Mundi,
according to the chronology of at least a section of the Byzantine
Church, Christ having been born, after that reckoning, 5509 years after
the creation of the world. (See Brown's _Vulgar Errors_ and Smith's
_Dictionary of the Bible_.) Engel says Neagu reigned from 1511 to 1520.
Vaillant says he died in 1518.]

[Footnote 45: 7035 (A.M.) is the date on the tablet.]

[Footnote 46: Vineyard?]

[Footnote 47: As reference has been made from time to time to Roumanian
ecclesiastics, the following brief particulars may not be uninteresting.
Christianity was introduced into the provinces bordering on the Danube
at a very early date. According to A. de Gerando (_Siebenbuergen und
seine Einwohner_, p. 211, Lorck, Leipzig, 1845), a MS. was found in
Hungary, bearing a cross and the date 274 A.D.; and in 325
A.D. a Bishop Theophilus was spoken of amongst the Goths. In
370 A.D. Athanaric, the Gothic king, persecuted and put many
Christians to death. In 527 A.D. the Christian churches of
Roumania (as then constituted) were taken in charge by the metropolitan
of the Greek Church. But it was not until 865 A.D. that the
Bulgarians and the native population associated with them were actually
converted to Christianity (Lauriani, p. 29). About that time intrigues
existed between the heads of the Eastern and Western Churches for the
possession of the headship in these countries, but the influence of the
former predominated. About 860 A.D. a Slavonian liturgy was
introduced into the churches, and, notwithstanding the denunciations and
embassies of the Roman Pontiff, a separation occurred about 880 A.D.,
and the Roumanians joined the Orthodox Greek Church. Of the negotiations
between Innocent III. and Johannitz, King of the Second
Wallacho-Bulgarian monarchy, we shall speak hereafter, and although
after that time the Papal power was in the ascendant in Wallachia and
Moldavia amongst the princes and nobles, the people always leaned to the
Greek rite, and at length, in 1440, the metropolitan of Moldavia
succeeded (Romish writers say by a religious _coup d'etat_) in making
the Greek Church dominant. In the middle of the seventeenth century the
most important Roman Catholic bishopries were suppressed, and down to
the present time the Greek Church has been the state religion, and it is
professed by nearly the whole nation; even the King, who was formerly a
Roman Catholic, now conforms to the faith. Of the secularisation of the
monasteries and other religious movements we shall speak in Part II, and
it is only necessary to add that at present there are two metropolitans
or archbishops, six bishops with dioceses and several without; in 1876
there were 9,800 secular priests, 1,700 monks and 2,270 nuns, 6,550
churches and 173 monasteries and nunneries. The priests or 'popes' marry
and follow secular occupations in the country; in the towns they are
'non-productive' so far as labour is concerned. The services of the
Greek Church are not impressive; but although much has been written
concerning their superstition, the Roumanians do not differ greatly from
the people of other Catholic countries in that respect. There is great
indifference to religion, if not absolute atheism, amongst the higher
classes, which no doubt results from the great ignorance of the
priesthood. The thing most to be regretted, however, is that whilst
there are thousands of 'religieuses,' as they are called, in the
country, all the nurses in its excellent hospitals should be paid
servants, and the Church does nothing whatever towards maintaining the
efficiency of those institutions.]

CHAPTER V.

TOPOGRAPHICAL--COMMERCIAL.

Tramways in Bucarest--Other efforts at improvement--Galatz--Its
position on the Danube--Quays, streets, buildings, &c.--Importance
as a seaport--Languages requisite for trading there--Almost entire
absence of English firms--Reports of the Consul-General, Mr. Percy
Sanderson--The quality of British manufactures--(Note: The author's
experience)--Causes of preference for foreign over British
manufactures--Commercial treaties--Austrian pressure to the
detriment of Great Britain--Statistics of our import and export
trade with Roumania--Infancy of her manufacturing
industries--Difficulties hitherto existing--War and uncertainty of
investments--The new port of Constanta (Kustendjie)--Other
Roumanian towns--Jassy--Its position and institutions--(Note:
Conflicting estimates of its population)--Ibrail, Craiova,
Ploiesti, &c.

If many of the streets of Bucarest are badly paved and the city
imperfectly sewered, it is at least striving hard to keep pace with
other European towns in regard to modern conveniences. Its main streets
are well lighted with gas, and it boasts a good line of tramways round
and through various parts of the city. But when we come to consider what
is now the second town of importance in Roumania, Galatz, we have to
step back a few decades before we can realise its condition. It is
situated on the left bank of the Danube about ninety miles from the
Sulina mouth, and to the east of it is Lake Bratish, which is only
separated from the great river by a strip of marshy land. On the whole
it is more regularly built than Bucarest, and for about a mile along the
river's bank the business portion extends, with its quays for ships
discharging, ships loading, foreign agencies, timber yards, and railway
loading and discharging berths. In the town itself there is nothing of
interest to strangers. The streets are in a condition alternating
between mud over your knees and dust over your ankles, imperfectly if at
all drained, and lighted with oil lamps, of which one in every three is
usually put into requisition. There are some good-sized public
buildings, including the Prefecture, some hospitals, two of which, one
called St. Spiridion, and another built during the Russo-Turkish war,
were a great boon to the wounded of all the armies. There is also a
cathedral, such as it is, and several Greek churches, one of which is
said to contain the remains of Mazeppa; a synagogue or two, and a few
other places of worship. Then there is a 'park' and a garden, and
altogether Galatz resembles Bucarest on a small scale, and without its
improvements. The chief boast of the place seems to be a constant
water-supply, which is, however, so regulated that whilst one
householder is watering his garden his neighbour cannot perform the same
operation, but must wait patiently until he has finished; and finally
there are, as a matter of course, a good many brick houses, some of one
story and some of two, in which dwell a very kindly and hospitable set
of inmates.

The importance of Galatz as a seaport is, however, quite another matter.
Although this country transacts a very considerable trade with it, there
are very few English houses or agencies there, the chief business being
carried on by German, Italian, Greek, and French firms; and not only
those languages, but also Turkish and Bulgarian, are requisite for
trading purposes.

The chief commodities exported to England are, as already stated, maize
and barley, and the chief importations from this country are cotton
yarn, cottons, woollens, machinery, hardware, cutlery, dry stuffs,
spices, tea and sugar, but besides those there is hardly an article used
by a civilised community which is not supplied to Roumania from this
country. In two admirable reports published in 1877 and 1878, our
Consul-General in Roumania, Mr. Percy Sanderson, has reviewed the trade
between the two nations, and he gives some rather significant hints to
'fair traders,' that is to say not in the refined sense in which the
term has been recently employed, but in its good old-fashioned
signification of honest dealers. 'It cannot be said,' he remarks, 'that
the bulk of the goods imported from Great Britain forms by any means a
fair sample of its produce and manufactures,' and 'there is already a
tendency amongst the well-to-do classes to purchase French or Austrian
manufactures when they are prepared to pay a high price for a really
good article, although the same goods might possibly be furnished them
from Great Britain at a lower rate.'[48] But Consul Sanderson gives
another reason for the preference shown for foreign as distinguished
from English manufactures. It is that the local trade is chiefly carried
on by natives of those countries from which the articles preferred are
imported, 'whilst there is not a single shop in Galatz kept by an
Englishman--it seems doubtful whether there be one in the whole of
Roumania.' And there is still a third reason, to which he only refers
incidentally, but we question whether it is not the most cogent of all.
Whilst continental states, and especially Austria, have shown little
delicacy in exacting favourable treaties of commerce from the Roumanian
Government, England has been at a disadvantage in that respect. We may
be told that we are placed on the most favoured nation footing, but we
were informed at Bucarest by persons occupying high positions, and whose
statements may be trusted implicitly, that, although this is apparently
and nominally the case, it is not so in reality, as the commercial
treaties have been initiated by Austria, and so framed as to give a
preference to her manufactures.[49]

Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, our exports to Roumania are on
the whole increasing, as witness the following statistics (Board of
Trade, 1881), although there has been a slight falling off in cotton
stuffs on which the tariff is high, and in manufactured iron.

_Total Exports from Great Britain to Roumania._

+----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
| | 1878. | 1879. | 1880. |
+----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
| | | | |
|British manufactures | L887,488 | L997,078 |L1,112,761|
|Foreign and colonial produce| 112,987 | 100,354 | 86,501|
| and manufactures | | | |
+----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
|Total |L1,000,475|L1,097,432|L1,199,262|
+----------------------------+----------+----------+----------+

_Total Imports into Great Britain from Roumania._

+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+
| | 1878. | 1879. | 1880. |
+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+
|Maize |L587,635 | L805,788 | L558,745 |
|Barley | 316,402 | 462,622 | 796,808 |
|Other produce | 66,518 | 104,592 | 106,283 |
+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+
|Total |L970,555 |L1,373,002 |L1,461,836 |
+--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+

The manufacturing industries of Roumania generally are hardly in their
infancy, but at Galatz are to be found a wood factory and sawmills of a
very superior order, owned by Messrs. P. Goetz & Co. They are lighted
with the electric light, and are doing a large and increasing export
trade; indeed last year (1881), as we are informed, a cargo of deals &c.
was shipped from this factory to the Panama Canal Works. There is a very
large flour mill, and also the 'Galatz Soap and Candle Company;' but
this last has not proved a success, inasmuch as the raw products,
including stearine (which is found in Roumania as ozokerit), are all
imported at a cost which interferes with their profitable employment.
Whilst we are dealing with the question of manufactures, we may mention
that besides the petroleum refineries referred to in a former chapter,
there are in Roumania sugar factories at Chitilla and Jassy, match
factories in Bucarest and Jassy, and one cloth factory. Steam mills for
grinding flour abound, and there are water mills for assisting in the
preparation of flannel.

This seems a small beginning, but there is much hope in the future. The
same causes that militated against the prosperity of Roumania in other
respects have rendered the prosecution of national industries an
absolute impossibility. Wilkinson referred at considerable length to
this matter sixty years since. Who would have ventured to invest capital
in mills and factories which were liable to be burned or plundered by
Turks or Russians for strategical or other warlike purposes, or would be
taxed beyond endurance by a suzerain master for the maintenance of his
Constantinople harem and of his needy officials? The soil indeed could
not be carried off, or there would not have been even an agricultural
industry. But the time is not far distant when the advantages of
Roumania as a manufacturing country will become apparent, and when her
native products, coupled with her proximity to the Danube and Black Sea,
will enable her to compete successfully with other nations, especially
with those near neighbours from whom she is at present compelled to draw
her supplies of manufactured commodities.

Her statesmen already recognise these facts, and they are taking steps
accordingly. A new seaport is in course of formation at Constanta
(Kustendjie), which will be connected with Bucarest and the whole of
Roumania through the existing line to Cernavoda, and one in progress to
Bucarest.[50] Besides being useful as a defensive maritime station, this
new port will give an impetus to trade, which will be further stimulated
by the establishment of _entrepots_, hitherto confined to the seaports,
at Bucarest and elsewhere.

But we have devoted sufficient space to Galatz and the nascent
commercial and manufacturing industries of the country, and before
treating of what is by far the most important source of her wealth,
namely, her agricultural resources, we must say a word or two about the
old Moldavian capital, Jassy. This is picturesquely situated at an
altitude of more than 1,000 feet above the sea-level, on the railway
from Pascani (Galatz-Cernowitz) to Kischeneff in Russia. The number of
its inhabitants is uncertain, probably about 75,000, and includes a very
large proportion of Jews, who monopolise the trade and banking business
of the place.[51] It stands upon three eminences, and its principal
streets have been paved by contract with a London firm at a cost of
200,000L.[52] It is lighted with petroleum lamps, and is badly drained
and sewered, but possesses some important buildings, and contains many
fine residences belonging to the landed gentry. Besides a university
where there are some men of considerable attainments, it has a museum,
school of art, various secondary educational establishments, and law
courts, including a court of appeal. A noteworthy circumstance connected
with the inhabitants of Jassy, and which applies equally to the whole of
Roumania, is that the death-rate is persistently lower and the
birth-rate higher amongst the Jews than the Christians, and in fact
there have been periods when the Jewish population was increasing whilst
the remainder was at a standstill.[53] When Jassy ceased to be the
capital of Moldavia, it claimed and was awarded compensation by the
legislature; but, according to the authority just quoted, 'no payment
has ever been or appears likely to be made.'

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