Losing Romanian History: Case of Ilie Birt
It started out as a simple walk one afternoon. Wandering the backstreets of Poarta Schei as the adults eyeballed me, muttering comments under their breaths, and teenage girls giggled at the unimaginable idea of an American possibly being interested in photographing their “boring” old streets, I inadvertantly stumbled across an abandoned religious memorial of some sort.
Both the interior and exterior were covered in frescos of religious significance typical of their day. Here we see what must be a representation of the Patriarch (aka Orthodox Pope) or, at least, the Archibishop of the region.
Given the lack of attention this memorial has received, I was impressed the frescos survived at all. In this one, we can clearly identify the story of Jesus talking to the twelve disciples. What I find immediately interesting is the reminder of how Jesus is always depicted as a humble man, while church leaders are often seen wearing gold, jewels, crowns, and other assorted luxuries that tell the truth behind their lies.
I wasn’t exactly sure of the depiction on the left, but it seemed as though it might be a scene from the story of the ressurection. That or he’s just about to share his passion.
So, what’s the memorial for? Ah, tucked up near the top on one side of the building was a plaque declaring dedication to the memory of one Ilie Birt. Or, probably more correctly, it was a religious memorial whose construction was financed by Birt.
And thus the mystery of Ilie Birt begins. The shrine bears his name. The street sign bears his name. Yet, no one seems to know or care. He’s just some guy from a long time ago and seems like a remnant of forgotten Romanian lore.
I offered a prayer up to Saint Google and, while it responded, there wasn’t much in the way of answers. Certainly nothing in English and very little in Romaneşte.
It appears as though Ilie Birt was in the Poarta Schei neighborhood of Braşov in 1698. He seems well educated as evidence suggests he spoke three languages: Hungarian, Greek, and Turkish. Hungarian probably would have been the language of most merchants and affluent people of Braşov (although certainly not exclusively… and it must be stated that I’m not yet an expert). Greek should have been the church’s language. And Turks were the rulers of the day, with the Ottoman Empire having advanced quite a bit through eastern Europe and venturing into central Europe.
All kinds of fun stuff was happening at the time.
Before his birth, the Austrians had taken over the Magyar territories, including Transylvania and much of modern Romania. There was constant turbulence in the Transylvania region as locals sought to throw of their Austrian masters. The Ottomans saw an opportunity to gain ground and launched their invasion, extending control from Bulgaria into what is now modern Romania and Hungary. The Hungarians were ecstatic to have help in dislodging the Austrians. The Romanians were also somewhat supportive, but received little to no benefit.
Now, just before the birth of Ilie Birt, the Turks had recently attempted to take Vienna. Much to their surprise, they lost for the first time in hundreds of years. It was a significant event that would put the next decades in motion.
A short time later, the Russians got help from the Austrians in a collaboration to smash the Polish wars for independence from Russia. This success would free up the Russian armies to head south where they sought to crush the Khanate of Crimea and finally establish ports on the Black Sea. Essentially, this was an attack on the Ottoman Empire, of whom the Khanate had been a vassal, and distracted the Turks.
And here things came full circle. With the Ottoman Empire already having demonstrated it was weak and now being forced to protect itself from northern attacks by the Russians, the Austrians were able to march east and retake Pannonia and Transylvania.
Exciting stuff, eh?
It was during these sweeping changes that Army captain Ilie Birt, in his prime, rounded up the young men of Braşov and launched attacks against the Turkish Ottoman Empire to drive them out of Romania. In particular, it seems he had a rather substantial victory during a large battle in Piteşti in 1737… and thereupon earned his fame for helping push back the Sultan even further.
From what I read, he went on to live a celebrated life with honor for military service, church loyalty, and general civic leadership in politics. The memory of this ethnic-Saxon and his heroics on behalf of Transylvania and Romania still cling to life in Poarta Schei, although it is by a thread.
That’s virtually all the information I could find (or understand from the Romanian language sources online). I trust that someone somewhere knows far more than I do or else Romania would be in danger of losing a little bit of its multicultural history.
Do you have some additional knowledge to help shine more light on this mystery? Tell us…
March 30th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
regarding the turks northern invasion, you say, “The Romanians were also somewhat supportive, but received little to no benefit.”…
then you say, “…the Austrians were able to march east and retake Pannonia and Transylvania.”
then you say, “It was during these sweeping changes that Army captain Ilie Birt, in his prime, rounded up the young men of Braşov and launched attacks against the Turkish Ottoman Empire to drive them out of Romania.”
i guess i have a couple of questions…
1. was the choice for birt life under the austrians or life under the turks and so he chose to abet the austrians?
2. if so, why was life under the austrians better now then the last time?
3. birt was romanian, right?
-alec
March 30th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Oh, sure, highlight my own ignorance. =]
During most of this entire stretch of hundreds of years, the Romanians were often downplayed in their importance despite being the largest ethnicity in the region as a result of constant domination by others.
So, basically, yes. The Hungarians were in control of Transylvania when the Austrians took over. Hungary was looking for a chance to reassert itself. Along come the Turks, who offer a bit more autonomy (although still being in charge) and the most inhabitants of the region were eager to side with the Turks and get rid of the Austrians.
But the tables later turned. They got tired of the Turks. There was the beginning of nationalism. There was the resurgence of Christianity being the decisive factor of government (yet again). During this very time, the Turks shot themselves in the foot through bad leadership.
So the tides rushed back out as the pendulum swung the other way. Suddenly, everyone was all for getting rid of the Turks, even if it meant the Austrians were back. “At least they were christian” went the thinking — despite the fact that the Turks supported the existence of The Church. (The Church was still mad over the loss of Istanbul, so you see how complicated and interwoven all this stuff gets.)
Birt was Romanian in the sense that he lived in what is historical Dacia, modern Romania, and at-the-time mostly populated by ethnic Romanians. As far as I can gather, Birt himself was ethnically Saxon… having been a descendent of the German tribes who dominated the area before the Hungarians…
…who were before the Austrians… who were before the Turks…. who were before the second Austrian control… who were before the second Hungaarian control… before Romania finally achieved some independence for the first time (minus 1 year) since pre-Roman era.
Yikes.
March 30th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
hi, I’ve got nothing intellectual to add :-)
However, I wanted to say I like what you’ve done here. This little bit of curiosity on your part has led to honoring the life of someone who is forgotten.
I’m one of those strange people who likes to look at old graveyards and wonder about the lives of all those people in there. It helps to ground a person in the reality of humanity and history.
thanks for introducing Ilie Birt!
March 30th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
I’m glad to hear you like, Kyah. I’m hoping to stumble across a few more mysteries, but even more hoping to find helpful people who can solve them!
And I well recall your proclivity for careful examination of dead human culture. =]
Let’s hope we can sniff out the answer!
March 31st, 2006 at 2:02 am
I too have nothing informative to add, I just think this is brilliant. I wonder why Romanian reporters aren’t curious like that, why we don’t read stories like that in newspapers. A little change from ‘hard news.’
March 31st, 2006 at 9:41 am
i have nothing to add but like luiza, i think this is brilliant. just asking the question - what is this? is just not that hard. i too wish there were more stories like this in romania.
April 8th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Quite accurate historical data. One observation: Slavon (slavona)was the language of the church (archaic version of the Southern Slavonic language, from which derived Bulgarian, Serbo-Bosnian-Croatian, Macedonian). Greek was posh. Just a few years later, in 1711, the two Romanian states under Ottoman rule started to have Greek “domni” (kings), appointed by the Empire. They were called Fanarioti (you will start finding this word soon, if you keep reading stuff like this), as they were coming from the Istanbul Greek hood Fanar. Previously, there were Romanian domni, also appointed by the Inalta Poarta (The High Gate, name for the Istanbul Court).
Yes, it is very interesting. I admire your curiosity.
Mostly I like the way you use Romanian words instead of English ones, ust as we Romanian do (the other way around) because we work and write mostly in English. :)
July 30th, 2006 at 5:09 am
Hi there !
Is probably the first time ever that somebody from outside Romania is writing something about Captain Birt.Pretty much everything you said is true….but is much more you wouldn’t know.
First of all everybody from there side of town -which is called ” SCHEI” - knows who Cpt.Birt was.
To really understand what Cpt.Birt means for the people from there side of town you have to understand what SCHEI was,and still is.
You’ll probably never gonna find this informations in english…what a pitty,because I assure you you’ll be amased of the rich,beautiful and in the same time painfull history of SCHEI - same SCHEI that Cpt. ILIE BIRT tried to make it a Republic of its own.
I’ll post a link ( the pages are in romanian unfortunately)where you can find everything about SCHEI ,written by the most respected SCHEI hystorian ( which stiil lives in Schei - he was my teacher years ago before I left Schei ).
His name is Prof.(now priest ) VASILE OLTEAN , he is the curator of the First Romanian School(founded around 1495-erected where else?…in Schei ) and he dedicated his life to this magical place which is SCHEI.
If you really are interesed about this things I can try to translate for you whatever you need because,as somebody noticed in an early post,is a pitty for this true stories to be lost …or not known.
http://destinatii.liternet.ro/destinatii.php?art=76
Thank you for your time spent in reading this,excuse my english and..you can contact me at :
contact at romaniancommunity.info