Hunedoara

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 Historic Hunedoara!

Hunedoara is nestled in the Cerna Valley near the beautiful Red Meadow (Poiana Ruscă) Mountains within the Transylvanian Alps.

The city of Hunedoara has the most important Gothic-style secular building in Romania: Corvin Castle, which is closely connected with the Corvin family.

The castle was originally a small royal citadel and was given to Vajk (Romanian: Voicu) by King Sigismund of Luxemburg in 1409. Vajk's son, Johannes de Hunyad, began enlargement of the castle into a Gothic residence in 1446.

The castle was damaged by fire three times, but underwent successive renovations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the architects Imre Steindl, Frigyes Schulek and István Möller.

Besides the Romanian population, there are also ethnic Hungarians and Germans living in Hunedoara.

A Roma population also thrives in a small village near the city, called Hasdat. The city contains many green gardens, and old trees flank the streets. The castle has been turned into a museum, following recent reconstruction. A large dam, with tourist facilities, is located a few kilometres from the city, up in the mountains. A big, nice hotel, recently rennovated, lies in the city center.

During the 20th century, Hunedoara increased its population to 86,000 inhabitants.

The city used to contain the second largest steel works in Romania, but this has now closed down. However, the economy of the city is now benefiting from new investment.

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Corvin's Castle The rather fabulous castle at Hunedoara, The castle and surrounds are often used by international film companies for the production of movies about medieval times.

Photo: Michal Kosmulski

 The Corvins' Castle

The Castle is also known by the name "Hunyadi Castle".  "Hunyadi" is a more internationally recognized name for the same family, "Corvins" being used only by Romanians and Hungarians.

The impressive size and architectural beauty sets it among the most precious monuments of medieval art, subsequent developments mixing Gothic style with Renaissance and Baroque. The building lies on a rock around which flows the river Zlasti. It has an impressive draw bridge, countless towers, a number of interior courts, and two large halls, "Knight Hall" and "Diet Hall", as it housed the diet of Transylvania for a very short period.

The castle history is mostly related to the Hunyadi family, being the place where Iancu de Hunedoara spent his chilhood.

Today the castle is being cared for by the municipality, as there are no recorded descendants of the Hunyadi that could pledge for it. Vlad Dracul, the ruler of Wallachia, father of the notorious Vlad Dracula, was imprisoned here, as he had fallen into disgrace with Hunyadi, not providing the help promised in the battle against the Ottomans. (Dracula, who had once been traded as a hostage to the Ottomans by his own father, later became a protege of Hunyadi and took over Wallachia shortly before his mentor's death of a fever).

The Iron Museum

Oak Forest of Chizid

Standing on a hill near Hunedoara, this is also a spot to get a panoramic view of the city.

 

Hunedoara Zoo

Located near the forest of Chizid, the zoo houses, among other animals, lions, bears, and wolves.

 

Cincis Accumulation Lake

Built in the 1950s at the Cerna river, the lake developed into a small resort for Romanians and foreign tourists.

 The Poiana Ruscai Mountains

Vast and easily accessible by foot or by car, the mountains are inhabited by an ancient population of Romanians, called pǎdureni (woodlanders). They have retained their culture and a sense of identity, and hold a number of festivals annually. The Romans mined marble in the quarry nearby.

 

The Nandru Caves

The caves contain cultural artifacts and burial grounds of Neanderthals.

 The Pestis Roman Ruins

 The Paleontological Natural Reservation of Buituri and Nandru

The natural reservation contains fossilized snails and fish.

 Sports

Hunedoara boasts one of Europe's most modern bowling alleys, that hosted the 2002 Bowling World Cup. Other sports facilities include red-clay tennis courts and an indoor swimming pool. Some of the notable athletes originating from Hunedoara include Mihai Leu, former WBO boxing world champion and national rally champion, as well as Maria Cioncan, Olympic bronze-medal winner.

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==HISTORY===================================

Early Hunedoara History

Where the city of Hunedoara stands today, Stone Age tools were discovered in the hill near the castle called Sanpetru (Saint Peter) and in the surrounding villages. The region was very rich in iron, which had been extracted in the area since the Iron Age of Thracians and later, in the Thracian and Roman times.

The remains of eight Dacian iron furnaces have been found at the Sânpetru hill near the castle. The proximity of the city to the network of fortresses and temples in the mountains of Orăştie, and the discovery of important monetary treasures of Dacian coins and Roman imperial coins testifies to the importance of this site.

After Dacia was conquered around 102 AD and turned into a Roman province, the iron-rich region attracted the attention of the Romans, who began to exploit it by building furnaces. A "Villa Rustica" emerged in Teliuc, a Roman castrum on Sanpetru hill, outpost of the legio XII Gemina. Other Roman artifacts were discovered in the city area, and also in Pestis, where the remains of a Roman village were discovered.

Bye Bye Roma!

After the Roman military and administrative retreat due to migrations of people from the east in 267 AD, the Romanized and christianized population continued to thrive in the mountains and isolated valleys and was able to keep faith and connections with the Byzantine Empire and the civilized world.

This is attested by discoveries of artifacts and Christian burial places around the city. Thus, Romanians were born, in the passing of time. Around 1000 AD, small political feuds arose and Transylvania fell under the Hungarian Kingdom and became part of it. Later on, an autonomous principate arose, with populations of Romanians, Hungarians, Szeklers and Saxons.

The first recorded evidence of the city was made in 1265 under the name Hungnod as a hub for leather tanning and wool processing. The city of Hunedoara became an important iron extracting and processing center in Transylvania. "Corpus Inscriptiorum Latinorum" refers to a local inhabitant as "natas ibi, ubi ferum nascitur", that is, "born where the iron was born". The swords and spears, made in the 14th and 15th centuries in the iron foundries and works, were famous for their stiffness in a period of intense fighting with the Ottoman Turks.

The Corvins Arrive

The city has been known since the 14th century mainly as the residence of the Corvin family.

 As Romanians (from Wallachia), they were rewarded for military bravery by Sigismund of Luxembourg, and received the domain of Hunedoara. The same document mentions Mogos, Radu and Iancu, sons of Voicu. The more famous Ioannus Corvinus (Hungarian: János Hunyadi; Romanian: Iancu Corvin de Hunedoara), the son of Voicu, spent his childhood here.

He married Erzsébet (Elisabeta), a Hungarian noblewoman, and advanced to be named voivode of Transylvania, which was by then an autonomous part of the kingdom of Hungary. He consolidated the citadel on top of an ancient fortress and took care of the small city. He studied military tactics in the Italian republics, and became the most skillful warrior of Hungary.

Elected regent of Hungary, Corvin engaged in crusades against the Turks. The victories reputed there by coalitions of Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian forces of the region, with help from European lords, managed to secure the Hungarian kingdom from the Turks for more than two centuries.

The Son is Crowned

After Iancu Corvin died in a military camp after his biggest military triumph, his son, Mátyás (Matthias) later became the most famous Hungarian king, and he also consolidated the castle and the feudal domain of Hunedoara.

The castle of Hunedoara became one of the biggest in the world, standing as a witness to the greatness of this family of noble warriors and statesmen, in an era of war and despair, as the Ottoman Empire approached Central Europe.

In the times of Corvins, Hunedoara became a market (opidum) for iron. Matthias Corvinus named the city a tax-free area, and this privilege extended until the 17th century. The population varied between 784 people in 1512 and 896 people in the 17th century. After Matthias died, Hunedoara was owned by his son, John (Hungarian: János; Romanian: Ioan), but he too died young. His wife, Beatrice de Frangepan, married Georg of Hohenzolern, Marquis of Brandenburg in 1509. But Georg de Brandenburg would not establish in Hunedoara, instead naming a representative, György Stolcz.

Renaissance Rule

In 1514, the rebellion of György Dózsa made Romanian and Hungarian peasants to revolt, and some of them were imprisoned in the castle.

The 17th century ruler of Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlem, also extended the castle. Hunedoara had a Catholic cathedral built around 1600 and a smaller orthodox church for the Romanian population.

The first tall industrial furnace in the world for iron extracting, it has been argued, was built in 1750 in Toplita near Hunedoara, and a later one in Govajdia in 1806. Both furnaces can be visited today. To reach it, there is a system of narrow-gauge railway built in the 19th and 20th centuries that still runs today through the breathtaking landscape of "Tara Padurenilor" (Woodlanders' country).

Industrial Hunedoara

In the 19th century, Hunedoara became more and more industrialized, peasants from regions nearby began to move to the city and the population increased.

As the Romanian nation was underprivileged, it revolted a few times. The peasants supported the Horea, Closca and Crisan rebellion, and the Avrama Iancu resistance in Apuseni mountains. Transylvania was given to the kingdom of Romania after World War I. The Romanian populations in and around the city quickly earned political rights and representation, and industrial development continued at an ever-increasing rate.

During the years of the communist regime, industry was favored, and Hunedoara had for a time the biggest steel-producing factory in Romania and even the Balkans.

The city grew larger, and the factories extended so much that they equalled or exceded the size of the city. The population also increased to over 87,000.

 The football team, Corvin, was for a very long time one of the highest-rated football teams in Romania, rivaling Steaua or Dinamo. A big stadium was built along with other sports facilities such as covered swimming pools and a skating ring.

The communist collapse meant that the old markets for steel vanished, and many enterprises had to be closed or abandoned. More than half of the population lost their jobs. However, investment from Romanian and foreign capital ventures has started offering new job opportunities to the people.

Now the region relies on websites like Rest Romania to bring in foreign tourists to see the stunning Retezat mountains, the gorgeous old castles and beautiful river valleys!