The towns of Avram Iancu’s ancestors have disturbing histories: “They didn’t know what to do with so much gold” VIDEO

The old towns in the Apuseni Mountains have kept disturbing stories about the deaths of Avram Iancu and Horea and the riches around them. The golden age has set in Abrud and Zlatna, and Câmpeni, the former town of the moti, also felt the decline of the mining centers in its vicinity.

A steam locomotive and its vintage carriages, out of use for over two decades and then vandalized by people, greet travelers at the entrance to the town of Câmpeni in Alba (video), the center of Motiland.

The set occupies a piece of the disused narrow-gauge railway near the bridge over the Aries River and the Câmpeni railway station, and reminds the locals of the days when the moti railway was used along its entire route of more than 90 kilometres. The mocăniței line was inaugurated in 1912 and connected the towns of Turda and Abrud, on the Aries valley, passing through Baia de Aries, Câmpeni and Roșia Montană.

It was abolished in the 1990s, but in Câmpeni a sector of it was preserved, about 11 kilometers long, on which the small cars still travel, with tourists, from the Câmpeni train station to the neighboring town of Abrud.

“Until the 70s, the train was powered by steam locomotives. As technology evolved, the locomotives had modern trains, which were the equivalent of those running on normal lines, but on a smaller scale. These were the last trains that ran on Valea Ariesului. The iron bridge from Câmpeni is also on the list of historical monuments“, informs the Narrow Railways, the company that takes care of the route.

Near the old siding, the railway bridge over the Aries river has withstood the passage of time, but now only pedestrians travel on it. Behind him, another cab waits for tourists to board the carriages on the occasional, reserved runs. During most of the day, it is a playground for the children of Câmpeni.

Near the station, another iron bridge, road and pedestrian, also over a hundred years old, is somewhat more heavily trafficked, even if a piece of its roadway – made of asphalt – has collapsed leaving the metal skeleton visible . From its right, travelers enter the historic center of the city, occupied by several historic buildings, mixed with the blocks erected during the communist regime.

The first building that can attract their attention is the museum in Câmpeni, located on the construction site, set up in the building where Avram Iancu (1824 – 1872) lived when he was in command of the Moti troops, during the Transylvanian Revolution of 1848 – 1849.

After passing it, tourists enter the central square of the city of less than 7,000 inhabitants, surrounded by a few blocks and other old buildings from the 19th century. In its center, the equestrian statue of the so-called Crăișorul Munților dominates the pedestrian center, once the most sought-after fair in Șara moților – the isolated land of the Apuseni, where the forests have always represented the great wealth of the region.

“In Motilor Land, the ax is not just something in the household inventory. The ax is an essential tool, an element of life, something indispensable, everywhere present, like air, like breathing. In the countryside, half of the shop windows are occupied only with axes, arranged in all sorts of ways, with the cutting edge highlighted. It is the commodity that must be given the place of honor. Moti come from the brains of the mountains, take a wheel through the market, take a long look at the windows and start back with an ax in hand”, wrote the publicist Geo Bogza, in “Countries of stone, fire and earth” (1939).

In the Câmpeni fair, the first mutineers riots started in 1782, and two years later the city was occupied by the rioters led by Horea, Cloșca and Crișan. In the 19th century, Avram Iancu linked his childhood to the city of Câmpeni, where he was a student, and later returned here, as the leader of the Romanians from the Apuseni Mountains. In the 20th century, the wood industry supported the economy of the town at the foot of Mount Găina – the site of the famous traditional celebration “Târgul de fete” – the event that attracts the most tourists to the Campeni area.

The disturbing history of Abrud

15 kilometers from Campeni, the town of Abrud from Alba (video) linked its long existence to mining. It is located at the foot of the famous gold mines of Roșia Montană and the copper quarry of Roșia Poieni, and mining was the most widespread occupation among the locals.

During the last decade of communism, thousands of people from Abrud and neighboring communes worked in the area’s gold mines, but with the exception of the Roșia Poieni copper mine, they were closed by the mid-2000s.

“The city has declined in terms of jobs, and most of the time, its historic center is deserted. You can hear the echoes among its old buildings, so quiet it is herei”, says Mioara, a local from Abrud.

In past centuries, the mining town, now with a population of 4,500 inhabitants, was the scene of terrible events. It was burned during the days of the Horea Uprising, from 1784, and by the mobs led by Avram Iancu, in 1849.

For three days, between November 6 and 8, 1784, the prosperous settlement in the Apuseni Mountains, inhabited by Romanians, Hungarians, Saxons and Szeklers, was besieged by the peasant armies led by Cloşca and Crişan.

“With horrifying cries like this, “let’s put out the Hungarians so that none will remain”, the peasants rushed into the city and entering the houses of the Hungarians, they massacred them wherever they found them on the streets, in their houses or in the churches, simultaneously destroying everything they owned was coming in the way, breaking the bottles and spilling the wine. The Hungarian rich man Ion Csany fell hit by the anger of the peasants under the pulpit of the reformed church, where he had taken refuge”recounted Ion Rusu Abrudeanu, in the volume “Deaths, the ordeal of a historical, but unjust people” (1928).

An account from the time of the uprising showed that the locals of Abrud sent messengers to meet the groups of rebels, to promise them money and food, if they would spare the city. The serfs, however, did not want to listen to them, saying that all the goods of Abrud were theirs.

Most of the population was spared, however, with one condition. “On Monday, 8 Novembre, the peasants who had occupied Abrudul publicized in the middle of the market that the commandment of God and the emperor is that whoever does not convert to the Romanian religion and who does not dress in Romanian clothes, will be impaled in front of his house or cut off the head”, recounted Ion Rusu Abrudeanu.

The population of Abrud went through equally terrible moments during the Revolution of 1849, when Avram Iancu’s troops supported by the locals surrounded Abrud and Roşia Montană, where the Hungarian insurgent troops, led by Hatvani, were located. The attack of Avram Iancu’s army on Abrudu began in the afternoon of May 9, 1849. After a terrible battle, Hatvani’s troops had to retreat towards Brad. Part of the civilian population followed him.

Pursued by Avram Iancu’s troops, they were slaughtered, and the town of Abrud, where some Hungarian troops still remained, was set on fire.

“Here they defended themselves with their last strength in churches, houses and cellars, until they were completely defeated by the cannon and rifle fire of the Romanians. When they saw the corpses of the leaders and other brothers lying in the city square, their anger reached its peak. All Hungarians who could not save themselves were slaughtered. Many were hidden by the Romanians from Abrud in their houses and thus they were saved. The city was on fire because of the shootings. Now, however, the enraged gloats set fire to most Hungarian houses. The number of dead insurgents, including Abruden Hungarians, can be estimated without exaggeration at 2,000. The losses of the Romanian people were very small“, wrote Avram Iancu, in his report as prefect, published in the volume “Luptele romanilor din Ardeal 1848 – 1849” (Bucharest, 1919).

During the retreat from Abrud, Major Hatvani vowed to return for revenge. A week later, the second battle of Abrud took place, which resulted in another defeat of his troops, from which more than 2,500 people would have perished.

In the 19th century, Abrudul and the neighboring commune of Roșia Montană (video) represented one of the most prosperous mining centers in Europe.

“There was a time when craftsmen and professionals flocked from all sides to Abrud and Roșia, because these two mountain towns had their golden time, when boys were given instead of golden yellow crosses, when boys competed with each other, which of them will deliver more gold to Zlatna. Then the boy wore boots with tassels and spurs of gold, and his wife shone in garments embroidered with flowers of gold and silver. During that time, people had indulged in doing the calculations only with crosses, but only with yellow ones, at that time the owners of the baths were scratching their heads, because what can be done and what can be done with so much gold? One wanted to cover his house with gold, another even to pave his yard with silveri”, informed the Romanian Telegraph, in 1857.

The town of Zlatna, the place where the Apuseni gold was smelted

The era of gold mining ended at the end of the 20th century in the Apuseni Mountains, and the small towns of the moti went into decline. The same fate as that of Abrud had the town of Zlatna (video), also a former mining center, known since the time of the Romans.

Already in the 18th century, the first non-ferrous metal smelter was established in Zlatna. Several public buildings in the city center date from that time, such as the hospital and the current house of culture, preserved and rehabilitated. Also here is the gymnasium where Avram Iancu (1824 – 1872) studied, after his school years spent in Câmpeni.

At the beginning of the 60s, the old smelter in Zlatna was rebuilt and gradually transformed into a metallurgical complex, which expanded with new sections, in the depression where the city’s neighborhoods lined up.

In the 90s, after two centuries of industrial activity, the Zlatna complex entered the restructuring program, and by the 2000s its factories were closed. In the town of Zlatna in Alba, a lot of abandoned industrial buildings remain, reminding of the metallurgical age of the settlement.

The largest of them is the former gas exhaust tower from the Zlatna plant. The over 200 meter high chimney was finally built in just two months in 1986 for the new copper plant in Zlatna.

The dispersion bin was used for a decade, being decommissioned with the closure of the plant in 1997. At the foot of the hill, there are neighborhoods with buildings from different eras of the city and the ruins of the combine and some mines, crossed by the functional Alba Iulia – Zlatna railway , which passes through the Ampoiului valley.