Video Secrets of the legendary village in the Șureanu Mountains: “The residents call themselves Dacians, they have unique nicknames and animal nicknames”

The village of Târsa in the Șureanu Mountains is increasingly sought after by tourists, thanks to its new roads and the Via Transilvanica tourist route. The people here keep a lot of legends about the Dacians, and in the past they were equated with the Dacians.

Less than a hundred people live in the village of Târsa in Hunedoara (video), the center of the archaic settlements on the Luncanilor Plateau, a land inhabited during the time of the Dacians.

The village in the Șureanu Mountains has become a tourist landmark of Hunedoara in recent years, and several legendary places here arouse the fascination of travelers.

A decade ago, the village of Târsa in Hunedoara (Boșorod commune) had about 200 inhabitants, but it was among the most isolated localities in western Romania. His farms are lined up on the plains of the Șureanu Mountains, hundreds of meters away from each other, some on peaks almost 1,000 meters above sea level.

The forest roads that connected the settlement located on the Luncanilor Plateau with the towns in the Grădisti and Streiului valleys were difficult to access because of the steep slopes and the mud that covered them during the rains. In winter, frost and snow made them almost impossible to cross with cars.

In recent years, the village of Târsa from Hunedoara (video) continued to depopulate. “Some families moved to Boșorod, where they had houses, other young people went to work in the city and never came back to live here. Even old people left the village“, recounted a local woman.

Târsa currently has about 50 permanent residents, but, unlike a decade ago, its situation has changed radically. Two roads were built to the village in the Șureanu Mountains. One goes up from the municipality of Orăștie, located 30 kilometers away, on the Grădisti Valley and through the village of Costești, being built in place of the Costești – Târsa forest road, and the other goes up to the village from the town of Călan, located about 20 kilometers away, on the Luncanilor valley, through Boșorod, being built instead of the forest road Boșorod – Târsa. Tourism has gained momentum especially in recent years, with the establishment of the “Via transilvanica” tourist route.

“Via Transilvanica goes up from Grădisti valley, from Sarmizegetusa Regia, and in Târsa it is extended a bit to the area of ​​the church, where there was a Roman fort, then it goes back through the village and goes up to Poiana Omului, through the forest, and from there to Fundătura to Ponor”, shows a local.

As the number of tourists increased, stopping places were established in the old shepherds’ village in the Șureanu Mountains, where the villagers offer tourists traditional dishes such as balmoş, pies with sheep’s cheese, hot dogs, soups, bulz and other dishes specific to pastoral life . Meanwhile, several holiday homes and guesthouses have been built in Târsa, and others are on the construction site.

The area is spectacular, surrounded by mountains and forest and suitable for hiking enthusiasts. But it has one more thing that differentiates it from the settlements in the mountains. The people of the ancient land of the Dacians kept a lot of legends handed down from generation to generation.

Man’s Glade – the place where Decebalus died

The most famous of Târsa’s legends is that of Poienia Omului (video) located on Via Transilvanica, about five kilometers from the village. The travelers cover the road through the forest in about an hour, from the former school, now abandoned in the village of Prihodiste to Poiana Omului, located at over 1,000 meters above sea level and surrounded by vast forests of beech, oak and fir.

Since ancient times, Poiana Omului has been a crossroad of plain roads, where the shepherds who roamed this land with their flocks met in transhumance on tens of kilometers of routes from the Retezat and Șureanu massifs. Its name is old and would come, say the locals, from the legend of the death of the Dacian king Decebalus.

“I have known, like many who have lived here, of this legend of the Glade of Man, as the place of Decebalus’ death, for as long as I can remember. From the age of 13 I roamed these mountains with the flocks, and I have always liked the life of a shepherd. Here, at Poiana Omului, it was a very big thing. The flocks of sheep were coming down, there were thousands of sheep that were brought to this place, that were put in the sheepfolds and chosen here, and the shepherds were also bargained for here“, recounted Duțu, one of the shepherds from Poiana Omului.

About Poiana Omului, the people of the area say that it would have been the place where Decebal met his end, while he was being pursued by the Romans. The Dacian leader would have left Sarmizegetusa, riding on the mountain peaks through Poiana Omului, where in Antiquity there would have been a communication node between the Dacian fortresses in the Orăștiei Mountains, and his death would have taken place in the shade of the oaks that grew in this clearing.

The place where the Dacians and Romans made peace

At the other end of the village of Târsa, near the local church and school, another road of about five kilometers leads to the Dacian fortress of Blidaru. Before reaching the famous Dacian settlement, the travelers pass by the edge of the Pietroasa hamlet, inhabited by two people, where the ruins of a Dacian temple – called Pietroasa lui Solomon (video).

Nearby, the path overlaps with a former ancient road that passes at the foot of the “La Vămi” defense tower, heading towards the citadel. On the route, there is a sector laid out in embankment, like a bridge between two hills. “Here, at Vămi, would have been the place where King Decebal would have made peace with the Romans, after the first war between the Dacians and the Romans. This is what we know from our parents and grandparents”, says a local from Târsa.

Around the Dacian fortress of Blidaru, archaeologists have identified more than 20 such Dacian defense towers.

Most were, historians show, devastated by the Romans, during the wars of conquest of Sarmizegetusa Regia, from the beginning of the 2nd century. Together with the Dacian fortresses of Hunedoara, their high towers, made of wood and stone, were burned and destroyed, but their strong foundations stood the test of time.

Along with the “La Vămi” tower, the most famous of the defense monuments around the Dacian fortress is the Poiana Perții Tower, also located about a hundred meters from the Blidaru fortress.

The secular beech from Tarsa

In the center of Târsa village, travelers find a secular beech tree, which some locals claim is over 300 years old. Its crown has provided shade and shelter for generations.

“My great-grandmother, who lived to be almost 90 years old, knew him as a young woman just as towering as he is now. A long time ago, on some of its branches, you can see how they were cut, people used to raise hay on their heads. In other times, here they took shelter from bad weather. A few years ago it was struck by lightning, but I cleaned it and it didn’t dry out”says a local.

In the past, the number of secular beeches was, people say, much higher in Tarsa.

Where does the name of the village of Târsa come from

And the name of the village would have been inspired by the legend. Some locals believe that it comes from that of the Agatârsi – a tribe that lived in Transylvania two and a half millennia ago, mentioned by several historians of Antiquity, as lovers of gold and worshipers of deities such as Dionysus and Apollo.

Others linked the name of the settlement to that of the symbolic staff (târsul) decorated by the ancients and used in the rituals of worshiping the deity Dionysus – the great Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasures, also revered in Dacia and, according to some authors, even in some of the Dacian fortresses in the Șureanu Mountains.

Some specialists in toponymy show that the name Târsa would have the meaning of “clearing” – part of the forest from which trees were cut until others began to grow.

“Protecting us like parents, the Carpathians united us in a big family, perpetuating this island of Latinity in the European East for centuries of restriction; the Dacian population maintained its settlements in the Carpathian areas, both during its Romanization, and when the migratory herds trod the fertile plains and flourishing settlements on their horses’ hooves. The toponyms from the Luncanilor Platform are eloquent in this regard. Local realities still today reflect the old meaning of the toponym Târsa, which in the old Slavic language meant “part of the forest where the trees were cut until others started to grow”, from where the post-verb tirsi, meaning to clear a place of brambles, of bushes to turn it into a plowing place”publicist Emil Hossu Longin pointed out, in “Romania Picoreasca” (1981).

“Locals call themselves Dacians”

On Platorul Luncanilor, several settlements have kept names with Latin origins. “Runcu, Curatura, Tăietură, Săcuitura, Seci, Secu, Secui, Săcui – are obvious traces related to the deforestation process of the platform, the last one meaning “dry forest of trees, i.e. dried by natural or artificial burning”, as the academician very well explains Iorgu Iordan, starting from the Latin verb secare, “to cut”, “to dry”. Old man Ilie Stăncioi, our guide, told me that on the platform the inhabitants call themselves Dacians, they keep many traditions and customs not found in other parts, family customs, also, that they have animal nicknames: Rabbit, Hulpe, Lupu”the publicist pointed out.

Other specialists indicated that the name Târsa would also indicate an enclosed place, thus being related to the term prisacă.