ANCIENT ROMAN STORIES

Epis.43-Some ancient details about the Gypsies from the Tg.Neamt area-part 1.

If I managed to find enough written data about other ethnic groups that passed through Targu Neamt over the hundreds of years, there is very little data about the local Gypsies. In general, the Gypsies were only mentioned in the books/property documents of the various monasteries in the area. The only existing monastery in the area of Tg. Neamt in 1375 was the Neamt Monastery. It is not at all excluded that he did not participate in the construction of the fortress, together with other ethnic groups from the area and the Gypsy ethnic group. During the years 1975-1980 I witnessed discussions between the elders of the time, who said that they heard from their great-grandparents, that during its existence, slave gypsies worked at Neamț Citadel, who carried the stone. The river stone needed to build the walls was transported from the Ozana bed to the top of the hill by the slave gypsies of the Neamt Monastery.

This small stone was carried from hand to hand, from the bed of Ozana where it was stored, after it was brought by dozens of oxen and climbed up manually and by gypsy slave workers. Because of the access path, it was difficult to citadel, it is excluded that the stone was carried with the carts drawn by animals. Hundreds of oxen and horse carts from all the villages carried the stone, wood and other materials necessary for the construction of the citadel, which they stored at the base/ the edge of the hill, and the gypsy slaves together with other workers (prisoners, serfs, apprentices...) climbed it to the point of construction. The first documentary attestation about the gypsies in the area dates from November 30, 1435 when the son of Alexandru cel Bun, Ilie voivod, dedicates to the Neamț Monastery (photo no. 2 attached) the villages of Timeșești and Cristianești on the Moldavia river with houses (gypsy habitat) of gypsies. These gypsies were Filipp, Oanciu, Cârlig, Stan, Stefan, Ciurilă, Petraș.. ..in total 10 families. More than 16 years later, on July 13, 1451, 2 other gypsies named Pașcu and Petrică were given to the Neamt Monastery.

Voivode Stefan the Great recognizes the property of the Neamt Monastery over 9 other gypsy villages on 01.04.1470. Many voivodes of Moldavia donated to the monasteries they founded in the Neamt area, gypsy families, or entire gypsy villages to be economically exploited. The founder of the Monastery Secu (photo no. 3 attached) Nestor Ureche (father of the chronicler Grigore Ureche) donates several gypsies to his own founder, and in 1638 Grigore Ureche himself donates gypsy slaves to the Sf. Nicolae Monastery in Neamt Citadel. I believe that the first documented gypsies on the feudal domain of Târgu were those given to the fortress by the scholar Grigore Ureche to the monasteries of the Neamt fortress. Vasile Lupu Voevod gave Vasile Căldararu, a gypsy slave to the monastery of the Cetate. In turn, Vasile pârcalabul Cetati Neamt, gave gypsy slaves to the abbot/vladica of Sava from fortress for his needs. Other data about the gypsies from Tg. I did not find anyone who lived in the town in the Middle Ages. The gypsies were not considered human in that era. They were treated like animals, economically exploited, beaten, starved, given as gifts wedding / baptism and were often killed at the will of their masters. Many gypsy houses owned by the monasteries were the basis for the formation of the current gypsy villages around the town of Tg. Neamt. (Nemtisor, Fagi and Drehuța-Vănatori, Stanca-Pipirig, Crăcaoani, Țolici... of the Neamt Monastery or Cărpiniș-Oglinzi-Raucesti, partially Filioara-of the Secu Monastery). Most of the Gypsy population in all of Moldova did not interest anyone. In Moldova around 1848-1850 when the time of deslavery arrived (in Transylvania the gypsies were freed from 1786) there were about 12,000 gypsy souls living in slavery. It is not known exactly how many were freed (non-nomadic) gypsies and how many nomads. It is certain that the church had about 3400 slaves, the state/dominion about 4200, and the boyars over 4500 gypsy souls in captivity.

In Tg.Neamt, at one of the first schools in the city, at the Ioan psalter school next to the Adormirea church where Greek and Romanian were taught, the gypsy children Vasile and Mihai Turpilă, Vasile Mihaiescu, Toader Pintilie and Gheorghe Bolocan were also enrolled. We were wondering what kind of gypsies they were since the school at that time was accessible only to wealthy people with some education??? Of course they were from rich gypsy families. Around 1854, the enlightened ruler Grigore Ghica voivode, completed the process of disenslavement the gypsies of the Principality. From the gypsy slaves on the estates, migrant tents were later formed which, due to poverty, swelled the ranks of the nomadic gypsies looking for a piece of bread. From the freed gypsies, another category of free servants was formed on the domains of the former masters... i.e. what we call argati today. Argati are willing servants, who only work for food and accommodation. We still have argati today in many areas of our country. No one has researched the economic role of argati resulting from former slaves and serfs in economy, but their presence even today proves the barbarism of Romanian society in the past.

In Tg. Neamt there was a place called Poiana Tiganului by the locals from 1880.
This place was roughly in the area of the current citadel village. (see attached photo 1) Until 1955, in this area, every year, outside the locality, tents of gypsies in search of work settled in this area. In many communes in the vicinity of the Fair we find places called,, Poiana Tiganului'' or "Poiana Tigancii". Eminescu in Varatec often went for a walk with Veronica to Poiana Țigancii, and the monks of the Neamt Monastery were often in conflict (from the border of their property) with the villages located in the area of the "Izvorului Tiganului" 'near Poiana Largului. In 1772-1773 when there were about 144 houses/households in Tg. Neamt, there were also 9 Gypsy households in the locality. There were also 28 Serb households and 28 Jewish households. The rest up to 144 were Birnic households Moldovans from whom the state of Moldova, organized by the Russian administration, expected the payment of taxes. It is possible that these 9 beer-paying gypsy families were those of carpenters-fiddlers, goldsmiths or craftsmen who had income as free gypsies in a good financial situation. It is not excluded that these were rich gypsies from other neighboring states settled in Moldova.

Around 1845 in Tg. Neamt there were 580 families, of which 16 were gypsy families paying beer. These gypsies had among their ranks tradesmen authorized by the authorities to practice trades. Thus we find 7 tradesmen of the 3rd degree (traders. .) and 7 were journeymen (skilled workers employed in specialized workshops of a craftsman). It is possible that these tradesmen were from the families of former slaves disenslaved by the political factor of the country of Moldova. Ion Creanga in "Childhood Memories" says in the story "Cu uratul", when they went with the group of children to urit from house to house because "it doesn't take long and they take our people out of the village like cowards". Who were the cowards that the writer Ion Creangă says about ?

They were definitely the tents of shaky, dirty nomadic gypsies with black skin who lived their lives in a continuous movement from village to village. Laesi tents (lae also means black. The expression "Either laie, or balaie"... meaning either "white or black"!) about which Creanga says that they often passed through Tg. Neamt and Humulesti, they stayed for a while in the tent camp doing various metal works for the locals, then they left the village and moved to another locality. Creanga says that the people from the village of Humulesti had the habit of removing the tent from the village for various reasons, a sign that they were not accepted by the locals. After the Union of the Principalities under Cuza in 1859, I have not found any information about the Gypsies from Tg. Neamt. The old people with whom we were talking 30-40 years ago, they told me that in Tg. Neamt, the bear gypsies used to come and take the houses in a row to sing to the hosts and show them the show with the bear game. The gypsy beat the drum, the trained bear played with two legs and the host paid for it .

There is a custom for the women of Târgoveti and Humulesteni to allow themselves to be trampled by a bear. This belief that if the bear tramples their backs with its paws, straightens the saddles'' tired of diseases and work on the land, I met it until after 1989 among the peasant women of Humulesti and Țuțuieni. The gypsy was paid with bacon, malai, cheese, potatoes, beans...etc..and the girls felt...well...treated for the saddle pain. After 1920 the bears often walked through Tg.Neamt, especially after the Christmas fast and after Easter, as the gypsy also needed.

The gypsy custom of walking with the bear lasted until around 1950 when it started to disappear. After 1950 in Tg. Neamt, the communist authorities brought residents of gypsy ethnicity from various branches: the former bearers became some of them fiddlers, gypsies selling seeds and toys from plastic materials at the market and fairs, brickmakers (potters).. whom they accommodated in the homes of Jews who had gone abroad. They came from Tg. Frumos, Roman, Galati... because the communist state was trying to disperse them from the localities before the war, localities where there is still the memory of the holocaust and their transfer to Transnistria by the fascist military regime of General Antonescu.

The only family I will write about starting with the 2nd part of this episode is the Copoț family located in Humulesti on Tăbăcari str. the gypsies from Tg. Neamt, I could write a lot, but some of those I approached did not give me data. They consider themselves Romanians, having a slight embarrassment towards their ethnic origin. Thank you for reading this episode and I mention that depending on the relativity of the sources I found, this episode also has a dose of relativity.
However, the data I have sent you in these lines are real. It will follow! Lucian Georgescu.