Two Wars

Yesterday I showed you a weapon and sword collection that I had the pleasure to visit at the Citadel of Fagaras. Those weapons were from different centuries, up to the 19th.

Today I'd like to show you the section that was dedicated to the two world wars. These two periods are closer to our days, so the items the museum has from those times are a bit different.

Old documents, photographs and manuscripts from that period are testimony of the past and have high value today.

A photo of the city center of Fagaras, from 1916. Having a better look made me realize I had lunch at that square. Now, thinking back, it's scary that I sit there for an hour, enjoying my (I can't even remember what I had 😳) and 108 years prior there was a war going on and troops were marching up and down, in full gear.

A patent decoration from 15th September, 1938 signed by the War Ministry. This is a printed form, that was then filled out using a typewriter.

Another one, a volunteer patent decoration in the Romanian legion in Italy. Filled out in Italian, dates back to May 21, 1916. It's kind of scary thinking back how many papers you had to carry with you and how difficult must have been to log everything and keep the archive in order. We live in a digital era, where everything (or most of it) is stored digitally and can be retrieved and printed out in seconds, or checked for that matter. No wonder forgery was so common back then and successful as well.

Photos, letters, postcards, all precious for both senders and recipient. Sometimes these photos and postcards were all that they were left with, if their loved one did not come home from the war. Interesting to note that the first postcard in Romania was issued on the 29th of August, 1894. The ones you see on the photo above were issued a bit later, but still in the initial phase of the postcard history.

As you can see, the address part is quite long and only a small portion of the paper is dedicated to messages. This is why most of the times the message continued on the front side. During the war, all the correspondence was censored, there were tricks to hide messages under the stamp. This is why stamps disappeared at some point and instead of those nice, colorful stamps, only inked stamps were used. You could not hide any written text under those. I could write a novel about this but this is a different discussion for another day.

A colorful vintage engraving featuring the victory of general Bem at Fagaras, against the Russians in 1849. On the right, the portrait of József Móricz, commander of the fortress, on the day of the revolution.

On the left are the dangerous toys that were used in the 19th century. A pistol from 1850, which looks way different from what we're used to these days and a short pointed dagger stick from the middle of the 19th century. That dagger is scary, you don't want to meet any I can guarantee you.

Another pistol from 1862 and a sword. Imagine loading that pistol each time you fire. Must have been not only terribly frustrating, but inefficient as well. They didn't know that though as there was nothing better at that time.

A photo of volunteers from Fagaras. What surprised me was that all of the men are decorated with medals. Looks like volunteers got decorations as well.

I would have loved to know more about this chest, apart from the obvious, but all that was written on that label was the usual, for those who don't know how to behave.

It took me some time to figure out what I'm seeing here and I'm not sure, but it says the emigration was really high in the 19th century, till 1914. The number of those who left the place reached 16000. Most of them emigrated to the United States.

Although these are swords and not fences, I can see myself handling these. Or, at least I think I can see myself handling these. The true test is when you take these old swords in your hand and see how heavy they are. Good thing it is never allowed :) Above on the illustration you can see the uniform they were wearing.

As I mentioned before, looking at these objects, documents, photos, weapons, makes me appreciate my life more and be thankful that I wasn't born a century ago. I am lucky to live now and have the advantages of the 21st century.

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