**1. The geographical and historical framework of the Chioar area**

The Chioar ethnographic area has long attracted the attention of researchers through the beauty of the landscape, the originality and authenticity of popular creation, and the richness of popular culture manifestations. It has been known in the past and in part also today, under the name of Chioar Country, but, in form and function, it does not come close to the other regions bearing the name of "country." Unlike the other 17 "countries" of the Romanian territory, the Chioar area is a geographic-historical entity that is much more difficult to individualize, its genesis and evolution taking place within a complex framework. If for most "countries" we can identify a unit of relief as a primary genetic factor, in this case we are talking about a region that has crystallized around a nucleus of another origin, a fortress, called the Stone Fortress (*Cetatea de Piatră*).<sup>1</sup>

The territory we propose for study is located in the southwest of Maramureș County and is part of the connection unit between the Eastern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mountains, being present in that area of the "hidden mountains" of Transylvania from which the Preluca and Prisaca Massifs appear, between which a lower area enters, namely, the Chioar Hills.

In the territory of what we call "Chioar Country," we can identify the following morphological units: the Gutîi-Igniș Mountains,<sup>2</sup> the Preluca

<sup>1</sup> The name comes from the Hungarian language *Kövár*; *kö* means stone, and *vár*, fortress.

<sup>2</sup> The relief is volcanic, with large cones—Igniș (1307 m), Mogoșa (1246 m), or semi-crater like the one of the Gutîi (1443 m), destroyed by an explosive eruption.

Massif,<sup>3</sup> the Prisaca Massif, the limestone Boiu Plateau, the Chioar Hills, the Copalnic Depression, and the Baia Mare Depression. Within them appear smaller units, special in appearance and genesis.

extent has always varied, the number of villages belonging to it exceeding 80" ([5], pp. 173–174). In 1378 the fortress was donated to the Romanian voivodes Balc and Drag and their brother Ioan, the descendants of Dragoș voivode from Maramureș ([6], p. 164); this family was keeping it until the death of the last descendant in 1555. In a short time Chioar Country became organized in voivodships with a certain number of villages. In the year 1566, there were 12 voivodes in 61 villages, and in 1603 there were 16 voivodes in 81 villages. In the official registers that have been kept, the number of inhabitants is mentioned, as well as the duties they owed to the citadel. In about 61 villages, there were 230 families of nobles, the Chioar area

being the area with the most Romanian nobles, after Făgăraș ([7], p. 11).

by the insistence of Vienna to impose Catholicism<sup>5</sup>

*Research of the Musical Folklore From Maramureș: Chioar Area*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90682*

Chioar a large area with a unitary structure.

the supreme captain of the Chioar.

schools in the country.

**185**

From November 1599 to September 1600, the fortress and the entire Chioar territory were under the leadership of Mihai Viteazul. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the land came into the possession of the Habsburg Empire, which, starting in 1662, administered it through the Teleki family.<sup>4</sup> Under Austrian rule, the inhabitants of the district were forced to contribute food, money, and labor for the imperial army. The social oppression was doubled by the confessional one,

greedy family will grab everything they can (land, especially), wanting to make

As is well-known, the establishment of the Habsburg regime in Transylvania brought many movements and the privileges of the servants. People who fled from authorities, called "fugitives," are sometimes made up of gangs who keep the authorities under tension. This is also the case of Grigore Pintea with his numerous fortresses of Romanians, who hoped that by the victory of the rebels, they would avoid falling into the "eternal slavery" that they felt the Teleki family was preparing. In 1703 Pintea was killed, and the uprising ended with the peace concluded at Satu Mare in 1711. In order to avoid the regrouping of the anti-Habsburg forces, the Fortress of Chioar was destroyed in 1718, by General Rabutin de Bussy's order.

The inhabitants of Chioar today call it "the city of Racolța" (a link to the name of Francesc Rákoszi, the rebel). In the memory of the inhabitants, the demolition of the fortress lasted a long time because, it is said that the people took the tile from which the fortress was made to make their baking ovens—among the few that are still preserved today. We will not dwell on the modern history of the Chioar area; we will say only that the people of these regions received with great enthusiasm the historical decisions of 1 December, 1918, to which they sent their representatives.<sup>6</sup> The foundations remained all the traditional ones, strong on which the healthy spirituality of some proud people was built, of a richness of souls and nobility who

<sup>4</sup> In February 1662 Kamény Simon, son of the deceased prince Kamény János, appoints Teleki Mihái as

<sup>5</sup> Toward the end of the seventeenth century, confessional disorders among the Romanian population from Chioar will also appear. Some accept Catholicism while others do not, the result being the division

<sup>6</sup> From Chioar area there were important people of the time, who participated in the revolution: Ion Buteanu, the prefect of Iancu, and Ioan Popescu from Coaş, who after participating in the revolutionary events in Chioar, from 1848, moves to Moldova, Bârlad, where it establishes and activates a normal school—now under the name of the Normal School "Alexandru Vlahuță," one of the oldest pedagogical

are no more valuable than other inhabitants of the Romanian lands.

of villages from an occasional point of view (e.g., Vălenii Șomcutei).

. From here, in various ways, this

The central area of Chioarului is between the rivers Lăpuș and Someș. The axis of the area would be the Lăpuș River that runs in the direction that goes from southsoutheast to north-northwest. Lăpuș River is the longest river in Maramureș County, collecting the waters from the Igniș and Tibleș Mountains and from the Breaza Ridge and the Preluca Massif. It springs from below Văratec Peak, at about 1200 m altitude, and flows into Someș. It has a length of 114 km, which runs mostly through the Chioar area. Someș River, which borders the Chioarului in the western part, crosses the Maramureș County on an area of 50 km [1].

From a geographical point of view, we cannot say that the Chioar area outlines a natural unit with specific features such as those of the Maramureș County (historical Maramureș) or the Country of Hațeg, but the historical, economic, and political conditions are the characteristic features of this territory.

The territory of Chioar has been inhabited since ancient times; the evidence is in the research done by the County Museum of History and Archeology Maramureș together with specialists of the Archeology Institute of Bucharest, which identifies as the points of scientific interest the localities Mesteacăn, Boiu Mare, Prislop, and Văleni. Between 1978 and 1979 in Mesteacăn (Valea Chioarului commune), a locality mentioned in 1424, excavations were made after which materials from the Bronze Age were discovered, more precisely an anthropomorphic statuette and other ceramic objects and remains. Also in the same locality, a Roman coin from the fourth century was discovered, as late as the Roman ceramic (late third to fourth centuries), and for the seventh to ninth centuries, a material made by hand and wheel [2]. The research already started provides sufficient evidence to find that we are not talking about a region where we can associate the terms "colonization" and "coming from elsewhere" but a community that manifests itself through the continuity of human settlements.

In the work of the *Graiul, etnografia și folclorul zonei Chioar*, Gheorghe Pop and Ioan Chiș Șter discuss the existence of a reference document, *Kövár vidékének tàrsadolma* written by Szentgyörgyi Mária, where it is mentioned that most of the localities were formed, their number exceeding 45. Another aspect mentioned in the paper is the documentary attestation of the Chioar area, from the thirteenth century. Since then the whole activity was centered around the Stone Fortress or the Fortress of Chioar (Kövár) that existed in the thirteenth century but is mentioned only in 1319 [3]. Of the fortresses from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries that played a role in the military organization of Transylvania, the Chioar fortress was one of the most important ([4], p. 281) because it had an exceptional strategic position, so it was unmistakable: "the fortress is situated at over 400 m altitude, on the saddle of a hill surrounded by the water of the Lăpuș river, which realizes at the foot a gorge between rocks. The 600 m covered in length by the fittings of the fortress give the impression of a whole fortified hill, with very steep slopes that are lost in the water of the river, and at the top they continue with huge walls of walls, which form the belts of the fortress" [3].

The official register (cadastre) of 1566 shows that the territory of the Fortress of Chioar was quite large; 67 localities are mentioned "with the passage of time its

<sup>3</sup> The Preluca Massif is actually a high horst of 700–800 m, cut off by erosion surfaces (on which the households are scattered, as in the Apuseni Mountains) and deeply fragmented by narrow valleys. The maximum altitude on the northern edge is 810 m, in the Peak of the Flowers.

#### *Research of the Musical Folklore From Maramureș: Chioar Area DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90682*

Massif,<sup>3</sup> the Prisaca Massif, the limestone Boiu Plateau, the Chioar Hills, the Copalnic Depression, and the Baia Mare Depression. Within them appear smaller

part, crosses the Maramureș County on an area of 50 km [1].

conditions are the characteristic features of this territory.

The central area of Chioarului is between the rivers Lăpuș and Someș. The axis of the area would be the Lăpuș River that runs in the direction that goes from southsoutheast to north-northwest. Lăpuș River is the longest river in Maramureș County, collecting the waters from the Igniș and Tibleș Mountains and from the Breaza Ridge and the Preluca Massif. It springs from below Văratec Peak, at about 1200 m altitude, and flows into Someș. It has a length of 114 km, which runs mostly through the Chioar area. Someș River, which borders the Chioarului in the western

From a geographical point of view, we cannot say that the Chioar area outlines a natural unit with specific features such as those of the Maramureș County (historical Maramureș) or the Country of Hațeg, but the historical, economic, and political

The territory of Chioar has been inhabited since ancient times; the evidence is in the research done by the County Museum of History and Archeology Maramureș together with specialists of the Archeology Institute of Bucharest, which identifies as the points of scientific interest the localities Mesteacăn, Boiu Mare, Prislop, and Văleni. Between 1978 and 1979 in Mesteacăn (Valea Chioarului commune), a locality mentioned in 1424, excavations were made after which materials from the Bronze Age were discovered, more precisely an anthropomorphic statuette and other ceramic objects and remains. Also in the same locality, a Roman coin from the fourth century was discovered, as late as the Roman ceramic (late third to fourth centuries), and for the seventh to ninth centuries, a material made by hand and wheel [2]. The research already started provides sufficient evidence to find that we are not talking about a region where we can associate the terms "colonization" and "coming from elsewhere" but a community that manifests itself through the conti-

In the work of the *Graiul, etnografia și folclorul zonei Chioar*, Gheorghe Pop and

The official register (cadastre) of 1566 shows that the territory of the Fortress of Chioar was quite large; 67 localities are mentioned "with the passage of time its

<sup>3</sup> The Preluca Massif is actually a high horst of 700–800 m, cut off by erosion surfaces (on which the households are scattered, as in the Apuseni Mountains) and deeply fragmented by narrow valleys. The

maximum altitude on the northern edge is 810 m, in the Peak of the Flowers.

Ioan Chiș Șter discuss the existence of a reference document, *Kövár vidékének tàrsadolma* written by Szentgyörgyi Mária, where it is mentioned that most of the localities were formed, their number exceeding 45. Another aspect mentioned in the paper is the documentary attestation of the Chioar area, from the thirteenth century. Since then the whole activity was centered around the Stone Fortress or the Fortress of Chioar (Kövár) that existed in the thirteenth century but is mentioned only in 1319 [3]. Of the fortresses from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries that played a role in the military organization of Transylvania, the Chioar fortress was one of the most important ([4], p. 281) because it had an exceptional strategic position, so it was unmistakable: "the fortress is situated at over 400 m altitude, on the saddle of a hill surrounded by the water of the Lăpuș river, which realizes at the foot a gorge between rocks. The 600 m covered in length by the fittings of the fortress give the impression of a whole fortified hill, with very steep slopes that are lost in the water of the river, and at the top they continue with huge walls of walls,

units, special in appearance and genesis.

*Heritage*

nuity of human settlements.

which form the belts of the fortress" [3].

**184**

extent has always varied, the number of villages belonging to it exceeding 80" ([5], pp. 173–174). In 1378 the fortress was donated to the Romanian voivodes Balc and Drag and their brother Ioan, the descendants of Dragoș voivode from Maramureș ([6], p. 164); this family was keeping it until the death of the last descendant in 1555. In a short time Chioar Country became organized in voivodships with a certain number of villages. In the year 1566, there were 12 voivodes in 61 villages, and in 1603 there were 16 voivodes in 81 villages. In the official registers that have been kept, the number of inhabitants is mentioned, as well as the duties they owed to the citadel. In about 61 villages, there were 230 families of nobles, the Chioar area being the area with the most Romanian nobles, after Făgăraș ([7], p. 11).

From November 1599 to September 1600, the fortress and the entire Chioar territory were under the leadership of Mihai Viteazul. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the land came into the possession of the Habsburg Empire, which, starting in 1662, administered it through the Teleki family.<sup>4</sup> Under Austrian rule, the inhabitants of the district were forced to contribute food, money, and labor for the imperial army. The social oppression was doubled by the confessional one, by the insistence of Vienna to impose Catholicism<sup>5</sup> . From here, in various ways, this greedy family will grab everything they can (land, especially), wanting to make Chioar a large area with a unitary structure.

As is well-known, the establishment of the Habsburg regime in Transylvania brought many movements and the privileges of the servants. People who fled from authorities, called "fugitives," are sometimes made up of gangs who keep the authorities under tension. This is also the case of Grigore Pintea with his numerous fortresses of Romanians, who hoped that by the victory of the rebels, they would avoid falling into the "eternal slavery" that they felt the Teleki family was preparing. In 1703 Pintea was killed, and the uprising ended with the peace concluded at Satu Mare in 1711. In order to avoid the regrouping of the anti-Habsburg forces, the Fortress of Chioar was destroyed in 1718, by General Rabutin de Bussy's order.

The inhabitants of Chioar today call it "the city of Racolța" (a link to the name of Francesc Rákoszi, the rebel). In the memory of the inhabitants, the demolition of the fortress lasted a long time because, it is said that the people took the tile from which the fortress was made to make their baking ovens—among the few that are still preserved today. We will not dwell on the modern history of the Chioar area; we will say only that the people of these regions received with great enthusiasm the historical decisions of 1 December, 1918, to which they sent their representatives.<sup>6</sup> The foundations remained all the traditional ones, strong on which the healthy spirituality of some proud people was built, of a richness of souls and nobility who are no more valuable than other inhabitants of the Romanian lands.

<sup>4</sup> In February 1662 Kamény Simon, son of the deceased prince Kamény János, appoints Teleki Mihái as the supreme captain of the Chioar.

<sup>5</sup> Toward the end of the seventeenth century, confessional disorders among the Romanian population from Chioar will also appear. Some accept Catholicism while others do not, the result being the division of villages from an occasional point of view (e.g., Vălenii Șomcutei).

<sup>6</sup> From Chioar area there were important people of the time, who participated in the revolution: Ion Buteanu, the prefect of Iancu, and Ioan Popescu from Coaş, who after participating in the revolutionary events in Chioar, from 1848, moves to Moldova, Bârlad, where it establishes and activates a normal school—now under the name of the Normal School "Alexandru Vlahuță," one of the oldest pedagogical schools in the country.
