Mirajul patriei pierdute. Ocuparea Caransebeșului de către otomani în memoria locuitorilor săi
The mirage of a lost Motherland. The Ottoman conquest of Caransebeș in the local community’s memory

Summary/Abstract: In 1658 the Transylvanian Prince, Akos Barcsay, conceded to the Ottoman Empire important Western regions of his realm, including the Banat of Caransebeș-Lugoj and the fortress of Ineu. The inhabitants of Caransebeș saw this political change as a turning point in their lives and in the history of the local community. Before the Ottoman conquest, the town of Caransebeș was ruled by a small Romanian aristocracy, attached to a set of values inspired by Reformation or Catholic propaganda. After the conquest, most noble families took refuge in the neighbouring areas, especially in the Hațeg - Hunedoara region. For most of them the new Ottoman regime was a disaster that brought to an abrupt end a Golden Age. As they felt themselves abandoned, they imagined their past as a glorious age of welfare and prosperity. For more than thirty years the documents issued by the refugees are an impressive testimony of the emotional impact triggered by the experience of losing their “motherland”. Thus,one could understand why, once the province came under the Habsburgs’ rule in1688, the local community obliterated any memory connected to the Ottoman domination. However, a second Ottoman conquest in 1699 forced a brutal separation with the past, as the local nobility began to search for a new identity within the Habsburg controlled territories of Hungary and Transylvania.

• Details
• Contents