Mioarele
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Mioarele, formerly known as Mățău, is a
commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...
in
Argeș County Argeș County () is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Pitești. Demographics On 20 October 2011, it had a population of 612,431 and the population density was 89/km2. * Romanians – 97% * Roma (Gypsi ...
,
Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the seldom used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in R ...
,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. Located 4
kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...
s southeast of
Câmpulung Câmpulung (also spelled ''Cîmpulung'', , german: Langenau, Old Romanian ''Dlăgopole'', ''Длъгополе'' (from Middle Bulgarian)), or ''Câmpulung Muscel'', is a municipality in the Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is situated among t ...
,''Primăria Mioarele. Informații. Prezentare comună''
at the Argeș County Council site
on the way to
Târgoviște Târgoviște (, alternatively spelled ''Tîrgoviște''; german: Tergowisch) is a city and county seat in Dâmbovița County, Romania. It is situated north-west of Bucharest, on the right bank of the Ialomița River. Târgoviște was one of the ...
, it touches both the
Argeș River Arges or Argeș may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Romania * Argeș County, a county in Muntenia, with its capital at Pitești * Argeș Region, an administrative division from 1950 to 1952 * Argeș River, which flows through the Southern ...
valleyIoana Proca Floria, "Splendorile naturii. Punctul fosilifer de la Suslănești", in ''Magazin'', Vol. XLVIII, Issue 13, March 2005, p. 10 and the banks of its
Argeșel The Argeșel is a left tributary of the river Râul Târgului in Romania. Its source is near the Păpușa Peak, in the Iezer Mountains. It discharges into the Râul Târgului in Mioveni. The following towns and villages are situated along the rive ...
tributary. Dan Simonescu, "Din istoria folclorului și folcloristicii. Folcloristul C. Rădulescu-Codin (1875—1926)", in ''Revista de Folclor'', Issue 4/1957, p. 102 It is composed of five villages: Mățău (the commune center), with Chilii and Cocenești, as one cluster; Suslănești, the oldest surviving village, is located farther to the east, alongside Aluniș. The commune, like Câmpulung itself, is located just below the
Southern Carpathians The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the P ...
, and includes Mățău peak, held as the tallest hill in Romania, as well as sediments with fossilized fish from the
Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
period. Mățău and especially Suslănești are traditional centers for
horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
, as well as for the related plum-brandy industry. The area engaged in commerce since
Antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
, when it was used as a
trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
by the
Dacians The Dacians (; la, Daci ; grc-gre, Δάκοι, Δάοι, Δάκαι) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often consid ...
. Its history remained obscure during the early medieval interlude, and down to the foundation of an early Romanian polity, though archeological finds suggest that the defunct village of Hobaia, located on commune grounds, was inhabited as early as the 10th century AD. Toponymic clues have led historians to suppose that Mioarele's inhabitants included
Early Slavs The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...
and
Cumans The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...
, and that some part of the village may be known in written records from 1401 or 1402. A component of
Muscel County Muscel County is a former first-order administrative district of Romania. It was located in the southern central part of Greater Romania, in the northwestern part of the historic region of Muntenia. Its territory is now mostly part of Argeș County ...
in
Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...
, Suslănești was first mentioned in 1503, due to its participation in trade with the
Transylvanian Saxons The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ( ...
; it and Hobaia were inhabited by yeomen—some of whom advanced into Muscel's boyardom, while others became their serfs, and then their sharecroppers. While Hobaia was destroyed in mysterious circumstances, a dominant clan, the Jumăreas, emerged as the dominant clan of Suslănești during the 17th century. The Jumărea ascendancy coincided with a regional migration, at the end of which Mățău was established as a secondary hamlet. This new settlement thrived while Suslănești went into a relative decline, its land encroached upon by several monastery estates and boyar families—including the Rucăreanus, who had a long feud with the Jumăreas and the other remaining yeomen. Large property was consolidated under the
Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
, down to a land reform in 1944. Present-day Mioarele was noted as a scene of heavy fighting during the Romanian withdrawal in World War I, and was vandalized by the
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
during a two-year occupation (1916–1918). It emerged from the war as a hub of
agrarian politics Agrarian means pertaining to agriculture, farmland, or rural areas. Agrarian may refer to: Political philosophy *Agrarianism *Agrarian law, Roman laws regulating the division of the public lands *Agrarian reform *Agrarian socialism Society ...
and an electoral pool for the
National Peasants' Party The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc, or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It w ...
. The decline of the peasant class was curtailed when locals were encouraged to cultivate themselves and advance socially, including by migrating into other areas of the country. Driven by schoolteachers such as Ion Vișoianu and Ion Gh. Nicolaescu-Mățău, this effort made Mățău and Suslănești stand out as the ancestral homeland for a large number of cultural and political notabilities; figures to trace their origin to the area include Muscel's
Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...
Alexandru Mușetescu, literary scholar Dan Simonescu, and writer
Tudor Mușatescu Tudor Mușatescu (; February 22, 1903 – November 4, 1970) was a Romanian playwright and short story writer, best known for his humorous prose. Biography Mușatescu was born in Câmpulung-Muscel to a family of middle-class intellectuals &mdash ...
. The education-driven institutional modernization was doubled from the 1940s by attempts to introduce intensive horticulture and improve transportation. Such objectives were realized by the
communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
, which incorporated the villages under a single commune in 1956–1967, and made it part of Argeș County in 1968; it also introduced the collectivization of farmlands, with a large-scale cultivation of orchards, and conscripted local youth in projects of road modernization. During its late stages, the regime completed the national road 73, which goes around Mioarele. After the
Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...
, the commune remained underdeveloped due to water deficiencies, though it also completed Argeș's first-ever ski slope, in 2007.


Geography

Mioarele is noted for its pastures and ''
Prunus domestica ''Prunus domestica'', the European plum is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. A deciduous tree, it includes many varieties of the fruit trees known as plums in English, though not all plums belong to this species. The greengag ...
'' orchards, being locally famous for the "white plums of Suslănești" (''prune albe de Suslănești''). As of 2023, its surface area is 33
square kilometer Square kilometre ( International spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square kilometer (American spelling), symbol km2, is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. 1 km2 is equa ...
s; it borders Câmpulung to the south and west, Stoenești to the east,
Boteni Boteni is a commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Balabani, Boteni, Lunca and Muscel. Natives *Petre Țuțea Petre Țuțea (; 6 October 1902 – 3 December 1991) was a Romanian philosopher, journalist ...
to the south,
Poienari Poienari is a commune in Neamț County, Western Moldavia, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hun ...
to the south and west, Bilcești, a part of
Valea Mare-Pravăț Valea Mare-Pravăț is a Commune in Romania, commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Bilcești, Colnic, Fântânea, Gura Pravăț, Nămăești, Pietroasa, Șelari, and Valea Mare-Pravăț. The commune is lo ...
, also to the west. In addition to being located on the Argeș, the commune also straddles the border between the Argeș Hills (called ''muscele'') and the
Southern Carpathians The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the P ...
; these are reported to include
oil sands Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
that reflect their geological origin in the
Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
and
Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( el, Τηθύς ''Tēthús''), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean that covered most of the Earth during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continents ...
. With a height of 1,017
meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
s, Mățău Hill is rated as the tallest hill in all of Romania.Gabriel Tudor, "100 de locuri de văzut în România. Dealul Mățău", in ''Magazin'', Vol. LXV, Issue 5, February 2022, p. 7 Olga Andronachi
"Comuna Mioarele suferă de sete!"
in ''Ziarul Argeșul'', July 29, 2021
The eponymous village, central to Mioarele, sits atop this hill, overlooking the corresponding Câmpulung Depression, and spreads over several kilometers. Another one of the hills is Hobaia (or Marlauz)Dinu, p. 285 in Suslănești, which has a large trove of fossilized Oligocene fish, and is maintained as a scientific reserve. The locality is also close to Mateiaș Hill,Marius Pop, Dan Simonescu, "Scriitorii trebuie să simtă activ necesitatea contactului cu lumea...", in ''Argeș'', Vol. XVII, Issue 9, December 1982, p. 6 and has direct views over three Carpathian ranges:
Piatra Craiului The Piatra Craiului Mountains (german: Königstein, hu, Királykő-hegység) are a mountain range in the Southern Carpathians in Romania. Its name is translated as ''Kings' Rock'' or ''The Rock of the Prince''. The mountain range is located ...
, Iezer, and
Făgăraș Făgăraș (; german: Fogarasch, Fugreschmarkt, hu, Fogaras) is a municipiu, city in central Romania, located in Brașov County. It lies on the Olt (river), Olt River and has a population of 28,330 as of 2011. It is situated in the historical regi ...
.


History


Early history

In a 1961 piece, local historian Nicolae Nasta summarized the results of archeological finds in and around Suslănești, reporting that, during Dacian rule in the 3rd century BC, the area served as a storage spot for wine and oil, imported from the Greek cities on the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
coast. According to a news item of 2022, Mățău Hill was still hosting a yearly ceremony called "Sumedru's Fire", which may be of a pre-Christian origin. The peak's name is the subject of scholarly dispute, with theories indicating very different origins. The favored explanation is that it comes from the
Early Slavs The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...
, and that it originally meant "bear's village" (it may also refer to the locals' physical built, since, as a common noun, it is used to mean "wide-shouldered man"); others see it as originating from a
Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...
term for "nipple", in reference to the hill's general shape. Historian Ștefan Pascu proposes yet another origin, from the
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
Мацо (''Matso''), a pet form of "Matthew".Nicolescu ''et al.'', p. 165 The digs at Hobaia, a village that once existed just east of Suslănești's territory, were also said to have uncovered ruins dating back to the 10th century AD. Local historian Ion Nania argues that, during the Early Middle Ages in Romania, Mățău-Mioarele was an area of
Cuman The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian language, Russian Exonym and endonym, exonym ), were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confede ...
settlement, and as such briefly included in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania was a Latin-rite bishopric west of the Siret River (in present-day Romania) from 1228 to 1241. The lands incorporated into the diocese had been dominated by the nomadic Cumans since about 1100. Catholic missi ...
. He uses as evidence historical sources which discuss a rump "
Cumania The name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a tribal confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Tur ...
" as being located east of the
Olt River The Olt (Romanian and Hungarian; german: Alt; la, Aluta or ', tr, Oltu, grc, Ἄλυτος ''Alytos'') is a river in Romania. It is long, and its basin area is . It is the longest river flowing exclusively through Romania. Its average disch ...
, as well seemingly Cumanic place-names, such as "Marlauz" in Suslănești. Suslănești, which may have been originally known as "Negurești" or "Neguțești", is the only locality in Romania to use this name. Of uncertain origin, it may stem from a Slavic term, соуслъ (rendered in Romanian as ''suslă'')—referring to a byproduct of distillation in the process of making
plum brandy ''Plum Brandy'', also known as ''The Plum'' (French: ''La Prune''), is an oil painting by Édouard Manet. It is undated but thought to have been painted about 1877. The painting measures by . It depicts a woman seated alone at a table in a caf ...
; a competing theory sees it as a contraction of ''sus la lână'' ("up there with the wool"), suggesting ancient origins as a
sheep-shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...
station. Such theories are disputed by some linguists, who note that the suffix ''-ănești'' is almost always indicative of a name derived form
anthroponymy Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and co ...
. They suggest that the place was named for ''Suslea'', from the Slavic name ''Suslo(v)''. Mățău and its environs entered recorded history as a settlement in what was then
Muscel County Muscel County is a former first-order administrative district of Romania. It was located in the southern central part of Greater Romania, in the northwestern part of the historic region of Muntenia. Its territory is now mostly part of Argeș County ...
, part of the Romanian polity known as
Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...
. One document, dated 1401 or 1402, mentions ''Ohaba'' (literally: "fiscal immunity") on the Argeșel, a name which may have been transformed into ''Hobaia'' ("ravine"), and is perhaps the oldest mention of any part of the present-day commune. An indirect report that a village existed in Mățău during the mid-to-late 15th century is provided by the mention of two locals serving as soldiers for Wallachian Prince
Vlad the Impaler Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ro, Vlad Țepeș ) or Vlad Dracula (; ro, Vlad Drăculea ; 1428/311476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most imp ...
. Suslănești and the surrounding areas were located on the border with Angevin Hungary, and engaged in trade with its
Transylvanian Saxons The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ( ...
. In 1503, the commercial register of
Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
mentioned the village (called ''Suslanest'' or ''Suschlanest'' in Saxon dialect) as one of 28 Wallachian localities it had direct and permanent exchanges with. This marks the first attestation of the locality; the 1503 record also specifically mentions locals Buda and Tudor bringing
wels Wels (; Central Bavarian: ''Wös'') is a city in Upper Austria, on the Traun River near Linz. It is the county seat of Wels-Land, and with a population of approximately 60,000, the eighth largest city in Austria. Geography Wels is in the H ...
, beeswax and hides to the markets in Corona. Some time after, in July 1512, a village known as Negomirești, probably baptized after its founder Negomir, was also attested near Mățău Hill. The future commune was originally divided into yeomen (''moșneni'') and serfs (''clăcași'')—the former owned the entire future commune, roughly divided into five plots.Cici-Iordache Adam, Radu Crețeanu, "Istoria noastră, viața noastră. Genealogii țărănești", in ''
Flacăra ''Flacăra'' (Romanian for "The Flame") is a weekly literary magazine published in Bucharest, Romania. History and profile ''Flacăra'' was started in 1911. The first issue was published on 22 October 1911. The founder was Constantin Banu and ...
'', Vol. XXXIII, Issue 8, February 1984, p. 22
According to sociological research carried out by Ioan Șucu in the 1970s, the yeomen lineages are traceable to
medieval times In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, whereas the serf families are historically invisible to 1746, when Prince
Constantine Mavrocordatos Constantine Mavrocordatos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Μαυροκορδάτος, Romanian: ''Constantin Mavrocordat''; February 27, 1711November 23, 1769) was a Greek noble who served as Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia at several ...
abolished serfdom, and lifted them into the class of sharecroppers. Traces of Hobaia were rediscovered by accident in July 1939, along with the ruins of a Wallachian Orthodox church, with four tombs from the mid-16th century. The church was positively dated to the early 16th century, while the bodies buried were tentatively identified as belonging to the lowest caste of the boyar aristocracy, "since nothing is mentioned of their ranks." The spot was re-investigated by archeologists in July 1959. They discovered 19 tombs, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, and valuable artifacts. These include a ring belonging to ''
Spatharios The ''spatharii'' or ''spatharioi'' (singular: la, spatharius; el, σπαθάριος, literally "spatha-bearer") were a class of Late Roman imperial bodyguards in the court in Constantinople in the 5th–6th centuries, later becoming a purely ho ...
'' Cazan, indicative of a much higher boyar ranking and decorated with the
double-headed eagle In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle (or double-eagle) is a charge (heraldry), charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the late Byzantin ...
.


Jumărea ascendancy

The church building and surrounding Hobaia were ransacked and burned down at some unknown time in history (possibly by the
Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
).Răgădunescu, "Ruinele unei biserici din preajma anului 1500, găsite la Suslănești-Muscel", in ''
Universul ''Universul'' was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 (with a two-year break during World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbrevi ...
'', July 6, 1939, p. 9
One reading suggest that they were destroyed in 1595, when Prince
Michael the Brave Michael the Brave ( ro, Mihai Viteazul or ; 1558 – 9 August 1601), born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia (as Michael II, 1593 – 1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ''de facto'' ruler of Transylvania (1599 – 1600). ...
had involved Wallachia in the
Long Turkish War The Long Turkish War or Thirteen Years' War was an indecisive land war between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the Principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was waged from 1593 to 1606 but in Europ ...
. The surrounding areas were inhabited over the following decades: documents from the 1570s and '80s mention several yeomen (Radu, Drăghici, Oprea of Suslănești) acting as witnesses in land disputes and other legal matters; between the 1590s and the 1620s, the village was one of several estates owned by the boyar Staicu, who rose to the rank of ''
Postelnic ''Postelnic'' (, plural: ''postelnici,'' from the Slavic ''postel'', "bed"; cf. Russian '' postelnichy'') was a historical rank traditionally held by boyars in Moldavia and Wallachia, roughly corresponding to the position of ''chamberlain''. It ...
''.Dinu, p. 287 A votive cross in
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
, dating from the 1650s, mentions Suslănești locals Vladislav, Șerban, Negre and Pârvu. In December 1656, Prince
Constantin Șerban Constantin II Șerban (? – 1682) was Prince of Wallachia between 1654 and 1658, illegitimate son to Radu Şerban. According to custom, being born out of wedlock did not disqualify Constantin from becoming prince. Reign His rule saw the rebel ...
granted parts of Suslănești to '' Ceauș'' Lunea, who had previously been engaged in a legal battle for its ownership. Court documents make numerous references to an increasingly powerful Muscel family. Known as "Jumărea" or "Jumărescu", its first known member was Voicu Toacă of Suslănești (active before 1644), whose inheritance was split between children Badea, Neaga, Vișa and Neacșa (the former is known to have used a double-headed eagle on his own seal).Dinu, p. 288 From 1697, their estates were also encroached upon by Câmpulung Monastery, after the local ''
Hieromonk A hieromonk ( el, Ἱερομόναχος, Ieromonachos; ka, მღვდელმონაზონი, tr; Slavonic: ''Ieromonakh'', ro, Ieromonah), also called a priestmonk, is a monk who is also a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church and E ...
'', Cozma, issued a donation.Dinu, p. 290 In April 1707, the seven sons of Stanciu Jumărea claimed ownership of Suslănești in its entirety, and met to delineate its southern borders.Dinu, p. 289 Voicu's properties continued to be disputed between their various successors, down to 1824. Suslănești became a fief of the Filipescu boyars in the late 17th or early 18th century, granted to them by Prince
Constantin Brâncoveanu Constantin Brâncoveanu (; 1654 – August 15, 1714) was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714. Biography Ascension A descendant of the Craiovești boyar family and heir through his grandfather Preda of a considerable part of Matei Ba ...
.Dinu, p. 286 Into the 19th century, the land was fragmented further, with plots donated to Șubești Church of Câmpulung, or purchased by the ''
Skete A skete ( ) is a monastic community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of four types of early monastic orders, al ...
'' of
Mărculești Mărculești () is a city in Florești District, in northern Moldova, with a population of 2,081 at the 2004 census. The city was once the site of a Jewish agricultural and mercantile colony until its destruction in the Holocaust. In film and ...
, by Alecu Chilișoiu, and by ''
Logothete Logothete ( el, λογοθέτης, ''logothétēs'', pl. λογοθέται, ''logothétai''; Med. la, logotheta, pl. ''logothetae''; bg, логотет; it, logoteta; ro, logofăt; sr, логотет, ''logotet'') was an administrative title ...
'' Nicolae Rucăreanu. The latter, while feuding with the Jumăreas and exploiting the sharecroppers, obtained recognition as Lunea's heir. Around 1550, Mățău was slowly being reestablished as a village separate from Suslănești. A princely writ by
Mircea Ciobanul Mircea the Shepherd ( ro, Mircea Ciobanul, d. 25 September 1559), was the Voivode (or Prince) of Wallachia three times: January 1545 (he entered Bucharest on 17 March)–16 November 1552; May 1553–28 February 1554 (leaving Bucharest t ...
, dated 1558 or 1559, mentions a merchant Dumitru of Mățău, who had been wronged by Saxon authorities. The name as used for a locality is again attested in June 1614, as ''Mățăul de Jos'' ("Lower Mățău"), with the upper half of the village implied, but only truly mentioned in April 1716. ''Mățăul de Jos'' was later abandoned, and its memory is preserved in local toponymy as ''Căminuri'' ("Hearths"). In the 1920s, journalist Gheorghe Lungulescu argued that the settlement had been peopled by soldiers in Michael the Brave's armies, and that some of the surrounding estates went to Michael's generals, the
Buzești brothers Buzești may refer to several villages in Romania: * Buzești, a village in the commune Crasna, Gorj County * Buzești, a village in the commune Fărcașa Fărcașa ( hu, Farkasaszó) is a commune in Maramureș County, Romania. It is composed of ...
."In cinstea eroilor. Desvelirea monumentului din Mâțău", in '' Neamul Românesc'', December 2, 1922, p. 2 Other records suggest that most of Mățău's inhabitants, including the Vișoiu family, had moved out of the Jumărea domains; it incorporated Negomirești, which disappeared from public record after 1784. Another secondary hamlet, ''Dănești'', was first attested under that name in 1600, but, after become the identifiable home of a large clan, the Coceans, changed its name to "Cocenești". The newer village, Chilii, was mentioned beginning in 1708. One other group of locals moved out of the area and into Câmpulung, adopting the surname "Suslănescu". Branches of this clan were attested as far east as
Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...
. By the 18th century, all land in present-day Mioarele was included in one of Muscel's standard subdivisions, or '' plăși'' (singular: ''plasă''). This particular one was named after the Argeșel, and had eleven villages in all—also including
Cetățeni Cetățeni is a commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Cetățeni, Lăicăi, and Valea Cetățuia. The commune is situated at a distance of from Pitești and from Câmpulung, right next to Dâmbovița Coun ...
and
Valea Mare-Pravăț Valea Mare-Pravăț is a Commune in Romania, commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Bilcești, Colnic, Fântânea, Gura Pravăț, Nămăești, Pietroasa, Șelari, and Valea Mare-Pravăț. The commune is lo ...
. Muscel's social composition was revealed in July 1774: upon the end of war in Eastern Europe, Wallachia was briefly occupied by the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, and a Russian official by the name of Tsurikov was tasked with conducting a fiscal census. It records 62 households of '' scutelnici'' (who did not owe any tax), and notes that they still owned the village land.Mohanu & Hera Bucur, p. 344 These families preserved their status beyond that moment, and until 1835. Tsurikov also records three priests and five
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
s living in Mățău's fiscal jurisdiction. Only a small wooden church, built in the early 19th century by ''Postelnic'' Simon Jumărescu, was servicing the Orthodox parishioners in Suslănești. In December 1848, a stone building was completed with funds from the new ''Postelnic'', Ioan Simon Jumărescu (Simon's son), his wife Ana Popeasca, and his sister Cocoana Eleana. During the mid-19th century, Mățău was threatened with devastation by a local brigand, Radu Anghel. One local legend is that he was ultimately persuaded into disengaging by a local peasant, Simon of Suslănești; contrarily, a folk song records Anghel's attack on Ioan Simon.


Modernization era

The subsequent decades saw Wallachia merged into the
United Principalities The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia ( ro, Principatele Unite ale Moldovei și Țării Românești), commonly called United Principalities, was the personal union of the Principality of Moldavia and the Principality of Wallachia, f ...
(from 1859), followed by the consolidated
Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
(from 1881). In 1893, Mățău commune had incorporated Suslănești, as well as Chiliile, Cocenești, and Călulești—the latter village has since been fully absorbed into Mățău village; not yet mentioned as a separate village, Aluniș appeared in public records as a Mățău land grant. The Kingdom increased the pace of institutional modernization; in the 1890s, its Education Minister,
Spiru Haret Spiru C. Haret (; 15 February 1851 – 17 December 1912) was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the ''n''-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approx ...
, directed Muscel's teaching staff to provide for the peasants' cultivation and social emancipation. As a result, Mățău had a school library (rural Muscel's second-largest in 1902), and from 1901 a students' cafeteria. The local school, whose main teacher was Ion Vișoianu, was successful in promoting social advancement. In a September 1930 article prompted by the alumni reunion, novelist Cezar Petrescu argued that they included "three physicians, six secondary-school professors, four magistrates, seven officers, one veterinarian, three lawyers, eleven priests, thirty-six primary-school teachers, [and] two high-ranking clerks in the Ministry of Public Finance (Romania), ministry of finance". A similar influence was exercised by Nicolae Cristescu, a Mățău native who taught at the school in Goleștii Badii, Topoloveni; his students included Ion Mihalache, the future agrarian politician, and Mihai Antonescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Romania, Deputy Premier during World War II. Muscel became a theater of war shortly after Romania in World War I, Romania entered World War I, when the country was invaded by the
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
. The scene of several aerial dogfights and repeated shelling, Mățău was also a destination for the refugee citizens of Câmpulung, and eventually occupied by the Central Powers during the The Romanian Debacle, massive defeats of late 1916. The villages were taken by the Bavarian Army's 12th Bavarian Infantry Division, 12th Infantry Division, after heavy fighting, on November 30. The Romanian Land Forces' withdrawal reportedly saw Mihalache, who was serving with the rank of Captain, rescuing a trove of documents and monies out of Suslănești. Over the next two years, the occupiers ransacked Suslănești, including by cutting down centennial Juglans, walnut trees, which had been planted by the Jumăreas. Many natives of the commune continued to fight for Romania after the withdrawal into Western Moldavia (to 1918), and then in the Hungarian–Romanian War (1919). Their sacrifice was commemorated by the authorities of Greater Romania in 1922, when a war monument, done by sculptor Dumitru Mățăoanu, was unveiled in Mățău. The Rucăreanus liquidated their assets in Suslănești during the early 20th century, selling their estate the Prislopeanu family, whose female descendant, married Andreescu, held on to it until 1944; similarly, the Jumărescus sold their land to Ioniță Georgescu—the resulting two estates had 100 hectares between them, while yeomen descendants had fallen into destitution. Meanwhile, Simon of Suslănești had become patriarch of the Simon (later Simonescu) clan. His grandsons include Dan Simonescu, a Romanian literary historian and bibliographer, and Colonel Constantin Simonescu, killed in action on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II. The former, born in 1902, recalls spending his childhood "among the peasants of Suslănești", "with a sort of liberty that was rarely impinged upon by pedagogic principles." In the 1920s, he took folklorist Constantin Rădulescu-Codin on a visit to Mioarele area. Mățău was traditionally upheld as the birthplace of comedic writer
Tudor Mușatescu Tudor Mușatescu (; February 22, 1903 – November 4, 1970) was a Romanian playwright and short story writer, best known for his humorous prose. Biography Mușatescu was born in Câmpulung-Muscel to a family of middle-class intellectuals &mdash ...
(born 1903), but this was dismissed in 2003 by Mușatescu's son; he notes that only some members of the family lived in the village, while Tudor and his parents had settled in Câmpulung. The interwar political scene brought new forces on the political scene, including Mihalache's Muscel-based Peasants' Party (Romania), Peasants' Party. Its core membership included schoolteacher Gheorghe Vișoiu, originally from Mățău, though his poolitical career only peaked after he moved to Olt County. The movement for social and cultural uplift was continued locally by schoolteacher Ion Gh. Nicolaescu (known as Nicolaescu-Mățău), who, together with other village intellectuals, founded the magazine ''Muscelul Nostru'', put out from Câmpulung in 1929–1942. Following 1928 Romanian general election, general elections in December 1928, Mihalache's new
National Peasants' Party The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc, or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It w ...
(PNȚ) took power in Romania, including control of the Prefect (Romania), Prefectures. The office of Prefect in Muscel County went to Alexandru Mușetescu, a Mățău native. During his tenure, he was criticized for not drilling into the hill to provide Câmpulung with a new source of water, since the existing sources were contaminated by Lime (material), lime. In 1930, under decentralizing laws favored by the PNȚ, "Pravăț" was established as a separate commune, with mayors retained for each of the eleven villages absorbed into it. This structure grouped Suslănești, Mățău, Surbănești (formerly part of Mățău), and Valea Mare, as well as villages in present-day Lerești and Stoenești. Under this regime, Mățău built a new communal stable, a cattle market, and several gravel roads (one of which led to Poienarii de Muscel, Jugur). In January 1933, a bobsleigh competition was held on Mățău Hill, for the "Machelaru Cup". The administrative situation was reversed by later governments: Suslănești was administered as a separate commune, and remained a regional center of the PNȚ. This was reported by ''Dreptatea'' newspaper during the local elections of Muscel in June 1936; the same newspaper also claimed that, in order to win a majority of votes, the National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875), National Liberals threatened locals that, should they vote Peasantist, the commune would be disestablished by order of the Prefect. In September of that year, the PNȚ study circle in Câmpulung invited doctrinaire Mihai Ralea to lecture for the peasants of Suslănești and Lerești.


World War II and after

From 1939, Romania was a single-party state, ruled upon by King of Romania, King Carol II of Romania, Carol II and his National Renaissance Front (FRN). In the political and administrative reorganization which followed, Mățău and Suslănești were separate communes, both included in a new ''plasă'', named after Radu Negru. In December 1939, their respective FRN secretaries were Gh. I. Vișoianu and Nae D. Vlădău. Muscel had been merged into the larger regional unit, Ținutul Argeș, Ținutul Bucegi, whose Royal Resident, Gheorghe Alexianu, set himself the goal of building a new bridge on the highway linking Mățău to
Boteni Boteni is a commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Balabani, Boteni, Lunca and Muscel. Natives *Petre Țuțea Petre Țuțea (; 6 October 1902 – 3 December 1991) was a Romanian philosopher, journalist ...
. Around the same time, the Romanian Social Service, the regime's organization for charity work, established a "command center" in Mățău, which also had its own village team, under Commandant Cecilia Spirescu. Câmpulung and its immediate surroundings were affected by an earthquake in January 1940. Its causes were unknown at the time, but one theory suggested shifts within the Mățău Hill bedrock. Heavy rainfall that July reportedly caused a major landslide in Suslănești, with "enormous panic and frantic flight of the population." Months later, the downfall of the FRN regime and its replacement with Ion Antonescu's dictatorship also brought a reestablishment of the counties, with military or civilian commissioners as their Prefects. In May 1942, Antonescu's appointment in Muscel, General Teodor Nicolau, announced that he intended to develop Mățău, Suslănești and Boteni into a hub of intensive horticulture. Suslănești was again merged into Mățău commune; its other 1941 Romanian census, census-designated places of 1941 were Călulești, Cocenești, and Melcești (the latter name disappeared from public memory in later decades). The final stages of World War II saw the United States Air Force Bombing of Romania in World War II, bombing southern Romania; on May 5–6, 1944, this mission focused on Pitești. In the resulting dogfights with the Royal Romanian Air Force, three American bombers were downed over Suslănești, which was at the time still a separate commune. During the Socialist Republic of Romania, communist period, Muscel was merged into the Argeș Region. Mățău and Suslănești were merged by government order in 1956, despite some local opposition. This reticence pushed the authorities to select a new name, "Mioarele" (from ''mioare'', "young sheep", alluding to the region's background in animal husbandry). Aluniș was attached to the commune only in 1967. From 1968, the Region was divided into smaller counties; Muscel was not reestablished, but fused with Argeș County. As part of this arrangement, the present-day commune was described as centered on Mățău. Aluniș, Chilii, Cocenești and Suslănești were the subordinate villages. In December 1958, the paving of roads linking Mățău and Câmpulung was assigned to volunteers from the Union of Communist Youth, Workers' Youth, including from the village branch. After being the recipients of a Land reform in Romania, land reform in late 1944, which liquidated the Georgescu and Andreescu estates, the peasants of Mioarele were included in the collectivization of farmlands. By 1972, the state agricultural enterprise of Câmpulung was running two collective farms on commune grounds: one called "Mioarele", which focused on animal husbandry, and one called "Suslănești", which was primarily an orchard. The latter formed part of a state program to encourage the reclamation of unused land for tree cultivation; the "Argeș Tree Reservoir", established in the 1960s, included the commune, alongside areas of Valea Mare, Lerești, and Rucăr. By 1977, Mioarele was also home to a Centrocoop supermarket and consumers' cooperative. A poets' society named after Mușatescu was established in the commune in October 1975, and recruited in its ranks "some 25 members [...] aged 15 to 76"; it put out anthologies of its work in 1977 and 1989. The archeological digs, meanwhile, were continued and enhanced by Flaminu Mîrțu, director of the Câmpulung Museum. During early 1987, the DN73, national road 73 (DN73), linking Câmpulung to both Brașov and Râmnicu Vâlcea, was fully modernized. Mioarele mentioned in the news after the
Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...
—in September 2005, the portion of DN73 linking it to Mioveni was damaged by 2005 European floods, massive floods. In March of the following year, the road was blocked by picketers from the ARO factory in Câmpulung, who had not received their salaries for months after privatization. In 2007, investors Dorin Mirea and Gabriel Marcu inaugurated the only ski slope of Argeș, located at Mățău-Chilii."Argeșul are cei mai înalți munți din țară, dar singura pârtie de schi e în Muscel"
in ''Jurnalul de Argeș'', January 24, 2018
Denis Grigorescu

in ''Adevărul'' (Pitești edition), January 18, 2021
In the early 2020s, Gheorghe Șucu went public with complaints that the commune was not realizing its potential in tourism on account of having no running water. As he explained in 2021, wells had been drilled, but no water could be located into the bedrock. Also that year, the ski slope's seasonal opening was postponed after the snow groomer was discovered to be unusuable, allegedly due to theft of its parts.


Notes


References

*Victor Brătulescu, "Inscripții de curând descoperite", in ''Buletinul Comisiunii Monumentelor Istorice'', Vol. XXXIII, Fascicle 103, January–March 1940, pp. 5–17. *C. Dinu, "Din istoricul unui vechi sat de moșneni — Suslănești", in ''Muzeul Pitești. Studii și Comunicări'', Vol. IV, 1972, pp. 285–292. *Florina Mocanu, Ioan Hera Bucur, "Documente. Catagrafia județului Mușcel din 1774", in ''Revista Arhivelor'', Issue 3/1992, pp. 327–347. *Carmen I. Nicolescu, Marius I. Valeriu Grecu, Ion Gh. Grecu, ''Satele argeșene atestate între anii 1300 și 1625. Istorie și etimologie''. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2013. {{Argeș County Communes in Argeș County Localities in Muntenia