BY CATHERINE YESAYAN
My story begins in early July of this year, when I visited Yerevan to attend the Apricot Film Festival.
One day, during a film screening at the festival, I met Professor Peter Cowe, who teaches Armenian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his wife, Anahit. Prof. Cowe’s interests and research includes medieval Armenian history.
As we spoke, I learned that they too had plans to travel to Romania in August, and, coincidentally, we had planned to be there during the same time.
The serendipitous encounter played out pretty well. They had plans to stay in Bucharest for two days and then travel north of Romania, where Prof. Cowe intended to do research on Armenian manuscripts that were housed in a monastery there. He was traveling with his wife and two other friends.
The Armenian community of Romania is considered to be one of the oldest Armenian communities in Europe. There’s evidence that Armenians had settled in Romania by the 10th century.
The first big wave of Armenian migration started in the 11th century, following the conquest of the city of Ani by Seljuk Turks, which led to a massive exodus towards the West.
The Armenian population in Romania also increased after the Armenian Genocide, reaching around 80 to 100,000 at one point. However, over the years, the population decreased as a result of intermarriages and Soviet occupation, when a large number of Armenians moved to the United States and other countries. Today, nearly 5,000 Armenians officially live in Romania.
Now, back to my story.
I arrived in Bucharest three days before Prof. Cowe and his group, and did my own sightseeing until they arrived.
During the first three days of my trip, I became acclimated to the city as I explored it on my own. Bucharest was unexpectedly pretty—an architecturally rich city with plenty of monuments, incredible buildings and very wide boulevards.
I toured Transylvania, a region north of the country, for a day. We saw a few castles. It was a very interesting adventure.
When Prof. Cowe and his group arrived, we visited Bucharest’s Armenian Diocese church together and met Bishop Tatev Hagopian, who gave us a ton of information about Armenians in Romania.
Today, the main Armenian institutions and the Prelacy of the Armenian Diocese are situated around the Armenian Church of the Holy Archangels on Armeneasca Street in Bucharest.
For the last three years, the church has been under construction. The renovation project is being financed by the Romanian government.
It was a pity that the church’s exterior was covered in scaffolding. However, we were able to enter the church and marvel at its architecture and the decoration.
The cornerstone of that church was laid in July of 1911, and construction was completed in September of 1915. The design resembles the Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia.
The Church of the Holy Archangels is dedicated to archangels Michael and Gabriel, because the unveiling of the church coincided with the feast of those saints.
The church stands in a big courtyard and is surrounded by a bishop’s residence, a library, a diocesan museum, a cultural center, a kindergarten, and the head office for the Union of Armenians in Romania. Additionally, there is the Ararat Publishing House, and the New Life—bilingual in Armenian and Romanian—periodicals.
The Armenian Diocese in Romania was established in 1401 by the decree of Romanian Prince Alexander, who was also known as the “Good Prince.”
The oldest Armenian Church in Romania, which still stands today, was built in 1350 and is located in the city of Botoșani. According to some sources, the church was built on the site of an old wooden church.
Dozens of churches, monasteries, and chapels were built in the 14th to 20th centuries in the cities of Bucharest, Constanta, Pitesti, Suceava, Lași, Botoșani, Romani, Galati, Ocna and Tulcea, as well as in the Transylvanian cities of Gerlan, Dumberven, Georgen, and Frumoasa. A few of the Armenian churches are Catholic and not Apostolic.
Gerlan, the former Armenopolis, or Armenian City, was built in 1700. Dumberven, formerly known as Elizabethpolis, was also built by several thousands Armenians. The city was named after the Queen.
Today, there are 22 Armenian churches and monasteries in Romania, built between the 14th and 20th centuries—16 Apostolic churches, two monasteries, and four Catholic churches. Bishop Hagopian offered us a map of Romania, which pinpointed each of the existing churches.
Here, I’d like to mention a special monastery, named Hagigadar, in Suceava (pronounced Suchava). Bishop Hagopian recently published a wonderful book on the church, which is one of the oldest, built in 1512, and is situated in Romanian-Moldovan territory. The paintings displayed in the interior of the church are in the style of Armenian Iconoclasm—absolutely stunning. It made me to want to travel there and see the church with my own eyes.
The Armenian community is one of 18 ethnic minorities, which has the right to participate in the parliamentary elections, in Romania.
According to the current legislation of Romania, the activities of groups representing ethnic minorities are financed by the state budget, which is vital for Armenians when organizing cultural events.
A significant celebration organized by the Armenian community is the three-day “Armenian Street Festival” or Festivalul Strada Armenească, which has been held annually since 2013 with the participation of thousands of Romanians and national minorities.
This year, the very popular Armenian band “Metz Bazar” and the singer “Lada Niva,” as well as other Armenian dance and musical groups, were invited to participate in the festival. About 25,000 people attended the three-day event, which was held from August 2 to 4 at the Botanic Park in Bucharest.
After learning all of these facts, our group walked next door to visit the “Hovsep-Victoria Dudian” Cultural Center, the Armenian Diocese museum, and the library.
For more than an hour, Siran Navrouzian, the docent of the museum, gave us a thorough tour and provided details about the collections of the books, paintings, church relics, publications, and artifacts, including handwritten manuscripts dating back to 1351.
The Dudian museum opened in 1944. Navrouzian explained how Dudian, who the museum is named after, sold one of his factories to finance the building of the museum.
The next day, our group met with Varuzhan Voskanyan, who is the President of Union of Armenians in Romania. The local Armenians are proud to have a representative in Parliament.
We met Voskanyan in a building next to the Armenian Diocese, where there used to be an Armenian school that closed in 1962.
He told us a bit about his life and his parents, who were from Istanbul—Constantinople. He also emphasized that the Armenians of Romania, in the past, had been the aristocracy of the diaspora. “The community was full of intellectuals, businessmen, professionals…very wealthy people who lost everything when communists took over Romania,” Voskanyan said.
Voskanyan, who is a devoted community leader, believes that the Armenian community has started to climb upward, and that battle cannot be lost.
Here, I’d like to mention that the 130th Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Vazgen I, was born on September 20, 1908 in Bucharest to a family belonging to the Armenian-Romanian community. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a schoolteacher.
Not too far from the Armenian Church, in Bucharest’s Old Town, there’s a popular restaurant, which was founded in 1808 as an inn.
The owner was an Armenian, Emanuel Mirzayan, nicknamed “Manuc Bei.” At the time, it was one of the most luxurious inns of the region.
It is a well known fact that, in 1812, the Treaty of Bucharest was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire in “Manuc’s Inn” in Bucharest.
As a group, we went to have dinner in that very same restaurant. It’s a well-known dining establishment that almost everyone knows about.
The restaurant is set up in a huge courtyard, lined with trees and vegetation. The courtyard is surrounded by a three-story building with wraparound balconies and rooms.
We had made prior reservations, otherwise they would not have been able to accommodate us. There was also a live entertainment, with a band performing.
The next place we visited was “Casa Melik” or Melik’s house, which was, again, in the vicinity of the church. It took us about 15 minutes to get there, by walking, from the church.
The two-story, spacious house was built in 1760 by an Armenian merchant. Later, the house served as a nursing home for Armenian widows. Today, it’s a museum dedicated to the painter, Theodor Pallady. The house was a testament to the very rich life of Armenians.
Another very interesting place to visit is the Armenian cemetery, which was built in 1854, where there’s a little chapel dedicated to St. Gregory the illuminator. Most of the tombs have been carved in Vienna and brought to Bucharest.
This concludes my report on Romania and its Diasporan Armenian community.
Catherine Yesayan is a regular contributor to Asbarez, with her columns appearing under the “Community Links” heading. She can be reached at cyesayan@gmail.com.
