I still owe you a post about the Făgăraș Citadel, which I visited last month. There was a post about the building and the walls here and another about the prison tower. Worth checking them out if you have missed them.
Today I'd like to show you the most interesting part of the castle, which is the throne hall.
The citadel is a well known tourist attraction in Romania and an important historical piece on the map.
Do you see those round towers? In one of them there's the bedroom I'm going to show you, but first let's start with the throne hall.
Stepping into this room makes you feel like you are in the 19th century, waiting to meet a king or some high ranking person. This is the waiting room and access here wasn't easy back in the day and it is not easy today either.
You have to wear those shoe protection plastic things, that doctors are wearing (I wish I knew how these are called, but I don't. Maybe @blind-spot can help me out 😏). No shoe cover, no entry, it's that simple. So how do my Adidas shoes look wrapped in those surgeon shoes? Ok, jokes aside, this is necessary as there's carpet on the floor, that would not be able to handle thousands or dirty shoes each day. These are for free, you don't have to pay for them.
This is the antechamber, where most likely everyone had to wait till their time to be invited in, came. The furniture is a unique one. It's not original, it's a replica, but a good one.
It's not every day that I get to visit places like this, so imagine my excitement. There was a bit of a pressure, to take decent photos though. These window spaces are always my favorite and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
In 1526, Ștefan Mailat consolidated the citadel, doubling the thickness of the walls. In 1541, the Ottomans attacked the fortress and captured Mailat, who died in captivity at Yedikule Fortress in Istanbul. Gáspár Bekes, owner of the citadel between 1567 and 1573, constructed the moat around the fortress, the excavated earth being used to strengthen the inner part of the walls. During the time of Stephen VIII Báthory (voivode of Transylvania from 1571 to 1586) and Balthasar Báthory (lord of the fortress from 1588 to 1594), the first bastion was constructed in the south-eastern corner of the outer defensive ring. In 1599, Michael the Brave occupied Făgăraș Citadel and sheltered there his family and the royal treasure. In the 17th century, Prince Gabriel Bethlen gave it priority over Alba Iulia in modernizing the fortifications, while Michael I Apafi transformed it, due to its strengthened position, into a princely residence. It functioned as a garrison from 1689, preserving its military function after the union of Transylvania with Romania. source
Just a snippet of the citadel's history, but you can read the whole story here.
So we're talking about a citadel that was consolidated in the 16th century. Look at the walls, how thick they are. These windows were always a place for nobles to read and maybe pray. When I saw this, I though It would be nice to sit there and read, or work on my laptop (yeah, 21th century mind :)). This was the only place where there was plenty of light during the day. Stained glass could not be missing from the windows back in those days. I love stained glass by the way.
Imagine yourself sitting on those wooden chair for hours, under the candles as there was no electricity then, feeling the cramps in your stomach and worrying about what's going to happen when you're called in.
And this is the throne hall ladies and gents. This is where many decisions had been made, many faiths had been determined over the centuries.
What made this room special for me, apart from the historical importance and the beautiful furniture, was the coffered ceiling.
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons ("boxes"), or lacunaria ("spaces, openings"), so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers. source
The throne hall is impressive, to say the least. I would have loved to sit there for at least 10 minutes and try to imagine the things that had happened here, but you're not allowed to sit on those chairs for the obvious reasons.
While most of the visitors are usually amazed by what this room has to offer to the eye (I was too, to a certain point), I couldn't ignore the fact that those who were responsible for the interior decoration could not see what I could not ignore :) Seriously! How many times I was thinking those who set up a museum or an exhibition, should see how these photos look, there's no symmetry between anything, lines don't align and so on. That set of chairs should have been placed 40cm to the right, to look nice. Then the setup would have been perfect.
Here I preferred to enjoy what I was looking at and the historical importance of it. Looking at the throne, I'm not sure, but I suppose the thrones were similar to this, made of wood, no cushioned seat or back. Must have hurt to sit there even for an hour, but the act itself meant power, so whoever was in power, had to endure it. From artistic point of view, that throne is an absolute beauty.
A small arsenal guards had to carry. Not all of it though, but it looks good as they have arranged it.
This was another room, next to the throne hall, most likely used as a decision making room, or who knows.
While none of this is original, the furniture is a replica, they did a great job. However, it would have been nice to see what these room looked like in different periods of times, starting from the 16th century.
I liked many of the furniture, but I think this one was the winner for me. The carved part can be lifted and inside usually they kept the ink and paper, along with letters. Most likely this was used as a desk. There should be a pull-out table top. I am drawn to carved wooden furniture and find these dark ones nice, but I'd never want such thing in my house as long term could be depressing :)
Not related to the topic of the post, but you should have seen Victor Hugo's rented apartment in Paris. It is so dark, it depresses you the minute you step in. Dark walls, dark curtains and back then there was no electricity and the petrol lamp or the candle could not illuminate the room properly.
This was not the first throne hall I saw, but definitely the most impressive one. I hope you liked it too. I'm sorry for the quality of the photos, but you can't just rearrange the furniture as you like, so you do what you can under the given circumstances.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
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