Mrs. Twardowska

Eating, drinking, smoking pipes,
Dancing, laughing, having fun,
They have almost smashed the pub,
Having the time of their lives!

Twardowsky sat down at the table,
And leant his elbows on it
“Enjoy your life” – he said to himself,
Making laugh at everyone.

Had he drunk all vodka from his glass,
It made a terrible sound,
Soon he saw something spooky in it,
And asked - “Why have you come in here?”

It was devil inside,
Who bowed friendly to the guests,
He took off  his hat and jumped of the glass,
Stood steadily on the wooden ground.

“Hello Twardowsky, my friend!”
While saying it, he knocked his heels,
“Don’t you know me? Indeed?”
“I’m Mefistofeles, my dear!”

“Though, it was in Lysa Gora place
Where you have talked to me,
You have signed the pact about a soul
With me and other demons here.”

“In two years’ time
You were to come to Rome,
To let us (devils)
Take your soul away.”

“Seven years have passed since then,
And you haven’t completed it yet,
You are misleading our hell,
Not thinking of visiting this place!”

“But revenge will come even slowly,
Throwing you to our place,
This place is “Rome” called, so
I’m taking you with me to the hell!”

“What should I do?” – Twardowsky is thinking
Getting more nervous and stressed.

Suddenly he’s come up with something new,
To make things even more canny,
“Look at the contract, Mefistoteles
You have promised something to me.”

“After all these years of waiting,
I will have three wishes to ask,
And you will fulfill them all,
With the most difficult tasks.”

“Look!” It’s the emblem of this inn
A horse painted on it.
I want to jump over its saddle
And ride on it even farther!”

“Then make a whip from the sand for me
To lash a horse with it,
And build a house in the forest for me,
To let me relax in it.”

“This house must be made of nuts
As high as Carpathian Mountains.”

Devil is making his wishes come true,
Cleaning and feeding the horse,
Then he made the sand whip
To be ready for further work.

Twardowsky mounted his horse
And tried some jumps and turns,
Then he galloped to check it again
And saw a new pretty place.

“You’ve won, Mefistofeles so far,
But you’ve forgotten about one more task:
You must bath in this basin right now,
It’s holy water inside.”

Devil is drilling and fidgeting
Until he gets really nervous,
But he’s doing what he’s said to
So he’s dipping himself in the water.

Suddenly he jumped from the water fast
He’s shaken and said with a smile
“Now, you’re mine
Cause I did what you asked.”

“One more thing and it’s a deal
(Your devil power will be weak)
Look, it’s a woman,
My wife – Mrs Twardowska”

“I’ll live there instead of you,
Just for a year at Belzebub,
And for this whole year
You’ll stay with my wife as her husband, too.”

“Promise her your love,
Promise her your respect,
Should you break one rule,
It all comes disrespect.”

Devil’s listening to Twardowsky
Pretending to look at his wife
But at the same time,
He’s reaching the door side

Twardowsky is teasing him more,
And makes him go from window to door,
Devil escaped through the key hole
And never returned to his home.

The legend of Mr Twardowski

Mr Twardowski on a rooster, graphic by A. Piotrowski, 1918

The most famous magician in Kraków, Mr Twardowski – so mysterious that the dispute as to whether he was a historical or fictitious person continues to this day – worked on the invention of the philosopher’s stone, which would allow the transmutation of any metal into gold, the rejuvenation of people, and the curing of all illnesses. In return for having all his wishes granted, the magician signed a pact with the devil, to whom he was to offer his soul when in Rome. One of the feats that Twardowski achieved thanks to the devil’s assistance was the building of the Błędowska Desert. The tale makes Twardowski Rocks in Zakrzówek the venue of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that Master Twardowski ran. The rocks that received his name are rumoured to have originated on “a bad day” in the laboratory, that is the one when it actually exploded...

Trying to outsmart the devil, Twardowski carefully avoided going to Rome. Nevertheless, one day he guided his steps to a tavern, not knowing that “Rome is the name of that tavern”, and soon saw the devil coming to claim his soul. Not losing his wit, Twardowski quickly jumped on to the back of a rooster, and soared high into the sky. He is rumoured to still be living on the Moon and avoiding Kraków, so that his manservant – disguised as a spider – must spin a silver thread once a month and lower himself down to Kraków, to gather the latest gossip.

The Legend of Romanian Tricolour

Short  Romania's History

Romanians  have  lived for 2 mileniums in 3 diferent lands/countries, but they were unified through the ortodox faith, which has created an unique language and also an unitary tradition, and after all an unitary state.

The 3 Historical Romanian Provinces: Transilvania, Moldova and Wallachia

The Great Union of Michael the Brave 1600

The Great Union Of Moldavia and Valachia Alexandru Ioan Cuza – 1859, January 24th

December 1st  - Romanias National Day

Romania, nowadays

Saint Andrew – The Patron of Romanians

St. Andrew

On November 30th Romanians celebrate Saint Andrew (Andrei) – who is considered the protector of Romania. Saint Andrew is known as the one who Christianized  our  ancestors. In the evening of St. Andrew’s Day  all the family members put some grain seeds to germinate. 

St. Andrew's green grains

The plants which grow the most beautiful and tall it is said  will give its owner a good and a healthy  year. The Day of November  30th is also know as  the Wolf’s Day. Wolves gain more power, and people should protect their animals and homes with garlic. The night of November 30th is a special night. The witches  pick the magic plants for their future spells. 

The legend of Romanian Flag

Liberty = sky blue
Justice = field yellow
Fraternity = blood red


1. Merger Legend

After 1860, a legend arose stating that the national tricolor had been formed by merging the colours of the Moldavian and Wallachian flags, probably out of a desire to reconcile all parties to the fact that the Wallachian revolutionary flag of 1848 had been chosen for all of Romania.

This legend was also convenient with respect to the colours attributed to the two principalities’ flags at the time (red and blue for Moldavia and blue and yellow for Wallachia).

Constantin Lecca - Moldavians and Muntenians become brothers

Another painting of Lecca shows the assassination of Michael the Brave in 1601. Also depicted is the united standard of the three provinces, with yellow on top (Wallachia), red in the middle (Moldavia) and blue below (Transylvania).

2. The Story of Romanian Tricolour

In 1821, when the revolutionary leader Tudor Vladimirescu called all the brave warriors to fight for freedom, a man, named Dragomir joined them. 

Tudor Vladimirescu

He had 3 daughters, who gave him 3 handkerchiefs: one yellow, one blue and one white. The white one was from the younger daughter, and Dragomir kept this one close to his heart. One day, Dragomir was severely injured in the battle. The white handkerchief became red because of his blood. He died, and his colleagues found his 3 handkerchiefs: one red, one yellow, and one blue. Those brave warriors took the 3 handkerchiefs and put them like a flag on a stick - in the honour of Dragomir. They fought for the Independence and for the Union of Romanians under the three colours of the flag - which became the Romanian National Flag.

Romanian  Flag  before  1989

Romanian  Flag  in December 1989

Romanian  Flag  - nowaday

DOODLE* – for Romanian National Day December 1st 2009

The search engine Google has had several logos. Some special logos have become known as Google Doodles.

The  National Tricolour's Day is celebrate in Romania on June 26th.

The story of a lifetime: The Ethnographic Museum

"Do not forget your past!" it seems this is the motto who guided a common Romanian family through their lifetime. The family Flutur, Aurel and his wife Lucreția,  simple but warm hearted peasants of Chișcău leave behind them a valuable cultural heritage, one of the largest private collection of ethnography in the country which does credits to the community and site host. The village , that crosses Crăiasa (Prices fairy) hill, is located in the picturesque depression of Beiuș, in the foothill of Bihor Mountains in the south eastern part of Bihor county (west side of Romania). Aurel Flutur's passion of collecting objects began in 1968. Nowadays, the collection has over 2500 objects and it is arranged in a peasant farm built in the second half of the twentieth century, that was acquired by the Flutur family in 1981.

There, we have the opportunity to find occupations practiced in rural areas through agricultural machines, tools, presses for grapes, pin, hive, leathers shoemakers, coopers, mining. There are also presented industrial objects, the master piece being a locomobile, dating from 1907.

There are also illustrated home occupations (instruments used in cooking, wooden spoons, various objects used in textiles processing, and clothing manufacturing, distaff, scrubbers, combs, hemp, loom) , folk costumes.

The exhibition space includes various rooms that reconstructs traditional interiors from the area , an old classroom where there is a wooden school bad made by Flutur's  father, the first collected object by him.

A room is dedicated to the memory of the family where there are exhibited vintage photos with family ancestors, objects belonging to Ioan Gabor  the outlaw (1860-1913), Lucreția's grandfather ... one of the last outlaws of Bihor Mountains, whom the olders called Oneață.

The exhibition also present some aspects of religious beliefs and people's lives from the village, a stone altar table dating from 1807, trinitys, wooden crosses and a small collection of history composed of lances and spears from the Middle Ages. Also military objects of modern and contemporary epoque: helmets, suitcases, prosthesis for the war. 

The trail ends with a large hall which hosts a number of heterogenous objects, bells, old phones sets and typewritting machines, abacus, sewing machines, including a wooden one, sledges, decoratives yokes, plows, mills, mobile bread oven, a gypsy wagon and many more...

So, follow the believes of Flutur's family: "Do not forgot your past!"

Evaluation session: Connecting the past with present

Project: using ICT, learning through drama and outdoor education create a project on the theme "Connecting the past with the present". Present a legend from your country using ICT tools; it has to be a film production; you may introduce sound effects, music, costumes, songs etc; maximum time alloted: 20 min.

Good practice example:

Windows to the past