The legend of Mare de Déu del Vinyet (Sitges)

Once upon a time in the current sanctuary of Mare de Déu del Vinyet in Sitges, it was a vineyard of a very rich and important family called Can Milans dels Ferrers. In their fields they had slaves to cultivate. One day, a slave was digging a vine when he saw an image of the Virgin and he took it thinking it was a doll or a toy because he had never been to a mass. When the slave arrived at home he didn’t find the image. The next day when he was digging in the field, he found the image of the Virgin and he took it to home again. When he was at home he didn’t find it, the image came back to the vineyard. At the third day the Virgin appeared and the slave took the image again. When he was at home again, he talked with his master and he explained to the slave that it was the image of the God’s mother. Finally, they built a church to venerate God’s mother. The church was called Mare de  Déu del Vinyet because the farm’s name was Vinyet.

A Legend about The Building Of The Gaziantep Castle

According to a common legend told among people, a rich lady was having the castle built. One day, she saw a funeral ceremony, turned to her servant walking by her and asked ‘What is this?’ Her servant replied, ‘Dear lady, people die and when they pass away, they are carried in a coffin like this to the graveyard and buried. “In this coffin you see there is a body of a man who was alive yesterday, like us…” he says.

After this woman comes back with her servant and calls the construction master and say “Let the castle stay incomplete, I’ve never thought about the death before”. According to this vague dated legend, the history of the castle goes back to ancient times.

The name of the citadel of Gaziantep, of which real name is Kala-i Füsus ( Citadel of Ring), goes back to another legend. According to the legend, a girl who was the owner of the region was responsible for the construction of the castle. She had to sell her precious ring for the expenses of the construction. For this reason, the name of Kala-i Füsus which means Citadel of Ring was given to it.

The Legends from Urfa

SANLIURFA

With its millennia-old past, its traditional fabric and its living traces of ancient legends, Urfa is a city that represents the history of civilization...

“More than three thousand years ago, far away in the distant east, in Mesopotamia, God spoke to a man who was living with his flocks: ‘Leave your land, your father and your family and go to the land that I will show you” . So begins the story of Abraham, Father of Prophets, in the book of Genesis. Abraham, of the lineage of Noah, who came with his father Terah from the city of Ur to settle in Harran, set out from here for the ‘Promised Land’ of Canaan.

CITY OF PROPHETS

Ur, one of the earliest cities of Mesopotamian civilization, is situated near Basra at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. But it harbors in its history several more cities of the same name. The place in northern Mesopotamia known to the Aramaic tribes as Urhai, in other words today’s Sanliurfa, also appears in certain sources as the ‘Ur’ of ancient times. While it is not known to which place the Ur in Genesis refers, one thing is certain: Urfa is a very old city, touched and hallowed by many prophets, with living traces of ancient legends, a vital traditional fabric, and a history stretching back thousands of years, a city that has opened its arms to a wide variety of cultures. And religions, too, of  course...

The celebrated 17th century Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi describes the city as follows in 1650: “Urfa is one of the oldest cities to have been founded since the time of Noah and the Great Flood, the work of a ruler by the name of Rohai from the tribe of Semud (Semito-Aramaic). It was in this city that Nimrod tossed the Prophet Abraham into the fire. During Roman rule, Jesus came here and descended on a church, which they therefore they call the Church of the Messiah.” Together with the many holy places visited by Muslims, Christians and Jews along the pilgrimage route that has run since the oldest times to Mecca and Jerusalem, Urfa is truly, as is claimed, a ‘City of Prophets’.

There are lots of legends about Sanlıurfa as it is in every historical city. According to inhabitants of the city, all these legends are as true as history itself. Besides, Lives of the prophets that are believed to have lived in that area has become the subject of many legends. According to these legends, Harran plateau was the first place Adam and Eve first stepped on earth. Prophet Abraham also was born here and broke the idols of the false Gods and because of this he was thrown to fire. Prophet Job showed his patience towards his illness in this area and was buried also here after he died. The holy handkerchief of Prophet Jesus Christ was also kept in here. It is also the hometown of prophet Moses, suayb, Jacob and Elyesa. Lastly, Urfa is blessed by Jesus Christ, that’s why Sanlıurfa is called as City of Prophets.

Legends from Sanlıurfa

King Nimrod

Long times ago there lived a king named Nimrod. He was really cruel against people and disobedient to God.He was thinking himself superior to God. Because of this, God informs him that he will send him mosquitoes which are the weakest animals on earth to prove him how weak he is also. Even if Nimrod tries to fight with his big army, the mosquitoes defeats all of them by entering the eyes, ears and noses of soldiers and animals. Nimrod hardly closes himself to his room and hides by closing the door, the chimney and all the holes to prevent mosquitoes entering the room.

Upon beg of a lame mosquito as “My God, I couldn’t come for fight on time because of my lame leg. God tells him “Don’t worry, I will give you the honor of defeating Nimrod, go find him”, then this mosquito finds Nimrod and attacks him by entering the room through the key hole. Entering Nimrod’s nose it starts to eat his brain. Nimrod tries to find remedies to get rid of the mosquito. He first orders his men to hit his head with a sledge hammer which is made of felt, when it’s not enough he orders them to hit with wooden ones, as a result he dies.

Halil-Ür Rahman and Aynzeliha Lake

Nimrod is a very cruel ruler. One day he has a dream and asks for its interpretation. When he learns that one of the boys who will be born at that year kill him, he orders all the kids who will be born to be killed. Nimrod’s soldiers start to kill all the kids, however Abraham’s mother Sara escapes and hides in a cave, when Abraham is born she leaves him there and turns to her house. A female deer feeds him there. One day Nimrod’s soldiers find him in the cave and bring him to Nimrod. Nimrod who hasn’t got a son likes him and takes care of him. When Abraham sees Nimrod’s cruelty and his forcing the people worshiping to false Gods, he says these idols that are made of human cannot be God and share his ideas with people; however the people cannot say anything with the fear of Nimrod. In a ceremony day, when everybody leaves for it, he takes an axe and crashes all the idols except the biggest one, and put the axe in front of the biggest idol. When he was asked who is responsible from this, he says “as you can see the axe is in the hands of the biggest idol, that must be him who is responsible”. Upon hearing Abraham’s words, Nimrod shouts as “how can a piece of Stone do it” Then Abraham says “That’s what I want to tell you, if they even cannot protect themselves, how can it possible them to protect you from bad things.

The King decides to throw Abraham into the fire to show everybody how he punishes the ones who are against the authority of him. But on the day of execution, when Abraham was thrown from the castle, the fire turns into water and the woods burning turns into fish. Once more, the one who is right wins the fight.

Since then, the Pool of Abraham and the carp that live in it have been considered sacred; the Pool of Aynı-Zeliha is said to have been formed by Zeliha's  zears and it is said that anyone who eats them will be struck blind.

Çiğköfte

The past of “Çiğköfte” goes back to Abraham’s period. According to the legend, when Nimrod ordered his man to collect all the woods and forbade lighting a fire even for cooking, the inhabitants thought what to do. A wife of a hunter made a meal called çiğköfte by mixing some meat, bulghur and isot ( special kind of vey hot pepper) Her husband likes this meal which is prepared by not cooking the meat and it comes to our very day.


HISTORIC AND HOLY CITY

The houses, which are entirely closed off to the outside world behind high walls, also determine the character of the narrow streets, where legend continues to light the way in an urban texture that exudes a medieval atmosphere. Such as, for example, the legend of the cave where the Prophet Job lay ill for seven years and the well where he was finally restored to health. One of the most fascinating sites from the legends recounted in the ancient sources is the Ulu Cami or Great Mosque dating to the 1170s in the Zangid period.

This mosque, where the tomb of Seyh Ebubekir, a celebrated saint of the 17th century, is also located, was built over the former Church of Saint Stephan, known as ‘the red church’ for its red marble columns. This church, conspicuous with its columns and bell tower, today a minaret, is synonymous with the legend of ‘Black Abgar’, the first king to recognize Christianity after receiving Christ’s handkerchief. According to the story, which is well known in the Christian world, Abgar V  (ruled 13-50 A.D.) from the dynasty of the Aramaic kingdom known as Osrhoene which was founded in Urfa between 132 B.C. and 244 A.D., was suffering from leprosy; he hears that Jesus can heal people, so he writes a letter to Jesus, inviting him to Urfa. Sanctifying the king and Urfa, Jesus sends him a handkerchief with which he had blotted his face. Imprinted with Jesus’s visage, this sacred textile fragment heals the king.

MARDIN

We arrived in Mardin in the afternoon. We stood in front of the city. I looked amazedly at the stone houses lining in front of the castle. I was in front of a city completely different from all I have seen before. It was as if every lane and piece of marble had a legend. Past and present became one. Legends are everywhere in Mardin.

There are many renowned shrines in Mardin. Apart from the inimical Ulu Cami (The Great Mosque ) there are monasteries for Assyrians. Deyrulzafa-ran, Mort Gabriel in Midyat and many important monasteries and chapels in villages are all unique specimens of marble work. Ulu Mosque and also Zinciriye Madrash are magnificent buildings...

Ulu Mosque’s minaret is the symbol of the city... It is right in your eye at every point... Zinciriye Madrasah on the top, Ulu Mosque at the bottom. When tying the symbols in your mind to each other, an ancient legend appears in front of you... Years ago, there had been a chain between Zinciriye Madrasah and Ulu Mosque. The two holy buildings were tied to each other. Why were they tied to each other? Their holiness strengthened each other. This tie protected the city. This tie really had a charm. It protected the city from malice. Especially the humans... The snakes, scorpions scattered in the city under the summer   heat collided this charm and fell down. No scorpion bit any human being. The scorpions of Mesopotamia are as big as a human hand. Their poison makes the human being turn black and die. When this chain broke, the charm also broke and the scorpions became very happy.

Another impressing legend is about Kasımiye Madrasah; Sultan Kasım who has such a great masterpiece is executed by Timur. His sister in great distress takes the blood on the ground and scattered it all over the walls. Even if scientists tell that it’s henna rather than blood, people prefer to believe that it is blood of Sultan Kasım and symbolizes the grief in the heart of the sister

Another legend is about the prince of Babylon, as the story goes, he falls in love with the princess living in Mardin. He elopes the princess from Mardin to Babylon. However, the princess was unable to keep her mind away from Mardin. She was not able to forget the pieces of grapes and their unimaginable green hue...She was unable to taste neither grapes nor wines any longer. The princess became ever more pallid and unwell with each passing day because of her yearning beyond any measure. The prince pining at this morbid state of affairs then decides to have the same grapevines in Mardin to be planted in Babylon also. The princess was not being satisfied with the newly grown vineyards, since she had a yearning for the grapes and juice of Mardin. Finally, the prince had earthen pipes laid from Mardin to Babylon. Thereupon the grape juice of Mardin began to flow to Babylon.

The legends of the fortresses Șoimoș, Șiria, Dezna

Arad was mentioned in documents for the first time in XI century. The Mongols invasion in 1241 showed that defence positions were needed and in the second half of XIII century there were build stone fortresses at Soimos, Siria and Dezna. Turks conquered the region in 1551 and kept it until 1699 (Peace of Karlowitz).

DEZNA

 Dezna (Hungarian: Dézna) is a commune located in the Dezna River Valley (about 7 km from Sebiş) in Arad County, Romania. The locality is located on the valley with the same name, in the mountain area, where the Codru Moma Mountains have a little deep place, where the people can live. The first documentary record of Dezna dates back to 1318. According to a legend, László Nagy Peretseny (1817) says that the village name derives from the name of Dacian king Decebal.

The most important historical monument in Dezna is the fortress located on the Ozoiu hill (390 m) where one can go in serpentines. The fortress there was ordered to construct by the Hungarian King Bela IV, during the middle age, in the XIII century, after the mongol invasion came, to protect the territory, cause the Tartars destroyed and plundered all they can at their steps. Thus were constructed in the Arad province the fortresses of Șiria, Șoimoș (Solymos in hugarian, 30 kms East from Arad, I have a gallery there below), and Dezna (Dézna in hungarian, NE from Șiria). A legend tells us – Ladislau Nagy de Peretseny (1817) – that the name of the fortress is coming from the Dacic King – Decebal. The fortress dated from the XIIIth century and it was built in the centre of an old Romanian region, towering the region and the main road towards the Codru Moma Mountains. The main importance of the fortress was during XVI – XVII centuries. 

The fortress had a most important role in 16-17th centuries, in 1552 being part of the defense system of western Transylvania as a boundary fortress, especially after the fall of Ineu, conquered by the Turks (1566). Since 1565 belonged to Ioan Sigismund. The citadel was strengthened with new reinforcements, among which the north-eastern bastion; the architecture in Renaissance style is somewhat similar to the Şoimuş Fortress. Probably in this period in the more vulnerable sectors of the citadel were added rows of parallel stone walls, then filled with river stones, bricks and high-strength mortar.

Conquered by the Turks in 1574 and recaptured by 1596, the fortress was between 1599 and 1601 in possession of the captain of Michael the Brave, Gáspar Kornis, who facilitated the passage of the ruler by his way to Prague. Between 1601 and 1658 know had more owners, and in 1619 was donated by Transylvanian Prince Gabriel Bethlen to Marcu-Cercel Vodă. In 1658 it was conquered again by the Turks, together with Ineu fortress, and in coming decades Dezna disappeared as fortification.

The Dezna Fortress is part of a simpler family of fortifications. The remaining walls suggest a simple construction with one tower. The polygon shaped precincts have a single tower, still standing, seemingly the only outstanding feature of this fortress. Over the years have survived three major walls of the main bastion. Equally, can be distinguished the footsteps of the other walls, the contour of the inner court and fragments of the city ditches. In spite of the modest construction type it was owned by royal and important noble families.

One story says that the Turks had gathered in the citadel a large number of girls, for the harem of a military leader. Unable to escape, one of the girls to avoid the sad fate waiting them, managed to blow up the deposit of gunpowder. Recent research does not exclude an essence of truth of this legend, because some signs shows that the destruction of the citadel by explosion is very probable.

ȘIRIA

The old residence of the voivodes in the middle eve, centre of an important and expanded feudal area, Siria passed in its rich history flourishing periods, as well as sieges and military conflicts.

Şiria (Hungarian: Világos, German: Hellburg) is a commune in Arad County, Western Romania, near Zărand Mountains. Documentary certified for the first time in 1169, the village of Şiria was the residence of local landlord (mid 14th century). In the next century belonged to a vast area held between 1444-1445 by Ioan (or Iancu) de Hunedoara (aka Ioan Corvin or Corvinus, English: John Hunyadi, Hungarian: Hunyadi János). The fortress and the area belonged along the centuries to Iancu of Hunedoara, Matei Corvin or to the Bathory family.


The ruin of Şiria's fortress is one of the most important touristic sights of the commune. Located on the Fortress Hill (496 m high), the citadel dates from the 13th century and was enlarged in the 15th century. The citadel is built in Romanesque style, with a massive dungeon, provided with 2-3 floors and to the top has battlements. It was considerated to be an important strategic and economic point of the region, with 110 villages subordinated. 

The Fortress (documentary certified in 1331) raised on a hill next to the commune, still keeps between its walls Roman bricks. Being part of the fortification system that defended the western part of the Transsylvanian. 

A particularly important role in its life had the Romanian voivodes and cneaz (princes, rulers of a large area). For example, a document of 1440 speaks of a certain prince Ştefan of Şiria. Corvinus's possession at the start of the second half of the fifteenth century, passed in the years 1461-1464 under the rule of the Báthory family. During the revolt of Gheorghe Doja (Hungarian: Dózsa György), the city is temporarily occupied by its peasant bands. Under Ottoman rule (17th century), the fortress was conquered and was Mihai Viteazu's (Michael the Brave) military garrison between 1599 to 1600. Subsequently, the city was occupied again by the Ottomans in 1607 and held by them until 1693. For strategic reasons, Hapsburg troops destroyed the citadel in 1784.

ȘOIMOȘ

The Şoimoş Fortress is situated in the village of Şoimoş, now part of the city of Lipova, Arad County, Western Romania. It was raised on the right bank of Mureş River, on Cioaca Tăutului Hill, that dominates the valley of the Mureș River .

The fortress was built by the end of the 13th century by a noble family. It is assumed that the first owner was Paul, Ban (marquis) of Severin, between 1272-1275. Documentary, the fortress is certified in 1278.  After 1315, in the time of King Carol Robert of Anjou, it become a royal citadel, associated with the dignities of count or viscount of Arad. Towards the middle of the 15th century, the fortress was donated successively. The fortress is rebuild by leader Iancu of Hunedoara (1440 – 1446) and later on it is fortified and changed into the style of the Renaissance, becoming temporary residence of the prince of Transylvania (1541).  The citadel belonged then to Ioan Corvin, natural son of the King, then came to Gheorghe Hohenzollern de Brandenburg by his marriage with the widow of Ioan, Beatrix of Frangepan. In peacetime, the number of soldiers was only 12. In the citadel lived Hungarians, Germans and Romanians, all in the service of George of Brandenburg; around the fortress were about 95 settlements. In June 1515, after the conquer of Lipova, the city was besieged by the rebels of Gheorghe Doja. Details of the siege are well known because of the investigation carried out subsequently, after suppressing the peasants' uprising. After defeating the rebels under the walls of Timişoara, the prince of Transylvania, Ioan Zápolya, held the fortifications of the Mureş Valley, and give the citadel into possession to palatine Perenyi. Around the middle of the 16th century, it became the princely residence of the widow of Ioan Zapolya, Izabella. In 1551, the fortress was given to Andrei Báthory, who represented the King Ferdinand of Hapsburg. It was occupied by the Turks in 1552, then released in 1595 by Borbély György, a captain in Ştefan Bathori's army. It was finally gave to the Turks by Prince Gabriel Bethlen, and remained under Turkish occupation by March 26, 1688. The fortress had a military role in the early 18th century, without being involved in any major military event. It was officially abandoned in 1788 and subject to demolition, but the difficult access and the relative remoteness were the reasons for the stopped destruction. In the 19th century the monument was protected by law and the last repair occurred in the early seventh decade of next century. 

webography: http://surprising-romania.blogspot.com

The legend of 3 fortresses

The three castles were built by three sisters. The three maidens met in Șiria. The first said: "If the good Lord help me, my city will be ready tomorrow." The second maiden said too: "And all my fortress will be ready tomorrow". The third yield: "Even if the good Lord help me, my city will be ready tomorrow."

After finishing the construction of the three fortresses, they all have collapsed. The 3 maiden were transformed into three white snakes, each one bearing the golden crown on his head and a golden key of the fortress in his mouth. The story said that each spring, the three whites snakes are waiting for their liberator to take the crowns and keys, after which they will again turn into maidens and the cities will reappear in all their splendor.