The Neamţ Fortress, a true medieval fortress in Neamţ, is located on Arcaşului Street, no.1, Targu Neamţ, and was built during the reign of Peter Musat (1374-1391).
Neamt Fortress or Neamt Citadel is a medieval fortress in Moldova located near Targu Neamt and about 46 km from Piatra Neamt. Situated close to the highest point of Pleșului Peak, the fortress is one of the medieval monuments of exceptional value in Romania. Its strategic position and its presence in the outstanding events that this part of the country has encountered demonstrates that the Neamt Fortress was one of the best fortresses that the Moldavian medieval state had.
After testing our physical form as we had to walk to reach the Fortress, we were greeted by a form of rustic art. On a wall covered with moss and degraded by the weather, we found several paintings and painted stones. The paintings are cheerful and appealing through the open colours that gave life to birds and farmhouses.
I learned that this fortress could never be conquered from the outside. Her gates opened only 3 times in front of the foreigners, once by treason by the Turks, then in cheers of joy in the case of Michael the Brave, the first prince of all the Romanians and … coming back to the story of my childhood by the fraud of the Sobieski Poles.
The entrance to the fortress was realised through an arched bridge with a fixed part and a mobile one, supported on 11 prismatic stone pillars with a height of about 8 m. The mobile part was on the bridge between the last pillar and the wall of the bastion and could rise in case of danger through a pulley system, but once there were two hatch traps, also known as „rat trap.”
The building materials used in the two lifting periods of the fortress were obtained from the surrounding areas – sandstone, green shale, boulders, gravel and sand, and the mortar used – made of lime, sand, crushed stone, crushed brick and charcoal – was perfect, being so solid that after more than 600 years, it turned out to be more resistant than the stone.
Above the gate is the emblem of the Principality of Moldavia: head of bour (bison), the symbol of Moldovan statehood.
In the inner courtyard can be seen the busts of Prince Stefan cel Mare and Peter I Muşat.
Vlahuta: „What kind of things would they not tell if these ruins had a voice? When you think there has been so much life here … hearts who loved, tearing eyes, brave persons who shed their blood on these walls … „
The tour of the fortress begins by passing through the Hall of Discussions and Judgment, the place where the Lord of Moldavia consulted with his boyars or where, as the case may be, he judged certain causes. The long table, wooden seats with a high back turned us over time, especially as on a wall is the portrait of Prince Stephen the Great.
Like any Christian Citadel, there is also a little Church named St. Nicholas. Red is the predominant colour and causes a state of peace of mind.
On the other side of the fortress, I got into the creepiest of the places here: the Black Dungeon – animated with wax figures illustrating detainees and tough conditions of detention. Traitors and criminals died here in unimaginable torments of cold and hunger, reaching food for the rodent.
Miron Bianca
Andriuță Ionuț