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Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
January 2006
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Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from the country of Romania.
The denomination is 1 Leu and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-New. This note is too new to have been cataloged yet
but will probably be designated as P-117.
The note is polymer and is dated 2005.
(front)
The banknote is green and blue on multi-colored underprint.
Nicolae Iorga (17 Jan 1871 - 27 Nov 1940) historian, playwright and politician,
is at right and as watermark, gentian flower is at center.
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The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia the free Online
Encyclopedia
Nicolae Iorga
(17 Jan 1871 - 27 Nov 1940)
Nicolae Iorga (a.k.a. Nicolas Jorga, January 17, 1871, Botoşani - November 27, 1940, Strejnic, Prahova), was a historian, university professor, literary critic, memorialist, playwright, poet, and Romanian politician. He served as a member of parliament, as President of the post-World-War-I National Assembly, as minister, and (1931-32) as Prime Minister. He was co-founder (in 1910) of the Democratic Nationalist Party and was ultimately assassinated by fascist legionnaire commandos.
Iorga attended university in Iaşi, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude after completing his undergraduate studies in a single year. He went on to study in Paris, Berlin, and Leipzig, obtaining his doctorate in 1893. A prolific author, he is estimated to have written 1,250 published volumes and 25,000 articles. He traveled extensively throughout Europe, and his written works in many languages bear out the claim that he could read, write, and speak virtually all of the major modern European languages.
Upon receiving his doctorate in 1893, Iorga became a member of the Romanian Academy, becoming a full member in 1911. From 1902 to 1906 he was the editor of the nationalist Semănătorul ("The sower") review, going on in 1906 to found the newspaper Neamul romānesc ("Romanian Nation"). For the rest of his life, even while serving in parliament or as a minister, he was a daily contributor to that paper.
Iorga was assassinated in 1940, during the regime of General Ion Antonescu, by a group of commandos of the Iron Guard, who considered him responsible for the 1938 death of their charismatic leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu: after Iorga (in his capacity as a minister) had denounced Codreanu, Codreanu was arrested and imprisoned, then was shot, putatively during an attempted prison escape. After the earthquake of 1940, when Iorga had to leave his damaged home in Vălenii de Munte for another residence in Sinaia, a group of legionnaire commandos from Bucharest took him from the house in Sinaia to the Strejnicu forest near Bucharest, tortured him, shot him in the back, desecrated his body, and left it by the side of a road.
It is worth noting that the other founder, with Iorga, of the Democratic Nationalist Party was A.C. Cuza, a violent anti-Semite who split off in 1920 to found the National Democratic Christian Party, a precursor of Romanian Fascist groups such as the legionnaires.
In recent years, apologists for the fascist legionnaires and Iron Guard have claimed that the assassination was performed not on the orders of the fascist leadership, but under the command of Josef Stalin. However, this alternative is generally rejected by historians.
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(back)
The Curtea de Arges monastery is at center and the Wallachian arms of
Prince Constantin Brancoveanu (1686-1714) are at left and again at right as a
security feature .
The following information was obtained from:
National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics (ICI)
Curtea de
Arges Monastery
Coonsidering all the monuments of the residence of the Wallachian princes in Arges, the church founded by the pious prince Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521) is one of the most important contructions of art and religious architecture.
The inscriptions, the documents of the time and also the writngs of foreign travellers are very high on the architectural harmony and equilibrium of Prince Neagoe's church saying "it is one of the wonders of the world".
Begun in 1514 by Neagoe Basarab's will to have a wonderful monument built, the church was erected on the very place of the first Metropolitanate of Wallachia, under Prince's supervision and following master Manole's advice, being built in stone of Albesti, marble and mosaic brought from Constantinople. Although unfinished, in 1517 the Prince founder decided the Monastery of Curtea de Arges to be consacrated on the Assumption of the Virgin - its dedication day - with great pomp in the presence of outstanding Orthodox religious personalities, led by the Ecumenic Patriarch Theolipt of Constantinople.
On the occasion the the consecration in August 1517, Gavriil Protul made his first description of the Arges Monastery whose beauty he thought surpassed that of Sion and St. Sofia of emperor Justinian.
After its consecration, Neagoe Basarab kept on paying a great attention to this church, having the new monastery in Arges embellished with a surrounding wall, cells, a refectory, a belfry, making it, as Gavriil Protul said "resemble God's paradise". In 1521, when the founder passed away, his body was buried in the pronaos, which thus became a princely necropolis. Radu from Afumati (1522-1529) did everything that had still to be done for the church, as by his marriage to Ruxandra, Neagoe Basarab's daughter, he had taken over not only the rights, but also the duties of founder of the monastery. Thus, by his orders, on 18th September 1526, painter Dobromir finished the painting of the church.
The documents of the following centuries certify more important restorations of the church and the whole monastery during the reigns of Princes Matei Basarab (1632-1654) and Serban Cantacuzino (1678-1688). Finally, from 1875-1885, the restoration by architect Andre Lecomte du Nouy (1844-1914) ssaved the monument from destruction. This restoration entailed a new painting of the monument by F. Nicolle, Ch. Renouard and Nicolae Constantinescu, thus the precious fresco by Dobromir of Targoviste being lost. Nevertheless, a few fragments can still be seen at the Art Museum of the Romania and in the Collection comprising objects of religious art of the monastery.
It is worth mentioning that in 1793, when the Diocese of Arges was set up, Neagoe Basarab's foundation became episcopal residence, a rank kept till 1979.
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For more information about Romania visit:
or
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