FORTIFICAŢIILE REŞEDINŢELOR BOIEREŞTI DIN ŢARA ROMÂNEASCĂ ŞI MOLDOVA ÎN SECOLELE XIV-XVI
The Fortifications of Nobiliary Residences in Wallachia and Moldova (14th – 16th Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The debate regarding the fortifications of Romanian nobiliary courts was, for a long time, an importance subject of analyses in the Romanian historiography dedicated to this issue. Thus, the postulation of their defensive character represented a strong reason for the further justification of theories without any evidences in the historical reality. The explorations made by medieval archaeologists in the last decades, doubled by the information provided by written sources, offer us a solid argumentative support for reaching to a conclusion which is completely opposite to the above mentioned historiographic postulate. Therefore, we have now arguments which allow us to assert that the absence of fortifications around Romanian nobiliary courts was, during the period of the 14th – 16th centuries, the rule, whereas the existence of fortified residences is just the exception which confirms that rule. In the huge majority of the known cases, the main buildings of the residential complex were concentrated inside enclosures delimitated by wooden fences, reason for which they left no significant archaeological traces. Yet, this reality was preserved at the level of medieval vocabulary: the notions which designated the nobiliary courts in the official documents issued by the chanceries of the two Romanian principalities are usually used with the meaning “fencing”.

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