Legend of Istria

The Manaf Cross – robbed (Collection of Pr. Dr. Mihail Stanciu)

The most famous one (about which much has been written and fabled) is the Cross of Ionita Cârjan, also known as the Manaf’s Cross after the Turk who had his inn nearby.

Erected in 1846 by the innkeeper Ioniță Cârjan on the land of his father’s priest Costache Dinu Carjan from the village of Vispești, its original purpose was missionary. The sister of the priest Costache Dinu Carjan, named Maria, had married in 1844 the Turkish Manaf Selim, a souvenir merchant from Anatolia. Arriving in Kara Iflak (Wallachia) in 1841 and wishing to reach Kara Bugdania, he fell seriously ill and, due to the cold that had taken hold of him on the road, he stayed in the village of Greceanca with a relative of the priest Costache from Vispesti. Being so ill and at the threshold of late autumn, he paid the host until spring, when the whole caravan would return from Moldova and join him.

It was the custom of the country women to take their “work” in winter and go to their relatives. This is how Maria, the daughter of the priest Constantine and Maria the priestess of Vispești, sister of the priest Costache Cârjan, arrived at her relatives in Greceanca, the hosts of Manaf Selim. According to his Orthodox baptismal certificate, Selim was about 24 years old (he was baptised a Christian and given the name Gheorghe) and was a handsome, enterprising, skilled merchant and wealthy young man with great promise.

The two fell in love and, for the sake of the girl, the Turk was willing to become a Christian, get baptized, give up his trade and settle down with the beautiful Maria. Despite the opposition of their parents and relatives, the two unite their destinies (on 23 April 1844) and the girl receives as dowry a piece of land at the intersection of Old Women’s Road and Bogdan’s Road, where they build an inn for those passing on those roads and beyond (the stone walls survived until the 1980s).

Source: www.romaniamegalitica.blogspot.ro