Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

Movila lui Burcel was declared a natural area of national interest that corresponds to category IV in the IUCN classification (floristic-type natural reservation) through Law no. 5 of March 6, 2000 and is administratively a part of Miclesti commune in Vaslui county. It is located 4 kilometers away from Miclesti rural town and 200 meters from the DN 24. It is also 20 kilometers away from Crasna locality, where the junction is made with European Road E 85 — E 581 that ties Romania to the Republic of Moldova, through Husi City and the Albita-Leuseni checkpoint.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

The natural reservation stretches on a 12 hectare area of land on the slopes of the Movila lui Burcel hill at 390 meters altitude, the terrain of the reservation being partially stabilized by the grassy vegetation that is also an authentic vestige of primary vegetation. The grassy soil was destroyed by intense grazing, the fragmentation of the terrain through slides and erosion being also precipitated by human action through the extraction of sizeable quantities of sand and stone. The area is abundant in Pontic, sub-Mediterranean and continental elements but also numerous rare species, considering Moldova’s flora, fact that gives the area great scientific significance.

Among the rare plants of phytogeographic significance that can be seen here are: Adonis hybrida, Allium flavum, Allium paniculatum, Cephalaria uralensis, Centaurea marschalliana, Iris pumila, the Meadow anemone (Pulsatilla montana), Wolf peas (Astragalus dasyanthus), Adonis volgensis but also Smooth rupturewort (Herniaria glabra), Phlomis pungens, salvia or hyacinths.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

Movila lui Burcel was attested in writing for the first time in 1498, as property of seneschal Purcel (Burcel) and became known through the legend of a peasant that was given land by ruler Stephen the Great and Holy (1457-1504). The Purcel family line is attested in writing since the time of Stephen the Great, just as the Movilesti family line. The name of Purcel was taken from the legendary character of Ion Neculce’s stories, poet Vasile Alecsandri changing the spelling to Burcel, name that was preserved until this day.

Legend says that in that year, 1498, on a Sunday, ruler Stephen the Great met Burcel, a peasant missing an arm that was arduously working the land of the hill. Asked by the ruler why he is working on a Sunday, the freeholder, who had fought together with the ruler at Razboieni, answered that he was poor and must work to support his family. Moved by the answer received, Stephen the Great offered Burcel a bag with 6 pieces of gold with which to buy a plow and oxen. Furthermore, the ruler made an eternal property act, so that the land would belong to Burcel’s descendants until the end of the world.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

After 1990, in this region the construction of places of worship began, together with the reopening of others closed down in the past years. As such, in 1993, near Movila lui Burcel a chapel of the ‘Stephen the Great and Holy’ Monastery was erected and on the hill top a monastic foundation was established. Therewith, in the reservation’s area both the historic site of Movila lui Burcel exists and the ‘Holy Emperors Constantine and Helen’ Monastery together with it.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

All the constructions raised on Movila lui Burcel are wooden. The chapel is lined on the interior with wainscot and on the exterior with wood shingles, with the roof being as well covered in wood shingles. The interior sculptures of the chapel were done in oak by a team of popular craftsmen led by Ovidiu Tuca of Vanatori, Neamt county while the painting of the iconostasis was done by professor C. Ciubotaru of Targu Neamt.

In this monastic complex on Movila lui Burcel a statuary composed of three crosses can be seen, representing either the three crosses on Golgotha, either the Holy Trinity or the three Romanian provinces, or even the three important saints of Orthodoxy: Holy Apostle Andrew — the one to which the ‘Stephen the Great and Holy’ Monastery is dedicated to, Saint Constantine the Great — who established Christianity and Stephen the Great — who protected Christianity after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

Another monument, done in 1994 by sculptor Gheorghe Alupoe, is the ‘Bronze Woman’ that symbolizes Roman Dacia. It is represented with both hands above its head, breaking the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact (1939) through which the annexation of Bessarabia to the USSR was done and looking towards a map of Greater Romania, with Moldova shaded and Stephen the Great’s Dniester citadels marked: Hotin, Soroca, Orhei, Tighina, Cetatea Alba and Chilia. In the map’s center, Marshal Ion Antonescu is presented ordering the crossing of the Pruth river in 1941 and the soldiers that freed Bessarabia and those slaughtered in the Battle of Tiganca.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

Movila lui Burcel remains a monument, not as much through its material presence but more through the spiritually-rich significance it holds, representing, as such, an important tourist objective.

Annually, in May, Movila lui Burcel hosts a folklore festival with groups and performers from several counties but also from the Republic of Moldova.

Photo credit: gal-movilaluiburcel.ro

AGERPRES