Homage
MONOGRAPHY PAGES
by Prof. Viorel Lupu
To write about Vad - the village where I opened my eyes to see the mighty sun, where I grew up as a child and as a teenager - to write about Vad, where I kept coming with my whole family year after year to see my birthplace, means to pay it, in profound reverence, a homage. It means to do homage to the beauties destined by God to this immaculate Romanian settlement, adorned and bright as the sweet yellow May flowers that have borne far away the fame of the Vad Grove.
Its historical evolution and its wonderful location - at about half the distance between the foot of the mighty Fagaras mountains and the Transylvanian segment of the river Olt, on the banks of Sercaia Valley, among lazy hills and picturesque surroundings - brought this village a special fame and made it an attraction for both Roumanian and foreign tourists.
Its fame was imparted not only by its famous daffodil groves, but also by its wise and proud, temperate and hardworking inhabitants; people who loved justice and honesty; real honourable householders. Many scholars and well-known intellectuals have their roots here; here are also the roots of many skilled workers, tradesmen, sportsmen and sportswomen, and the roots of many people who were directly and actively involved in those historical events that marked the evolution of our nation and country.
Homage to the beauties destined by God to this immaculate Romanian settlement, adorned and bright as the sweet yellow May flowers that have borne far away the fame of the Vad Grove.
From ancient times, Vad was crossed by important roads. Even the name of the village itself, derives from the Latin word “vadum ” which means ford, a shallow area in a river that can be easily crossed. This is still the way this area of Sercaia ford looks like today. Sercaia river crosses the village from south to north. Long time ago, Vad was traversed by the “royal road” (”Via Regia”) that came from Sibiu, through Fagaras and continued towards Bran and Walachia . Soon after 1900, once the railway that linked Sibiu and Brasov was built, Vad profited by all the advantages brought by the train, the new and modern means of transport. During the Second World War the railway towards Brasov was shortened by the construction of a new segment that crossed the Persani mountains, so Vad station was abandoned, nevertheless the village had access to the new and modern station Sercaia that was built between those two villages. The future perspectives look bright because the motorway Bucharest - Brasov - Targu Mures - Cluj Napoca - Oradea is designed to pass through the northern part of Vad. The construction of this motorway started in 2004 and it is scheduled to be finished in 2012.
Vad, a place with a rich history and wide folk traditions, shows itself to the visitors as a village of sheer beauty, as a place that enchanted all those that came to see it - and their number is by no means small.
For instance, in about 1390-1400, in Vad halted the deputies of Mircea the Wise to gratify the command of the Walachia’s ruler who presented Ioan Borcea and Calian some local proprieties. Vlad the Impeller passed through this village with his army in 1459-1460 while going to punish the Transylvanian Germans who had sheltered his rivals to the throne; with this occasion fearful Dracula burnt down the “small town of Sercaia and the Mica village”.
Through Vad passed also, in the fall of 1599, Michael the Brave on his rapid march towards Fagaras and further on towards Selimber where he obtained the famous victory against Andrei Bathory, the young and inexperienced prince of Transylvania. After this victory Michael the Brave was to fulfill the first political union of the three Roumanian countries. Vad was visited in 1773 by Joseph the second, future emperor of Austria (1780-1790), a wise man who, on this occasion, presented the villagers with a bell to add up to the gift that had been given to the villagers only two years before by his mother, Empress Maria Tereza. She had had also given them a precious gift, a bell whose crystalline chime still fill the air nowadays.
Nicolae Iorga visited Vad on his first travels in Transylvania and he was warmly received in the house of the priest Ioan Bunea, the brother of the well-known historian Augustin Bunea of Blaj, a good friend of the great historian and scholar Nicolae Iorga.Between the two World Wars a lot of famous visitors came to admire the beauties God bestowed upon this place; among them there were well-known writers like: Mihail Sadoveanu, Ionel Teodoreanu, Ion Agarbiceanu; all of them were welcomed in the big house situated on the main road, house owned by Stefan Boier, the manager of “Prima Ardeleana” Bank from Cluj. He was a distinguished businessman renown for his fortune but also for his close relations with the choice of the political society of the time, and also famous for supporting some commendable national cultural initiatives. 
This is where, in the seventh decade of the XX century, halted some people who looked for Eminesco’s origins hoping to discover, in the parish register some genealogical connections between the forefathers of the greatest Romanian poet and Iminovici family whose descendants still live in Vad. Among these researchers, Dimitrie Vatamaniuc was glad to get precious information open-heartedly offered by the worth-mentioning Grigore Vuta, who lead Vad as a spiritual shepherd for about four decades (1948-1988).
For all these things and not only for them, Vad, this old and beautiful village situated in the heart of Romania, still teaches, as ever, to love your country, your natal place , to cherish beauty, joy and spiritual fulfilment.
Prof. Viorel Lupu, National College for Informatics “Traian Lalescu ” Hunedoara, Romania
Translated by Luminita Pascu
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