Andrii Popa was one of the most well-known Oltenian outlaws from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many legends are connected to his name, and the poet Vasile Alecsandri dedicated a poem whose lyrics were put on music by the rock band Phoenix.
Andrii Popa would have been born in the village of Seaca in Olt county and he had committed suicide along with Iancu Jianu, along with which Vidin and Plevna were attacked and destroyed. After the death of the Osman Pazvantoglu Pasha in Vidin, Andrii Popa left in front of his troop to free from the Pasha’s palace the dozens of girls stolen by the Turks from Oltenia and turned into odalisques.
It is said that, opening the gates of the palace, Andrii would have found not only the 50 Wallachian girls, but 500 virgins from all the surrounding regions, all beautiful as the moon in the sky. Not knowing what to do with them, the outlaw loaded them all in carts and passed the Danube to the Romanian Country, the Wallachian girls were left to go to their homes, and the rest made them wives to reasonable men. It is said that some were married for love, and some would have been sold for what their future husbands had to offer: a saddle for a horse, a weapon or a bag of money. Legend says that, years after the release of the chains, some soldiers of the kingdom passed from village to village in search of them, promising them freedom. But already these were set up in their homes, with husbands and children they love and households, so no one wanted to go back to their native places.
From Oltenia, Andrii Popa would have passed the mountains to Transylvania, leaving also to the men from the Romanian villages there some hundred odalisques as wives.
Until they got to sell or marry all the odalisques, in order not to be found by the posse, Andrii Popa and his troops would have hidden in a small village near Craiova, Palilula. This was the favourite place where the outlaws of Andrii Popa hid themselves also after plundering the Turkish mail-hacks and after taking back the taxes collected from Oltenia. The village, which still exists today, was built in a valley hidden from the eyes of the curious by a hill surrounded by forests on two sides. Thus, from anywhere, someone would have look, would not have looked at the village of Palilula. Legend says that neither the posses nor the Turks nor the Germans, when they occupied Craiova in 1916, during World War I, did not find this village.
This is where Andrii Popa lived for a long time, along with some odalisques he kept for himself and his trusty outlaws. It is said that he left the hiding place only to go for outlaw actions or when the wells dried up, in hot summers. To date, water supply is a problem in the village of Palilula, the groundwater being at a very deep depth.
The acts of the outlaw remained in the Romanian culture thanks to the poetry written by Vasile Alecsandri. At the end of it, the poet wrote a note about the end of Andrii Popa: “This thief roamed the country for seven whole years, without being able to caught by a posse. In the year 1818, Mihai Cozoni, the author’s uncle, was commissioned by a royal command to catch that famous thief. Meeting him in Valea-Seacă, he killed him from the run of the horse, after a raging battle for several hours”.
“Who passes in the Valea-Seacă
With the hammer without a sheath
And with the chest revealed?
Andrii-Popa the famous one!
For seven years in a row
He made fun of the rulers
And he keeps plundering continually,
Andrii-Popa, male thief!
Day and night, riding,
He takes taxes in the middle of the road,
And all over the country!
The Arnauts are running the hell out of the way,
Because he has a full rifle
With three bullets at the root,
And a horse of four years,
Which bites enemies,
He has seven blood brothers,
Who suck blood with milk.
And he doesn’t care about anything,
Andrii-Popa the strong one!
Captain, brother,
What are you seeing in the sun?
I can see four horses!
Didn’t you hear about Mihai?
Captain, he cooks you,
Mihai the proud one goes away to you.
Here it is, it comes like a kite!
Make three crosses to God.
As he sees them in the distance,
Popa shouts out loud:
“Come to the chase of Arnauts!
Come to round dance of women!”
He said! scream, throw,
He goes through plain, brook, meadow
With the agile fugitive
And with the thieves after him.
Mihai the proud comes again,
Mighty as a tower,
On a white horse that has no place
And it blows fire from the eyes.
They run away like a swallow,
They flee like lightning when it falls,
And the sturdy goes, they go,
With an outlaw wrath!
Chest to chest! … the field is ringing
They all give together.
Everyone in the fight gets stuck,
All in blood frowning.
“Hurray, brothers!” horses are whinnying,
Above, the sky is sparkling.
“Hurray!” death has come!
The eagle in flight stopped!
Summer day until evening
The brave men want to disappear
And with the sharp iron,
And with the numb fist.
The blood in the wounds is gurgling,
The voice in the mouth is diminishing.
Ten are dead! two still alive,
Mihai the proud and Andrii.
Andrii runs away without a hand,
Catch the horse at the well,
He comes abruptly, jumps on the saddle
And from the mouth he says so:
“You fly, young boy,
To get me off heavy torments,
That I swear, if I get away alive,
Like a brother shall I find you”.
The horse comes fast.
In vain? Mihai saw him!
“Wait, thief – priest, my dear,
Let me show you who I am! “
And as he says, he targeted him,
He hit him right in the forehead!
“Hurray!” The eagle in the clouds
Cried out for three times.
Vasile Alecsandri – Andrii Popa. Ocna, 1843
Bibliography:
· Dan Carlea, “Stories and legends with famous outlaws”, 18 January 2013, https://ziarullumina.ro/societate/timp-liber/-77272.html
· “Palilula, Dolj”, 11 February 2019, https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palilula,_Dolj
· “Andrei Popa”, 5 December 2018, https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Popa