Revolution of 1848: The burning of the Wallachian Regulament

La rascrucea marilor furtuni (1980)



On July 11, 1848, the false rumor that the Imperial Russian Army had left Bessarabia and was moving southwards cause the regency to leave Bucharest and take refuge in Târgoviște. This occurred after Russia had occupied Moldavia in April, a result of the unsuccessful revolt in that country. The moment was seized by conservatives: headed by Metropolitan Neofit, the latter grouping took over, and announced that the revolution had ended. When a revolutionary courier returned from the Moldavian town of Focșani with news that Russian troops had not left their quarters, the population in the capital prepared for action—during the events, Ambrozie, a priest from the Buzău Bishopric, made himself the revolutionary hero of the hour and earned the nickname Popa Tun, the "Cannon Priest", after ripping out the lit fuse of a gun aimed at the crowds. The outcome caused Neofit to invalidate his own proclamation, and to transfer his power back to the Provisional Government (July 12).

Over the following months, the population radicalized itself, and, on September 18, 1848, just one week before the Revolution was crushed, crowds entered the Interior Ministry, taking over the official copies of Regulamentul Organic and the register of boyar ranks (Arhondologia). The documents were subsequently paraded through the city in a mock funeral cortege, and burned down, one sheet at a time, in the public square on Mitropoliei Hill. Neofit reluctantly agreed to preside over the ceremony and to issue a curse on both pieces of legislation.

Revoluției de la 1848 din Țara Românească