Biserica COLȚ - Church (Hunedoara County, Romania)
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Colt (corner - in Romanian) Orthodox church fortress is located at the northern foot of Retezat Mountains, above the village Suseni (village Rau de Mori, Hunedoara county). The name comes from the Colt (corner) located on the corner rock on the other side of the Rauşor Valley, both dating from the fourteenth century. Both were built by the lords Candea, famous medieval noble family of Hateg Country. Church, which is dedicated to All Saints Sunday currently working as hermitage with community of monks. How it looks now, monastic ensemble is the result of extensive restorations made in the last 20 years, repeating an old Orthodox hermitage who worked here in the XIV-XVI. From the seventeenth century, the settlement was abandoned, underwent decay ruin. During communist times longer keep only the tower and the nave was converted into stable. The church is distinguished by its strange looks, as one fortress, due mainly to defense tower built above the altar, to better supervise the valley. The walls having a thickness of 1.2 m are made of rough stone and are reinforced with buttresses. The church has only a rectangular short nave, and one altar with defense tower above. The entrance is directly into the nave. Valuable paintings were made sometime during 1350-1450, probably by the same Stephen craftsman who painted also Densus church. The mural painting has been compromised, only the altar keeping better, and could still recognize an ample scenes Akathist Hymn. In the nave of the church restoration work could save only small areas of mural painting, as seen now. the defensive church tower has 3 levels (provided with very narrow stairs, the chimney fire and pyramidal stone roof, typical for the medieval Hateg Country). The fortified Colt Church was part of the defensive system of the Colt Fortress. Colt Fortress was built several decades after construction of the church. It was no renovated, being now in an advanced state of ruin. There are many outstanding coincidences and indirect data that lead pretty sure the idea that this would be the fortress that inspired Jules Verne to write his novel The Carpathian Castle.
Biserica-fortăreață ortodoxă Colț este situată la poalele nordice ale Munților Retezat, mai sus de satul Suseni (comuna Râu de Mori, județul Hunedoara). Numele provine de la Cetatea Colț situată pe un colț de munte pe celălalt versant al Văii Râușor, ambele datând din secolul XIV și fiind ctitoria cnezilor Cândea, vestită familie nobiliară medievală din Țara Hațegului. Biserica, având hramul ”Duminica Tuturor Sfinților” activează în prezent ca schit cu obște de călugări. Așa cum arată acum, ansamblul monahal este rezultatul unei ample restaurări făcute în ultimii 20 de ani, reluând o veche sihăstrie ortodoxă care a activat aici în secolele XIV-XVI. Din secolul XVII, așezământul a fost abandonat, degradându-se la ruină. În perioada comunistă se mai păstra doar turnul, iar naosul a fost transformat în grajd. Biserica se remarcă prin aspectul său ciudat, de fortăreață, datorat mai ales turnului de apărare construit deasupra altarului, putând astfel supraveghea valea. Zidurile, având o grosime de 1,2 m sunt făcute din piatră brută și sunt întărite cu contraforturi. Biserica este o navă dreptunghiulară numai cu naos scurt și cu altarul-turn decroșat. Intrarea se face direct în naos. Valorosul ansamblu pictural realizat cândva în perioada 1350-1450, probabil de către același meșter Ștefan care a pictat și biserica din Densuș, a fost compromisă, doar în altar păstrând-se mai bine, putându-se totuși recunoaște scenele unui amplu ”Imn acatist”. În naos, lucrările de restaurare a bisericii au putut salva doar mici suprafețe, așa cum se vede acum. Turnul fortificat al bisericii are 3 niveluri (prevăzut cu scări foarte înguste, cu horn pentru foc și cu acoperiș piramidal din piatră, tipic pentru zona Hațeg) și făcea parte din sistemul defensiv al cetății Colț. Cetatea Colț a fost construită la câteva decenii după construcția bisericii. Nu a fost renovată, aflându-se acum într-o stare avansată de ruină. Sunt multe coincidențe deosebite și date indirecte care conduc destul de sigur la ideea că această cetate ar fi cea care l-a inspirat pe Jules Verne să scrie romanul ”Castelul din Carpați”.
România, colţ de Rai
Biserica din Densuş, o localitate din tara Hategului, situata la cativa kilometri de Ulpia Traiana Sarmisegetusa, isi pastreaza inca secretele astfel incat nimeni nu poate spune cu certitudine cand a fost ridicata. Istoricii au pareri impartite. Unii spun ca ar fi fost ridicata pe ruinele unui edicifiu pre-crestin din Dacia, altii cred ca a fost ridicata pe fundatia unui templu inchinat zeului Marte, multi spun ca biserica a fost mai intai un mausoleu inchinat generalului Longinus Maximus, ucis de daci, Nicolae Iorga o plaseaza in secolul al XVI-lea iar istoricul de arta Vataseanu crede ca ar fi din ultimul sfert al secolului al XIII-lea. Cert este un singur lucru: la ora actuala este cea mai veche biserica din Romania in care se mai tin slujbe.
Cetatea Colt - Castelul din Carpati
Ctitoria : Cneaznul Candea, sec. al XIV-lea (1359)
Adresa : satul Suseni, jud. Hunedoara
Importanta : Jules Verne l-ar fi ales ca sursa de inspiratie pentru subiectul romanul Castelul din Carpati
Alte obiective din zona : Manastirea Colt Suseni
On the Run from the CIA: The Experiences of a Central Intelligence Agency Case Officer
Agee stated that his Roman Catholic social conscience had made him increasingly uncomfortable with his work by the late 1960s leading to his disillusionment with the CIA and its support for authoritarian governments across Latin America. About the book:
He and other dissidents took encouragement in their stand from the Church Committee (1975-76), which cast a critical light on the role of the CIA in assassinations, domestic espionage, and other illegal activities.
In the book Agee condemned the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City and wrote that this was the immediate event precipitating his leaving the agency.
While Agee claimed that the CIA was very pleased with his work, offered him another promotion and his superior was startled when Agee told him about his plans to resign, the anti-communist journalist John Barron claims that Agee's resignation was forced for a variety of reasons, including his irresponsible drinking, continuous and vulgar propositioning of embassy wives, and inability to manage his finances.
Agee was accused by U.S. President George H. W. Bush of being responsible for the death of Richard Welch, a Harvard-educated classicist who was murdered by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November while heading the CIA Station in Athens. Bush had directed the CIA from 1976 to 1977.
Inside the Company identified 250 alleged CIA officers and agents. The officers and agents, all personally known to Agee, are listed in an appendix to the book. While written as a diary, it is actually a reconstruction of events based on Agee's memory and his subsequent research.
Agee writes that his first overseas assignment was in 1960 to Ecuador where his primary mission was to force a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Cuba, no matter what the cost to Ecuador's shaky stability, using bribery, intimidation, bugging, and forgery. Agee spent four years in Ecuador penetrating Ecuadorian politics. He states that his actions subverted and destroyed the political fabric of Ecuador.
Agee helped bug the United Arab Republic code room in Montevideo, Uruguay, with two contact microphones placed on the ceiling of the room below.
On December 12, 1965 Agee explains how he visited senior Uruguayan military and police officers at a Montevideo police headquarters. He realized that the screaming he heard from a nearby cell was the torturing of a Uruguayan, whose name he had given to the police as someone to watch. The Uruguayan senior officers simply turned up a radio report of a soccer game to drown out the screams.
Agee also ran CIA operations within the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and he witnessed the events of the Tlatelolco massacre.
Agee stated that President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica, President Luis Echeverría Álvarez (1970--1976) of Mexico and President Alfonso López Michelsen (1974--1978) of Colombia were CIA collaborators or agents.
Following this he details how he resigned from the CIA and began writing the book, conducting research in Cuba, London and Paris. During this time he alleges he was being spied on by the CIA.