Room 2 – The Council and Justice Hall

Narration text

You have entered the Council and Justice Hall. Picture the castellan of the citadel seated here, hearing the disputes of people from the district. Castellans, called pârcălabi, were at once military commanders, administrators and judges for the whole district of Neamț.

The furniture is made after period models. In the showcases you can see weapons, banners and a suit of armour, alongside replicas of documents, stove tiles and seals. Stove tiles, the decorated ceramic plates of tiled stoves, are among the loveliest witnesses of Moldavian medieval art, showing knights, fantastic beasts and the country's coat of arms, the aurochs head.

The panels sum up the citadel's great moments: Sigismund's siege of 1395, the resistance against Sultan Mehmed II in 1476, its surrender to Michael the Brave in 1600, Vasile Lupu's refuge, the episode of 1691 with the King of Poland and the destruction of 1717–1718. The next room, the Iatac, explains the Princely Council. Further on is the Secret Chamber, with a monumental stove recreated after the one at Suceava.