40 Facts About Luca Arbore

Luca Arbore first rose to prominence in 1486, during the rule of Stephen III, Prince of Moldavia, to whom he was possibly related.

Luca Arbore became the long-serving gatekeeper of Suceava, bridging military defense and administrative functions with a diplomatic career.

Luca Arbore is tentatively identified as "Luca the Vlach", who served Stephen on crucial diplomatic missions to Poland and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Also a great landowner and patron of the arts, Luca Arbore commissioned the painting of Luca Arbore Church.

Gatekeeper Luca Arbore was identified, possibly erroneously, as a pretender to the Moldavian throne in 1505.

Luca Arbore maintained his position despite suffering defeat, and, possibly as a hetman, went on to serve as tutor of Bogdan's orphaned son, Stephen IV "Stefanita".

The Luca Arbore line was largely extinguished in 1523, but survived mainly through female descendants; the name was eventually reused by people who were distantly related to the original family, including, in the late 19th-century, the scholar-politician Zamfir Luca Arbore.

Luca Arbore had a brother, the Pitar Ion, and a sister, Anusca.

Luca Arbore was killed by the invading Ottoman army during the invasion of 1476, either at Vaslui or in front of Neamt Citadel.

The attributes of this office were greatly expanded by Stephen: it implied command offices in the Moldavian military forces and diplomatic functions, obliging Luca Arbore to become a polyglot.

In parallel, Luca Arbore was the squire of an eponymous estate in Bukovina, and of Sipote, in Iasi County.

Luca Arbore became ktitor of churches, dedicated to Moldavian Orthodoxy, in both localities.

Folklore records that Luca Arbore used Polish and Ottoman prisoners of war as his laborers, forcing them to quarry stone from Solca River.

Luca Arbore had a nephew, Dragos, whom he groomed for the office of Suceava gatekeeper and to whom he donated an estate in Tapesti.

Historian Valentina Esanu believes that Arbore is Luka voloshanin or Luca walachus, mentioned by several sources as leading Stephen's embassies to these two countries.

In 1497, as Poland invaded Moldavia and besieged Suceava, Luca Arbore reportedly organized a "heroic defense" of the capital.

Albert, thinking that Luca Arbore might have princely aspirations, proposed to the gatekeeper that he handle him Suceava and receive support for obtaining the throne.

Luca Arbore refused; Albert then tried to capture Luca Arbore, but the latter managed to retreat into the citadel.

In 1501, as tensions between Poland and Moldavia were being reignited, Luca Arbore traveled to Halych and informed the local starosta that Moldavia intended to annex that city, and possibly other parts of the Ruthenian Voivodeship as well.

In that context, Luca Arbore had a prominent role in the occupation of Polish region of Pokuttya.

Luca Arbore ordered his own tombstone at around the same time, possibly as a precaution.

Luca Arbore was integrated on the Boyar Council in 1486, but only returned there in 1498, possibly because he was too often absent from the country on diplomatic assignments.

In 1504, with Stephen III dead, Luca Arbore was allegedly a pretender to the throne, although he continued to serve as courtier of the recognized successor, Bogdan.

Church historian Mircea Pahomi advances the hypothesis that Luca Arbore used Italian stonemasons and painters for at least some of this work.

Bogdan was an ailing prince, incapable of fulfilling his duties toward the end of his life; alongside Totrusan, Luca Arbore again took hold of the actual government.

Luca Arbore became the ruler's tutor and, as such, the country's eminence grise.

Luca Arbore's estate increased in 1516 with the purchase of Solonet from the boyars Hanco, eventually comprising 39 separate domains, including Mount Giumalau.

Nevertheless, by 1523 the Luca Arbore males had encountered his prince's wrath, being formally charged with hiclenie.

The parish chronicle of Solca noted in the 1880s that "no Moldavian chronicle" specified what crime Luca Arbore had actually committed.

Toader and Nichita Luca Arbore were reportedly put to death, by strangling or decapitation, during the following month.

Luca Arbore's grave remains undiscovered, but one theory is that his body was stolen by his partisans and secretly buried at Solca.

The Arbore family survived through Luca's female descendants and, according to Lecca, other close relatives.

Luca Arbore commissioned master Dragosin Coman to repaint the manorial church, which had been damaged by an Ottoman invasion in 1538, and, dying childless, bequeathed the place to her niece Parasca Udrea.

The Udreas, acting as Luca Arbore successors, obtained other parts of the Solca estate in 1555.

In 1620 Luca Arbore's reported heirs included his daughter Marica's daughters, Tofana and Zamfira, and Anghelina's daughter, Nastasia.

Ureche argues that Luca Arbore was not put on trial for the accusations made against him, nor were any of the claims proven, although, according to Dragnev, Ureche's own claim is not necessarily backed by evidence.

In 19th-century Moldavia and the successor Kingdom of Romania, Luca Arbore was recovered by literature, appearing early on as an heroic figure in Constantin Stamati's poem, Santinela, and being portrayed in prose works by Constantin Negruzzi.

Luca Arbore himself is present in the work, standing for the "glorious past" of Stephen III's reign, against the decadence of Stephen IV.

Luca Arbore's alleged scheme is taken for granted by the dramatist, and depicted as a grave error of judgement.

Nistor added that Luca Arbore was a "clean soul" and "true martyr" of the Romanian Orthodox Church, before whom Moldavians knelt.