Caragea's plague (Romanian: Ciuma lui Caragea) was a bubonic plague epidemic that occurred in Wallachia, mainly in Bucharest, in the years 1813 and 1814, during the rule of the Phanariote Domn Ioan Gheorghe Caragea. Bubonic plague is the best-known variant of the deadly infectious disease plague, which is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during a... This article is about the region in what is now Southern Romania. ... Status Capital of Romania Mayor Adriean Videanu, Democratic Party, since 2005 Area 228 km² Population (2003) 1,921,751[1] Density 9131. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Phanariotes or Phanariot Greeks (Greek: Φαναριώτες, Romanian: FanarioÅ£i) - were the members of those principal Greek families who resided in Phanar (Fener in Turkish, from the Greek word Φανάρι, Phanari - Lighthouse), the chief Greek quarter of Istanbul - where the ecumenical patriarchate is situated. ... Hospodar or gospodar is a term of Slavonic origin, meaning lord. The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia (only occasionally joined) were styled hospodars in Slavic writings from the 15th century to 1866, alongside the title of voivod. ... Ioan Gheorghe Caragea was a phanariot hospodar of Wallachia (reigned 1812-1818). ...

Alleged source

As Caragea came to Bucharest in 1812 after being appointed ruling lord Domn of Wallachia, the plague was already claiming victims in Constantinople. A man in Caragea's retinue grew sick and died. It is alleged that this was the source of the plague in Wallachia, although the next reported death from plague in Wallachia occurred in June 1813. Hospodar or gospodar is a term of Slavonic origin, meaning lord. The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia (only occasionally joined) were styled hospodars in Slavic writings from the 15th century to 1866, alongside the title of voivod. ... This article is about the region in what is now Southern Romania. ... Map of Constantinople. ... A retinue (O. Fr. ...

The plague was expected and in January 1813, Caragea founded two quarantine hospitals, one in Teleorman and one in Giurgiu. ^[1] Quarantine, a medical term (from Italian: quaranta giorni, forty days) is the act of keeping people or animals separated for a period of time before, for instance, allowing them to enter another country. ... Administrative map of Romania with Teleorman county highlighted Teleorman is a Romanian county (Judeţ) in the Wallachia region, with the capital city at Alexandria (population: 59,308). ... County Giurgiu County Status County capital Mayor Lucian Iliescu, National Liberal Party, since 2000 Population (2002) 73,586 Geographical coordinates , Web site http://www. ...

Outbreak and measures taken

There were reports of people with the plague on the streets of Bucharest as early as in April, but the first death attributed to bubonic plague was on 11 June 1813 in Văcăreşti. Quarantine was instated, the gates of the city of Bucharest were closed and all the roads from Văcăreşti to Dealul Spirii were to be guarded to disallow anyone from entering the city without permission.^[1] June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... 1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... VăcăreÅŸti is a neighbourhood in south-eastern Bucharest, located near DâmboviÅ£a River and the VăcăreÅŸti Lake. ... Lithograph of the battle between the Bucharest firemen and the Turkish Army, 1848 Dealul Spirii (Spirii Hill) is a hill in Bucharest, Romania, upon which, currently, the Palace of the Parliament is located. ...

Among them, the government clerks and priests had to check each house for plague infected people, all the foreigners and non-residents were expelled from the city and the beggars were sent to monasteries outside Bucharest. The money which came from the counties where the plague was spread (Ilfov, Vlaşca, Teleorman and Olt) had to be washed in vinegar and the number of gravediggers was increased to 60. ^[1]

In spite of that, the plague continued to spread, mostly due to lack of qualified medical care. The July 1813 register books of the Wallachian government show that most of the decrees were related to the plague. Among the restrictions, the meetings in pubs and coffee-shops were forbidden, alcohol being only sold for home consumption. The people who died had a simple burrial with no attendence. The people who hid sick people or the peddlers ("both Jewish and Christians") were expelled from the city and their belongings were burnt. In August, due to the spread of the plague, the request to allow people to flee the city was approved, Caragea asking the ispravnics to take care to avoid the contact with the villagers. To avoid the crowds, markets and schools were closed down, most judicial proceedings were stopped and the people in the debtors' prison were freed. ^[1] A debtors prison is a prison for people unable to pay a debt to another. ...

Many of the new rules were not respected, despite the rulers attempts, which included the spread of printed fliers. By August, the city became almost barren, even the doctors fleeing and so did Caragea who moved his residence outside Bucharest, in Cotroceni. The French consul said that two thirds of the Bucharesters fled.^[1] House in Cotroceni neighbourhood. ...

Initially, sick people were to be committed to the Dudeşti hospital (later also Cioplea and Băneasa), but soon the 14 quarantine rooms of the unit were overrun, and the place became a simple mass grave. DudeÅŸti is a neighbourhood in south-eastern Bucharest, along the Calea DudeÅŸti. ... Băneasa is a district (cartier) in the north side of Bucharest, near the lake with the same name (0. ...

People with immunity to the disease were hired as undertakers, and walked from door to door to gather corpses. The corpses were taken to the mass graves in Dudeşti and buried there. Often, dying people were taken also and buried alive, and sometimes beaten to death. An undertaker squad once reported that "we collected 15 dead today, but only buried 14, because one of them ran away"^[2]. Sometimes, sick people with enough strength fought back, and killed the undertakers.^[1]

The highest mortality was in October 1813, the gravediggers couldn't even bury all the dead, many of them being put in large pits, which were not covered and many "were eaten by dogs and other beasts". In February 1814, the last market still open, Târgul de Afară (Obor) was closed down, but soon, the people returned to the city. In 1918 the quarantine hospitals of Plumbuita and Văcăreşti were closed down. ^[1] Obor is the name of a market and the surrounding district of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. ...

Death toll

An estimated 60,000 people died of the plague in the two years, 20-30,000 of them in Bucharest, which is a large number, as the city population at the time was of about 120,000. According to a church teacher, the church reports say that that 20,000 died in Bucharest by January 1814 (excluding those burried in the backyards), while the personal doctor of Caragea, claimed that between 25,000 and 30,000 died.^[1]

At the 1831 census (taken right after another cholera epidemic), the population of Bucharest was about 60,000 people. Cholera (also called Asiatic cholera) is a water-borne disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is typically ingested by drinking contaminated water, or by eating improperly cooked fish, especially shellfish. ...

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Ionescu, p. 287-293
2. ^ "Azi am adunat 15 morţi, dar n-am putut îngropa decât 14, fiindcă unul a fugit şi nu l-am putut prinde." quoted by Ion Ghica in a letter to Vasile Alecsandri.

Ion Ghica (1817-1897) was a Romanian diplomat and a prime minister of Romania between 1866 and 1867 and also between 1870-1871. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

References

• Ştefan Ionescu, Bucureştii în vremea fanarioţilor (Bucharest in the time of the Phanariotes), Editura Dacia, Cluj, 1974.
• Mihai Ştirbu and Costin Anghel, Flagel lipicios şi mortal ("Resilient and mortal scourge"), Jurnalul Naţional, 10 April 2006. (Romanian)
• 40.000 de focare de ciumă sub Bucureşti ("40,000 doses of plague under Bucharest"), Ziua, 20 April 2006. (Romanian)