Vasile Ursu Nicola (1731 in Arada, Principality of Transylvania (now Horea, Romania) – 28 February 1785 in Karlsburg (now Alba Iulia, Romania), commonly known as Horea (in Hungarian sometimes Hóra) was a Transylvanian peasant who, with ("Cloșca") and ("Crișan"), led the two-month-long peasant rebellion that began in the Metaliferi Mountains villages of Curechiu and Mesteacăn in late 1784 and that was known as the Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan. After the rebellion was put down, Crișan hanged himself in prison, and Horea and Cloșca were executed by being publicly broken on the wheel. Horea is a legendary figure and folk hero in Romania. Early life Horea was born in the Land of the Moți, in the village of Arada, Principality of Transylvania (today known as Horea, in Alba County, Romania) on Fericet Hill. He was the son of poor peasants who gave him his baptismal name, Ursu (bear), in accordance with an old pagan custom of naming children after strong animals or vigorous trees. In his youth he acquired the nickname Horea, because he played a flute-like instrument called the horea. One source describes him as having two brothers, Peter and Damian, and a sister, while another source mentions only one brother, Gavrilă. Horea was married to Ilina, with whom he had two sons, Ion and Luca, the former of whom participated alongside his father in the rebellion. Career Horea was a craftsman who built wooden churches, some of which still exist, among them the church in Cizer (Csizér) which dates back to 1773 and was moved in 1967 (or 1968) to the National Museum of Transylvanian History in Cluj-Napoca. The words “worked by Ursu H” are carved on the nave's beam in Cyrillic letters. Horea is also said to have taken part in the construction of the Orthodox Moon Church in Oradea (, ). Although a serf, he is supposed to have been able to read and write. Between 1770 and 1773, he lived with his family in Ciucea (Csucsa, Tschetsch). Ever since the incorporation of Transylvania — known in German as Siebenbürgen — into the Habsburg domains in 1691, the situation of the Romanian peasants in this region, who were Orthodox Christians, had been particularly precarious. While Hungarians, Székelys, and Germans (Transylvanian Saxons) enjoyed certain rights and privileges, however, the Romanians still had no representation in politics. The Romanian peasants were serfs with no individual freedom, and