Now fallen into shadow, the Romania-born Baron Franz Nopcsa was a groundbreaking scientist, adventurer — and would-be king.– Journalist Vanessa Veselka
By Bob Brockie
Aristocrat, Nationalist and spy
Baron Nopsca was brought up in a Transylvanian castle in Hungary in the 1870s. Over many years, the Austro-Hungarian empire sought to overthrow the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans. and, posing as a Transyvanian shepherd, Nopsca acted as a spy for Austro-Hungary. He spent time in the Albanian mountains, smuggled weapons and made passionate speeches promoting Albania’s independence.
As a result of the wars, Albania became an independent nation looking for a king. Nopsca offered to fill the post and proposed overcoming the country’s poverty by marrying an America heiress. Nothing came of his suggestion.
After World War One Transylvania was ceded to Rumania and Nospsca lost his estates and fortune. Throughout his life, the baron rode everywhere on a motorbike, accompanied by his ‘secretary’ and lover Bajazid Doda, an Albanian Muslim.
Nopsca and science
As a young man, Nopsca found several fossil dinosaurs on his family estates. He consulted specialists at the Vienna University who encouraged his curiosity and which eventually earned him a doctorate, based on the many fossil dinosaurs he discovered.
Not content with simply naming his dinosaurs, Nopsca tried to put flesh on their bones by speculating about their physiology and behaviour. Most of his finds were of dwarf dinosaurs that he showed once lived on islands and were social animals.
Baron Nopsca:
- specialised in fossil cousins of our tuatara (Rhynchocephalia)
- drew the first geological maps of Albania
- was appointed Director of the Royal Hungarian Geological Institute in 1925. He worked prodigiously, confirming Wegener’s theory of continental drift.
An unhappy ending
One fine day, Nopsca set about a 6,000 km ride through the Alps and the length of Italy along the Adriatic coast, visiting its many fossil sites and collecting a huge amount of information. Returning to Vienna the baron started analysing his findings but fell ill and lethargic.
His illness led to painful convulsive attacks and depression. Suicidal, Nopsca shot and killed his lover Doda, then himself at age 55.
In geological circles, Franz Nopsca von Felsö-Szilvàs is still known as the ‘Father of palaeobiology’.