Radio România Internațional

Tag: ceramics

  • Culture and Cultures

    Culture and Cultures

    The Designers, Thinkers, Makers Association has created a program labelled “Culture and Cultures”. Its eventual aim is to highlight Romania’s cultural heritage. The program also seeks to revitalize Romanian culture, with special emphasis on promoting UNESCO sites and the local values, more often than not less well-known to the public.

    Initial steps have already been taken, to that effect, with the completion of the audio tour of Biertan.

    Architect Alexandra Mihailiciuc is the Association’s cultural programs coordinator Here she is, telling us where they started from and what the stages of the programs were.

    “This program, “Culture and Cultures”, we thought it out as some sort of cultural revitalizatio we have built in a bid to protect and capitalize on the values of Romania’s cultural heritage. It somehow speaks about culture, about the various ethnic cultures, but also about culture in its basic accepting, connected to the ground, that is about the territories around the house, the manor house, the village.

    Which means it’s equally about the care for our nearest but also about the care for the farthest, since they are tied by an umbilical cord. And the ultimate purpose of such a program, actually, is to use as many means as possible for the creation of a good climate, good for culture, and, at long last, good for the quality of life. Besides, one of the key components of this program is the education for heritage. We realized it matters for al social layers and for all ages.

    And I won’ t be mincing my words, saying that from our point of view, it is one of Romanian society’s emergencies. We see, around us, how much is being destroyed, how little the communities take responsibility for the heritage, how little it is loved and understood and how little it is capitalized on.

    This program has several cultural projects. The project we’ve carried this year, “Heritage Lab. Connecting the Dots”, is just one of the projects of this programs, which also has three streams: education, research and design.

    Architect Alexandra Mihailiciuc, the Designers Thinkers Makers Association’s cultural programs coordinator also gave us details on their work:

    “This year we have sought to think out the program which special emphasis laid on the cultural heritage of Transylvania’s Hills, especially of the UNESCO village of Biertan and the village of Chirpar, in a bid to highlight this valuable cultural heritage of the region and get the lay public acquainted with all that is unknown yet valuable, so, in a way, with everything that somehow exists yet it is not capitalized on. And we thought it would be better to begin with a UNESCO site, since UNESCO sites are the spearhead of world heritage, humankind’s most cherished treasures. And yet, with us, in our country, they haven’t just as yet been appropriated by the collective mindset. “

    A summer school followed, themed “Heritage Lab”, a school with a theoretical component whereby students surveyed the UNESCO sites, wrote about them, made their drawings, created interpretation materials, yet the school had a practical component as well, that of working with their own hands, where they learned how the traditional historical plastering is made, with lime, with sand, how the correct brick-based masonry is being made, architecture students needing these labs, these construction sites, so they can be prepared for their professional future.

    Alexandra Mihailiciuc once again:

    “ We have created two audio tours for the Biertan site and the village of Chirpar, bi-lingual, Romanian and English, and here we are, we even succeeded to launch the digital tour of UNESCO Biertan’s fortified church, with a program which, I believe, is multifarious, including the presentation of the project, going through the stations for the area’s relevant projects, but also an organ concert.

    The space was flooded by Transylvanian music of various timeframes, belonging to the Romantic period, somehow in tune with the age of the organ in the fortified church. But the novelty of it all was the fact that that organ concert actually turned into a musical workshop or into a musical living room, just like that, revolving around the organ, where we’ve been explained the working system and where little sound incursions have been performed, into the multiple qualities of this instrument.

    Those who came could go through the rest of the stations scattered all around the village, since that’s exactly the underlying idea, for us to invite tourists to discover not only the fortified church, but also everything around it, considering Culture and Cultures.

    And that is how they can take the journey, visiting one station after the next, about UNESCO and the sister churches about the village apothecary, which seems to be the first such store in rural Transylvania, about customs and traditions, about the multiculturalism of the place, about decorations, about, why not, Via Transilvanica cutting through the centre of the village. “

    Then an exhibition follows, about the precious Chirpar ceramics, the Stork Culture Workshops in Bucharest, a string of exhibitions, of film screening evenings, of architecture and craftsmanship and of workshops, also related to cultural heritage.

  • Horezu Ceramics – UNESCO intangible heritage

    Horezu Ceramics – UNESCO intangible heritage

    Horezu, in Vâlcea County (in southern Romania) is the place where the pottery tradition has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years, pottery being a craft raised to the rank of traditional art. As you drive down the winding roads on the hills that go up from Horezu, you enter Olari Street-a Street full of the houses-workshops of the potters in the area. On both sides of the road visitors are welcomed by house porches crammed with ceramic objects, decorated fences, windows and doors adorned with hanging plates, jugs and cups placed on top of fences – all of them emanating color, joy and centuries-old Romanian tradition. We stopped at the workshop of the master potter Mihai Bâscu, to discuss about this special type of ceramics and about how it is made.



    Mihai Bâscu: “When you say Horezu, you actually mean the only locality in Romania with two UNESCO brands – Hurez ceramics and Hurezi Monastery. Hurez ceramics is famous around the world, and its fame is also due to its being included on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, because we have a unique way of decorating ceramics and equally unique decorating tools. The decorating tools we use are the cow horn, the goose and jay feather. As everyone knows, the general symbol of the region is the “Rooster of Hurez”, and we also have some secondary symbols, so to say, such as the “Tree of Life”, the fish, the snake, the sun, the “Spiral of Life”, plus the traditional motifs of the spider or spiral, the ear of wheat, the peacocks tail, the flower, the trefoil, and the vortex. Our decorations are a combination of traditional motifs, of motifs and symbols, or just of symbols.”



    The Horezu ceramic objects are quite varied, ranging from small to big-size objects. Mihai Bâscu has described their range: “The Hurez ceramics includes objects and especially plates starting from the size of 8 centimeters up to 40 centimeters. In this regard, I can assume the merit of making a ‘revolution’ in the years 2000, which made a difference from the ceramics of my father’s generation, the so-called ‘golden generation’, as I made the biggest Horezu objects, plates and even large soup bowls. In addition, Horezu ceramics also includes cups, brandy cups and “square” plates. We have diversified the range, making magnets and even clay sinks.”



    Potter Mihai Bâscu told us how he learned this craft and talked about the secrets of this traditional profession: “This craft is passed down from father to son. I learned it as a child, I also learned the old technology, as I used to help my father, by preparing the clay. At the time, since there were no electric engines, I would prepare the paints by stirring with my hand. The clay we use is from our area, from Dealul Ulmului — Ulmului Hill, where I usually go in autumn to take clay for a whole year. I take a bulldozer to dig 2 meters until I find the good clay, and then, helped by some of the villagers, I pick the best clay and clean it. I bring it home clean, there are also very large lumps. I bring it in a clean trailer. I store it at home and leave it outside all winter — because the freeze-thaw cycle crumbles the clay. I mix the clay twice in the mixer, then I knead it in my hands until it becomes very good for shaping. The paints we use are all natural, from earths I prepare myself. White, orange and black are natural types of earth, and for the green and blue earths I make several combinations. I combine copper oxide and kaolin (white earth) to obtain green, and cobalt and white earth to obtain blue earth. After that, there follow the phases of the work proper: modeling clay, in the sense of shaping the clay into whatever form I want, a plate, a bowl or a cup. The second phase is decoration — which is the most spectacular and important phase in our technology. The object is decorated in a fresh form, as we call it, fresh but hardened, because, the paints being made of earth, the new decoration merges into the clay object. Then, because our objects, 70-80%, are hanged on walls, I scrape them on the back, make a hole for hanging and, what is very important, I stamp them with my name. Then I put them to dry. When they are perfectly dry, they enter the first firing in the oven, which lasts about 8 hours, at a temperature that reaches 850 degrees. The next day I take them out of the oven, apply enamel on them and give them a second firing at 1,020 degrees. This is how a final object is obtained.”



    In the end of our discussion, the master potter Mihai Bâscu wanted to add something which he learned from his father and which refers to the ruler of Wallachia Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714), who was canonized as a holy martyr. Brâncoveanu was the founder of many churches and monasteries, a leader under whose rule the Romanian arts and culture knew an extraordinary development:




    Mihai Bâscu: “What I didn’t tell you, something very important — is something that I know from my father: pottery in our region has been a craft since the time of the ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu. His second passion after the church was pottery, we even have a decoration style called Brancoveanu decoration style.” (LS)

  • Valcea County

    Valcea County

    Crossing the county is Olt River, and, along the Olt Valley, a railroad connects Wallachia to Transylvania. The county capital city, Ramnicu Valcea, is the best starting point to explore the tourist attractions in the region. First mentioned in an official document on September 4, 1388, by the Wallachian ruler Mircea the Old, the city of Ramnicu Valcea takes pride in its centuries-old history. Also worth mentioning is Cozia Monastery, a compound 18 km north of Ramnicu Valcea, a monastic compound representative for Romanian mediaeval history and architecture.



    Cozia was founded in 1388 by the Wallachian ruler Mircea the Old, who intended the monastery church to be used also as a princely burial place. Not far from Cozia we find the resort of Calimanesti-Caciulata, which has become an attractive tourist destination in recent years thanks to its aqua-park and thermal water pools. Another princely foundation, the Govora Monastery, lies 17 km west of Ramnicu Valcea. No less than three different rulers were involved in its construction: Radu the Great in 1492, Matthew Basarab in 1636 and Constantin Brancoveanu throughout his reign (1699-1714).



    During the reign of Matthew Basarab, Govora acquired a printing press donated by a scholar and metropolitan of Romanian origin called Simeon Mogyla from Kiev. The Govora Code of Laws, known as the oldest collection of laws in Wallachia, was printed here in 1640. Baile Govora spa and resort is located nearby, where treatment is provided mainly for respiratory disorders.



    The first to benefit from mineral water treatment at Baile Govora were the Romanian soldiers who fought in the Independence War of 1877 and who were stationed at the nearby Govora Monastery. After the confirmation of the mineral waters’ therapeutic properties, Baile Govora saw the building of several constructions that laid the foundation for the future resort. In Baile Govora you will see the first hotel in Romania equipped with a treatment center that was built in 1914 and refurbished with the help of European funds several years ago.



    Mihai Handolescu, general manager at Baile Govora has more: “Our hotel has a spa tradition of more than 100 years. The French architect Doneau erected this hotel according to three architectural styles. The basement, the semi basement and the ground floor were built in the eclectic style, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors in the Art Nouveau style and floors 4, 5 and 6 in Neo-Romanian style. The hotel’s specificity consists in the 365 holes one can see in the walls, as many as the number of days in a year, and in the fact that each room receives direct sunlight during the day as the hotel was built on an east-west direction”.



    The hotel is located in a park designed by another French artist, the landscape architect Emil Pinard. Several kms away from Baile Govora one will discover Ocnele Mari salt mine. A minibus will take you inside the salt mine, which has tunnels covering an area of 3 and a half thousand meters that can be visited. The salt mine also boasts fitness areas, sports grounds, restaurants and a wine cellar.”



    Heading westwards to the town of Targu Jiu, you will have the opportunity to visit the Trovants Museum in the locality of Costesti. On a surface of ten thousand meters you will discover stones of irregular shapes and sizes, which emerged following the process of sand solidification. Heading further away, westwards, you can come by other tourist attractions, in the Horezu area.



    A former mayor of Horezu and a tourism promoter, Constantin Nitu will now tell us how it’s worth a visit to Horezu: “Our area is known as the Horezu depression and its main attraction is the Horezu monastery, built upon order by ruler Constantin Brancoveanu. This monastery is included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The region is worth visiting also thanks to the Horezu ceramics. Each piece of ceramics is handmade and you will not find two identical ceramic objects of a kind. Also the Horezu area is in full tourist development and the surrounding landscapes are very beautiful.”



    Commissioned by ruler Constantin Brancoveanu, Hurezi Monastery is located 50 km west of Ramnicu Valcea. The monastery’s church is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The interior of the church, apart from its usual mural paintings depicting scenes from the Bible, also includes a gallery of portraits of members of the Brancoveanu, Basarab and Cantacuzino families, many of whom were historically rulers of Wallachia. The church also houses the empty tomb of the monastery’s patron, Constantin Brancoveanu, who was beheaded along with his four sons in 1814, in Constantinople.



    The church is surrounded by buildings Brancoveanu would use as living quarters, much in the style of 17th-century fortresses. The Guardhouse and the Council Chamber were turned into today’s museum. Specialists believe the ensemble in Hurezi is representative for the Brancovan architectural style, due to its lavish exterior decorations and frescos.