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Tag: compound

  • The Old Orhei Museum Compound

    The Old Orhei Museum Compound

    The Old Orhei, Orheiul Vechi, in Romanian, is a museum compound on the valley of river Raut, a right-hand side tributary of river Dniester, in Republic of Moldova. The Old Orhei cultural-natural reserve enjoys a special status and is Republic of Moldova’s most important site. Currently a process is ongoing, for the Old Orhei to be included on UNESCO’s World heritage List.

    The compound is made of several dozens of hectares of Orhei medieval town. Orhei is a settlement of the 13th and the 16th centuries. It is known as Old Orhei. We recall initially the settlement was deserted and a new city was established in a different location, bearing the same name, today’s Orhei, a town in Republic of Moldova’s Orhei district.

    Part of the compound are two large promontories, Pestere and Butuceni. Added to them are three smaller adjoining promontories, Potarca, Selitra and Scoc. On the territory of the promontories the ruins of several fortifications can be found, as well as dwelling places, baths, worship sites, that including cave monasteries, dating from the Tartar-Mongolian period, the 13th to 14th centuries, but also from the Moldavian period, 14th to 16th centuries.

    The Old Orhei Compound is a system made of cultural and nature elements, such as a natural archaic landscape, biodiversity, an exceptional archaeological environment, historical-architectural diversity, a rural traditional habitat and ethnographic originality.

    The medieval settlement of Old Orhei saw its heyday several times. During the 12th to the 14th centuries, the period before the Tartar-Mongolian invasion. In the early days of the medieval settlement, the wooden and earth citadel is believed to have been erected in that period of time. The Golden Horde Age of the 14th century, the period the stone fortress dates from. Between the 14th and the 16th centuries, the settlement was included in the Moldavian state, for the town, it was a period of transformation, from an Oriental settlement into a Moldavian town.

    During Stephen the Great’s reign (1438-1504) the stone fortress was repaired, and strengthened. In the 60s of the 15th century, the Orhei citadel was erected. It was a defense centre of the country’s eastern borders against the Tartar invasions. The Tartar invasions in the summer of 1469 prompted Stephen the Great to take measures, in a bid to strengthen the country’s defence capacity along Dniester River, initiating important works, carried in order to build a strengthened citadel in Orhei.

    The archaeological excavations that made possible the discovery of the citadel’s foundation speak about those events. Similarly, the official documents of that time speak about that as well. So, in Stephen the Great’s charter of April 1st, 1470, for the first time the mention is made of a burgrave, that is a military commander of the Orhei citadel. We recall at that time the burgrave had military but also administrative responsibilities of the Orhei district.

    The period of decay begins in mid-16th century and lasts until the early 17th century, when the inhabitants abandon the Old Orhei, moving into the new settlement, today’s Orhei. The stone citadel is destroyed.

    Stefan Chelban is the Reserve’s Head of Archelogy and Ethnography Service. We sat down and talked to Stefan Chelban about the history of the Old Orhei:

    „The Old Orhei is a nature cultural reserve set up in 1968, yet, in time, it has been going through several restructuring and reorganizing processes. The reserve is made of several localities and its purpose is to preserve the region’s natural heritage, but also its cultural heritage.

    Actually, it was one of the main reasons why the reserve was set up. Arguably, it is one of the areas with the biggest number of assets part of the archaeological and ethnographic heritage, but also of assets of the immaterial heritage and such like. So, it is a region where the cultural heritage has been acceptably well preserved, to this day. “

    The Old Orhei’s cave monasteries are part of a cave remains compound. They are located in the lime rocks on the Raut River valley. The compound is extremely attractive in terms of tourism; it includes roughly 350 cave remains, of which around 100 are man-dug rooms, while the remaining 200 are karstic formations, grouped in six compounds. They include well-defined monasteries, underground churches, galleries and cells.

    Here is Stefan Chelban once again, this time speaking about the cave monasteries and about the reserve:
    Track: ”This is likely to be the central point for many, yet the reserve has a lot more to offer. For instance, the ruins of the Tartar city, a city that used to be here in the 14th century, albeit for a short period of time yet worth visiting all the same, that including the ruins of an old mosque which, judging by its surface area, it was allegedly South-east Europe’s biggest mosque.

    Ștefan Chelban also told us something about the Old Orhei museum compound:

    “The Ethnography Museum is a model of traditional architecture, specific for the late 19th century and the late 20th century. This house has been restored, refurbished with EU funds, using only traditional material and techniques.”

    Here is Ștefan Chelban once again, giving us further details on the monastic life of the Cave monastery in the Old Orhei:

    „We understand initially the monastery was inhabited by 12 monks since there are 12 cells by means of which we can tell each cell was individual, so there were 12 monks. We do not know exactly the year when it was built, yet that happened somewhere between 14th to 15th centuries. ”

  • Walking on Brâncuși’s route in Gorj County

    Walking on Brâncuși’s route in Gorj County

    UNESCO included on its world heritage list, in 2024, the Heroes’ Path, a sculptural ensemble in Târgu Jiu made by Constantin Brâncuși. The ensemble includes four major works: The Table of Silence, the Alley of Chairs, The Gate of the Kiss and the Endless Column. They were created and sculpted by the great Romanian sculptor between 1937 and 1938. The four works have been included in a cultural and tourist route, whose theme is culture, history, religion and monumental art. The route is called “The Peasant Genius Constantin Brâncuși and Gorj County’s cultural heritage.”

     

    Laura Dragu Popescu is the president of Gorjul Professional Tourism Employers’ Association. She told us that the objectives included in the route are the works of the great sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, to be found outdoors, in the city of Târgu Jiu. The route also includes the Saint Apostles Peter and Paul’s Church, the Sohodol Gorges, a traditional architecture museum, two famous monasteries, as well as memorial houses.

     

    So here we are travelling on Brâncuși’s route with our guide Laura Dragu Popescu: “If we were to interpret this monumental ensemble, we can say that, at the Table of Silence, the hero has the last supper with his family, before the battle. He then walks along the Alley of Chairs, where the chairs symbolize the persons who do not participate in the war. At the Gate of the Kiss, he gives one last embrace to his loved ones. After or during the battle, the hero’s soul travels to God. Man’s soul travels to God passing through Saint Apostles Peter and Paul’s Church. We then carry on along The Heroes’ Path with the road taking us to the Endless Column. This is how we can interpret this axis, which is part of the Cultural and Artistic Route called ‘The Peasant Genius Constantin Brâncuși and Gorj County’s cultural heritage’. This route includes visits to the Constantin Brâncuși Memorial House in Hobița, to Polovragi Monastery, to Tismana Monastery along the Sohodol Gorges to the Memorial House of Maria Apostol, a local and very popular traditional music vocalist, to Lainici Monastery, to the Traditional Architecture Museum in Gorj, inCurtișoara, where a manor that belonged to Tătărăscu family can be visited.“

     

    Then in the city of Târgu Jiu, the Ecaterina Teodoroiu Memorial House and Mausoleum can be visited. Along this route, full of culture, history, religion and monumental art,a beautiful part of the historical and picturesque Gorj is presented: “It is a delight even for the most demanding tourist who goes to Gorj County and chooses to cover this route. Tourists who visited Gorj in the past return in very large numbers. This happens in the case of both individuals and groups, who opt for spending three nights and four days as part of this tourist program, in Gorj County.If tourists from abroad choose to come to the historic and picturesque Gorj county, they can land at Bucharest airport. There are many travel options from Bucharest to Târgu Jiu, from regular buses, which have daily departures from the Militari Bus Station to trains that leave Bucharest and pass through Târgu Jiu.”

     

    About 30 km from the county seat, Târgu Jiu, following this route, you will reach the Tismana Monastery, a place full of spirituality, a place recommended by Laura Dragu Popescu, president of the Gorjul ProfessionalTourism Employers’ Association: “The monastery was founded by Saint Nicodemus the Holy, from Tismana. Next to the monastery, there is the Gold Museum, a historical objective, made with the help of the National Bank. It is a return into history, it is the place where the Treasure of Romania once rested (during the Second World War) during years laden with pain for the Romanian people. Around the Tismana Monastery, there are very beautiful trails, up to three hours long. The longest route is three hours long and is done on the top of the mountain that leads to Cioclovina de Sus. This route is wonderful and can be covered by people with normal physical resistance. On the way to the Tismana Monastery, tourists can see the memorial house of the great artist from Gorj, Constantin Brâncuși. Tismana Monastery is a success story among the unique places in beautiful Romania. Lovers seek to see the moonrise at Tismana. They say that the most spectacular moonrise is on the mountains around Tismana locality. Gastronomy in Tismana is special, the locality hosting the Trout Festival, which is always celebrated on Annunciation Day, on March 25.”

     

    On the other hand, in the Curtișoara Village Museum, tourists can see the traditional architecture specific to the area. The oldest house exhibited here was built over 200 years ago and dates back to 1802. The museum also exhibits two churches, one of which was established in 1821. Laura Dragu Popescu gives us more details: “There are many elements that appeal to lovers of traditional houses. Both themed tours and many musical productions take place here. Inside the museum, there is a house called Casa Gheorghe Zamfir. In the house, you can see objects that belonged to the panpipe player Gheorghe Zamfir. As a curiosity, one will find, within the premises of this museum, a traditional house with interesting architecture from the Gilort area. Inside, there are personal items of other popular artists known in our area. So, the new and the old are valued in this museum of traditional folk architecture in Gorj County. It is located quite close about ten km from Târgu Jiu.”

     

    The cultural-tourist route ‘The Peasant Genius Constantin Brâncuși and the Gorj county’s cultural heritage’ can be covered by tourists who love originality in every season of the year. Moreover, the statistical data confirm that Gorj county is doing very well in terms of the number of accommodation places. Hotels and guesthouses will give you the opportunity to stay in a safe destination from three to seven days, basically a good part of a vacation. And whoever comes to the historic and picturesque Gorj once, will surely return. (EN, LS)

  • Ceausescu’s ruthless demolition of Romania’s historical monuments

    Ceausescu’s ruthless demolition of Romania’s historical monuments

    The southern area of
    Bucharest up until 1986 used to play host to the largest Christian Orthodox
    monastic compound in South-eastern Europe. It is known as the Vacaresti
    monastery. For long the compound had been rated the area’s most important
    landmark. Today, the denomination of Vacaresti still exists because of the
    boulevard taking us all the way up to Piata Sudului, the southern marketplace
    and the nature park, lying quite close to the place where the monastery once stood,
    four decades ago.


    The then Socialist Republic
    of Romania’s legislative assembly on October 29, 1974 voted into law the bill
    on urban and rural planning. It was actually a demolition policy of part of the
    city center of Bucharest, according to Nicolae Ceausescu’s vision. Until 1977,
    such a policy had been implemented on a limited scale, with details being
    especially taken into account. But the 1977 earthquake occurred, which prompted
    Ceausescu to implement the policy on a
    very large scale. Demolition was brutal, while the great thoroughfares were
    severely cut. And that lead up to the disappearance of tens of thousands of
    lodgings, private residences, one-of-a-kind buildings, such as the Brancoveanu
    Hospital or the Mina Minovici Forensic Medicine Institute as well as a great
    number of churches. The great Vacaresti monastery was one of the Orthodox
    worship places that back then was fatally brought down.


    The compound was erected
    between 1717 and 1722 by then the Wallachian ruling prince Nicolae Mavrocordat.
    He was the first Phanariot prince the Ottoman Empire appointed in the Romanian
    Principalities. The compound stretched on a surface area of some 18,000 square
    meters, having two precincts. It was built on the Martisor hill, a green area with
    lots of orchards. The architect G. M. Cantacuzino thought the Vacaresti monastery
    was QUOTE, the epitome of the master builders’ craft who were trained in the
    Brancoveanu art school, UNQUOTE.


    At the behest of the
    Bucharest Municipality’s History Museum, a documentary film was made in the
    early 1970. The Vacaresti Road is the only such film that survived in the
    archives. It provides a detailed presentation of the huge monastery that later
    disappeared. Today’s viewers may find the images of the past building all the
    more precious, since the worship place is no more. We have selected two
    excerpts from the film’s screenplay. The first one explains the importance of
    the Wallachian architectural tradition in the centuries prior to the building
    of the Vacaresti compound.


    The
    construction of the Vacaresti settlement began in the spring of 1716, on the
    slope of a hill generously overlooking the city of Bucharest, and was completed
    in 1722. Its founder was Nicolae Mavrocordat, a prince whose enthronement
    inaugurates the age of the Phanariot ruling princes in Wallachia, according to
    the text of the stone-written inscription in Romanian. The most famous
    Wallachian buildings were the Princely Church in Curtea de Arges, Cozia,
    founded by Mircea the Elder, the Mihai Voda Monastery, which at that time was
    uphill as compared to the city of Bucharest, while Radu Voda was downhill
    from the city, then there was the Sf. Gheorghe/Saint George church in
    Bucharest, while the most famous of them was the monastery Brancoveanu founded
    in Hurezi. These were the monuments that inspired ruling prince Nicolae
    Mavrocordat’s master builders when they erected the Vacaresti monastery.


    Mavrocordaț ruling princes’
    monastery was the culmination point of the arts in the 18th century
    in Wallachia. Here the most important sculpture works were found, such as the
    columns, the base reliefs, the church decorations, inside and outside the
    premises. Vacaresti boasted a large library, a wine cellar, buildings and
    outhouses of the monastic community. Below is the second excerpt from the
    screenplay of the documentary film about the Vacaresti compound. It focuses on
    the special attention Nicolae Mavrocordat gave to the monastery he founded.
    Proof of that are the generous donations the prince made to the monastery. A
    well-deserved credit was given to the prince by posterity.


    The ruling
    prince endowed the monastery he founded, also ruling that, using its revenues,
    ‘strangers should be welcomed, the naked ones should be dressed, the hungry
    should be fed, the diseased should be tended to, those who were thrust in the
    dungeon should be treated with clemency’. When, in September 1730, Nicolae
    Mavrocordat was killed by the plague, he was buried in the church of the
    monastery, in a beautiful marble tomb, with the carved armories of the two
    principalities over which he ruled.


    In the second half of the 19th
    century, the Vacaresti monastery changed its destination, in the wake of more
    than a century of monastic and spiritual life. During the 1848 revolution that flared up all across Europe, the Wallachian revolutionary leaders were
    imprisoned in the hospital of the monastery by the Russian army. So we’re not
    wrong saying the monastery was turned into a penitentiary, also due to its
    construction design. In the first precinct, ruling prince Nicolae Mavrocordat
    had a princely seat built and a guard house for the troops providing his
    security. In 1868 the monastery officially became a prison where those who
    plotted against the state were incarcerated, while the church and the second
    precinct retained their initial purpose. Icons of Romanian culture were imprisoned
    in Vacaresti, such as writers Liviu Rebreanu, Tudor Arghezi, Ioan Slavici. The
    founder, in 1927, of the fascist movement named Archangel Michael’s Legion,
    Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, was imprisoned there too. Codreanu confessed he was
    inspired by an icon in the church. When in 1948 the communist regime was
    completely instated in Romania, political opponents as well as laypeople were
    imprisoned in Vacaresti. One of them was the Greek-catholic bishop Vasile
    Aftenie.


    But the threat of
    disappearance was looming large over the Vacaresti compound in the early 1980s.
    Construction projects of a gigantic congress hall, of a huge stadium, of a
    sports facility and a court house prompted the then authorities to rule the
    demolition of the compound. Specialists made desperate efforts to save the
    compound; it was to no avail. Ceausescu himself issued the demolition order, on
    December 2nd, 1984. After the demolition, the crosses, the columns
    and all the sculpted pieces were for their most part stored in the Mogosoaia
    palace. A small part of them was stored in the Stavropoleos church.


    In 1990, the suggestion had
    been made to rebuild the whole compound from scratch, but a shopping mall was
    built there instead.



    .