Radio România Internațional

Category: RRI Encyclopaedia

  • Composer Ciprian Porumbescu

    Composer Ciprian Porumbescu

    He established a significant presence for himself in intellectual and student circles. He was a second child to a family with a Ukrainian name, changed later into the Romanian ‘Porumbescu’. Adina Istrate, a museographer with the Ciprian Porumbescu Memorial House in Stupca, told us about the composer.



    Adina Istrate: “Ciprian Porumbescu inherited his patriotism from his father, who was a priest, as well as a patriot, folklore collector and 1848 revolutionary. Ciprian studied music with Karol Mikuli, a former student of Chopin and later director of the Conservatory in Lemberg, today’s Lvov. Ciprian studied piano with him for six years, before playing in the troupe of great traditional musician Grigore Vindereu.”



    Passionate about the emancipation of Romanians in Bukovina, back then an Austro-Hungarian province, Ciprian Porumbescu went to Putna on 15 August 1871. Putna, the monastery where Stephen the Great is buried, hosted that day a congress for Romanian students across the world, held by the ‘Young Romania’ Society. It was organized under the leadership of famous Romanian writers Ioan Slavici and Mihai Eminescu. This was the first time that Ciprian Porumbescu met the greatest Romanian poet. Two years later he went to Chernowitz to study philosophy and theology. There he became the president of the ‘Arboroasa’ Society, an association of Romanian students from Bukovina, which organized actions considered hostile towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire.



    Adina Istrate: “It all culminated in a condolence telegram sent in 1877 to Iasi City Hall on the 100th commemoration of the decapitation of ruler Grigore Ghica III. That telegram was signed ‘Youth from the cut off part of old Moldavia’. It was the expression ‘cut off’ that bothered the Austrian authorities, who held in detention all five members of the Arboroasa Society Committee for 11 weeks. Unfortunately, Ciprian fell ill in prison, catching the TB that would lead to his death. However, the trial resulted in the release of the five, who were found not guilty.”



    Between 1879 and 1881 he was in Vienna, where he continued his studies in music and philosophy. In the capital of the empire he met members of the Strauss family, and continued his patriotic militancy.



    Adina Istrate: “He became a member of the ‘Young Romania’ Society and composed its anthem – ‘Union Is Written On Our Flag’ – a tune which is now the national anthem of Albania. Another song written by Ciprian Porumbescu was Romania’s national anthem before 1990. Also, while he was a student in Vienna, he printed a collection of patriotic songs for Romanian students. During the same period he composed his immortal ballad for violin, the best know and most beloved composition by Ciprian Porumbescu. After graduating in Vienna, he was given a teaching position at a school in Brasov, which he held between 1881 and 1882. This is the pinnacle of his career. It was the time when the first Romania operetta was staged, ‘Crai Nou’, on lyrics by Vasile Alecsandri. It was a very successful show.”



    Unfortunately, his disease was progressing, and doctors sent him for treatment to a warmer area, in Italy.


    Adina Istrate: “From November 1882 to February 1883, Ciprian Porumbescu went to Italy for treatment. He met Giuseppe Verdi there, and traveled to the major Italian cities of Rome, Venice, Pisa and Milan, and was impressed by their architecture. However, lacking money and missing home, he left Italy in 1883. He left behind 20 degrees Celsius for the minus 20 degrees Celsius of his home in Stupca, and this proved lethal. He died on June 6, at dawn, not even 30 years of age, after beseeching his sister to take care of his music.”



    The people who love his music often visit his home in the village of Stupca, today renamed Ciprian Porumbescu, in Suceava county. This used to be the parochial house that the composer’s father, Iraclie, was granted when he came to the village as the local priest.

  • Rail workers’ districts in Bucharest

    Rail workers’ districts in Bucharest

    Historian Andrei Razvan Voinea, who studied the emergence of affordable and social housing for workers, says that at the beginning of the 20th century, tuberculosis was wreaking havoc in the poor outskirts of Bucharest.


    Andrei Razvan Voinea: “In October 1906, the city’s Chief Physician submitted a report to the city hall explicitly recommending the building of decent homes for these workers. So, the main reason for the construction of these cheap houses had to do with health issues.“



    The first mayor of Bucharest to take a step in this direction was Vintila Bratianu. He was mayor of Bucharest between 1906-1907 and created the Community Society for Affordable Housing, following the peasant uprising of 1907.


    Andrei-Razvan Voinea: “The uprising flared up in Moldavia in March 1907 and gradually spread to other regions. Army troops were deployed in an attempt to calm down the spirits. The soldiers naturally travelled by train. Railway workers began fraternising with the rebels and started to sabotage the railways. A number of strikes and protests were reported between March and June 1907. In June, Bucharest’s mayor Vintila Bratianu ordered the construction of the first social houses, which were inspired by the garden city movement, which circulated in Europe in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.



    Romania’s early urban engineers adopted the garden city principles and adjusted them to the situation in Bucharest. Their plans followed certain principles, such as the arrangement of buildings within equal distance of each others to allow the ventilation of the homes and prevent dampness, which was the main cause for tuberculosis at the time, and the constant exposure of the houses to the son. Moreover, all building works had to be carried out on the site. Also, stoves were built for heating.”



    So, starting in 1912, the Romanian Railways Company began to build houses for its employees, at first jointly with the Community Society for Affordable Housing and later on its own, having created a special fund to this purpose. The site designated for social homes, dating from 1912, was an area known as “Grant”, close to the city’s main train station. 71 houses, comprising 200 apartments, were built here, and the process continued after WWI. Another district called Steaua developed in 1912 between Calea Grivitei and Ion Mihalache Boulevard, with 542 apartments. However, urban planning works on this new site dragged on for many years and it wasn’t until 1937 that pavement and street lighting works were finished.



    Nursery school, schools, pharmacies, clinics, a church and a high school were built here after 1912, turning this district into a self-sufficient small town within the city of Bucharest. Houses for rail workers also began being built close to Carol Park in southern Bucharest and again in the main train station area, as well as close to the train depot in the village of Chitila, northwestern Bucharest. A total of 1,235 houses were built for rail workers in Bucharest. Some of them were private property, having been purchased through affordable loan schemes available for rail workers, while others were the property of the Romanian Railways Company and used by its employees.



    More social houses were built after WWII in the Steaua district, on the former site of a factory bombed during the war. Six or seven three-storey apartment blocks were built here after 1947. After massive demolitions of older houses during the communist era to make way for the new apartment blocks, these inter-war districts originally built for rail workers are today popular residential areas.



  • The Danube and the European identity

    The Danube and the European identity

    Proof of this connection is the fact that all the nations bordering the Danube use a variation of the Latin name for the Danube, Danubius: Donau in German, Duna in Hungarian, Dunav in Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian, Dunaj in Slovakian and Ukrainian and Dunare in Romanian. In ancient Greek literature, the name for the lower Danube, which was closer to Greece, was Istros. The Turkish name is Tuna and the Turks also referred to it as “Ghazi water,” because many Ottoman fighters drowned in it as their armies were defeated.



    The History of the Romanians is strongly linked to the Danube, as seen in the writings of ancient historians such as Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus of Sicily, Cassius Dio and Jordanes. To defeat the warring Geto-Dacians, the Roman emperor Trajan built a bridge across the Danube in Drobeta, which he used to transport his troops in the war of 105-106 AD.



    In the Middle Ages, the Danube was a natural border that was hard to cross by the migratory people coming from Asia and heading south to Byzantium. The Ottoman expansion to Europe also crossed the Danube. First rejected in Belgrade, on the Danube, by the crusader armies led by John Hunyadi in 1456, the Turks won the battle of Mohacs, on the right bank of the Danube, in 1526. In 1687, also in Mohacs, the Turks were defeated by the Austrian armies of Emperor Leopold I, which was the beginning of the end for the Ottomans’ control of the Lower Danube basin.



    Almost one-third of the Danube’s length is on what is today Romanian territory. The economy of the Romanian historical principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, in particular trade and the transport, were strongly influenced by the river. In the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire possessed a powerful river military fleet, and trade was mainly conducted by the Genovese and the Venetians. The Danube Delta and the places where the Danube flows into the Black Sea were strategic sites, so the Byzantines and the Genovese built the fortress of Enisala on the bank of Razelm Lake, not far from the Sfantu Gheorghe branch of the Danube.



    The Danube was the main commercial route on water used by the Romanian people. They transported grains, fish, salt and manufactured goods, and later also oil products, all the way to Budapest and Vienna from the Danube ports.



    The Danube was granted the status of international river in the middle of the 19th century. Russia had already shown a geo-political interest in the Danube and the Balkans as early as the middle of the 18th century. The demand of the western powers, in particular Great Britain, for cereals produced in the Romanian Principalities led to the cancellation of the Corn Laws, which paved the way for the import of grains. The cereals produced in the Romanian Principalities could reach Great Britain faster via the Danube and the Rhine, but the Danube was under Russian and Ottoman control.



    The European Commission of the Danube was eventually created after the Crimean War waged by a coalition made up of France, England and the Ottoman Empire against Russia between 1853 and 1855. Based in Galati, in eastern Romania, this was the first pan-European body to decide the Danube became a free navigation channel and an international water route. The Commission ruled that the Danube was to be drained on a regular basis, while the river’s minimum depth increased from 3.66 to 5.48 m. As a result, Sulina became a very important place, turning from a village into a cosmopolitan town. The Danube itself acquired added European importance at this point in history, contributing to the development of modern European identity.



    The Romanian bank of the Danube has been home to many landmarks of European culture and identity. Some have unfortunately been lost, such as Ada Kaleh island. This small Danube island, inhabited mostly by a Turkish population, was submerged during building works for the Iron Gates hydroelectric plant in 1970. Other such landmarks or traces thereof still remain, such as the foot of the Drobeta bridge built by Emperor Trajan, the Iron Gates power plant, the bridges between Calafat and Vidin and between Giurgiu and Russe, the ruins of the Turkish fortresses in Turnu, Giurgiu and Braila, the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda and the Danube-Black Sea canal.

  • The Ethnographic Museum in Lupsa

    The Ethnographic Museum in Lupsa

    Situated in the Aries Valley, in the region known as the Moti Land, in the Western Carpathian Mountains, the village of Lupsa is home to one of the ethnographic gems of the area: the “Pamfil Albu” Ethnographic Museum. The result of teacher Pamfil Albu’s life-long work, the museum’s collections are representative for the trades specific to the area, namely mining and farming, but they also illustrate people’s everyday life in the past. Currently, the curator of the museum in Lupsa is Pamfil Albu’s daughter, Monica Rotaru, who told us more about the edifice:



    “ My father was a teacher in Lupsa, and his father-in-law was a also a teacher and priest. My grandfather, Sebastian Ceapa, was very much interested in making a monograph of the commune and needed documents. That is why he asked my father to search those documents. Traveling here and around, my father noticed that some old objects had been simply thrown away and neglected by villagers. This is how he got idea of bringing them together and making a collection for school. This is how my father started collecting items for the ethnographic museum. Visiting people’s houses he saw many things that he knew that would be extremely valuable in the future. In just a few years, from 1937 until 1950, he managed to gather over 2500 items of all sorts, made of wood, stone or textile materials, ceramics and actually everything that can be found in a community. He displayed the items in two rooms in an old school, but they soon became too small. It was then that he decided to establish a museum and got support to do that. Near the church in the centre of the village there was a building built in 1872 which belonged to the church and he asked for that space. The church donated the building to the state, and later became home to my father’s collection. In 1950, when the collection was quite large, my father donated it to the state. He understood that by doing that Lupsa could become a representative place for the Moti Land, and even more, for the entire area of the Western Carpathian Mountains. “



    Therefore, the museum started being organized as such after 1950, and Pamfil Albu was helped by the then director of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, based in Cluj-Napoca. Pamfil Albu died in 1990. During his life he taught his daughter how to recognize and assess quality objects, passing on to her the collector’s spirit. Today Monica Rotaru knows all about the museum’s heritage and continues to collect old objects from the people of Lupsa. Monica Rotaru:



    “The collection is quiet varied. It includes objects related to the locals’ occupations starting with the secondary ones: fishing, bee growing and hunting. Then there are the objects related to primary occupations such as farming and animal breeding. We have a room with objects specific to a sheepfold. The museum also includes an area where my father tried to present, in chronological order, all the grinding systems used to grind wheat after the harvest. On the first floor, for instance, visitors will discover tools specific to wood working and wood bucket making. As of 1980 we have run out of funds for acquisitions but I used my own resources, because the locals continued to bring me various objects for the museum. This is how I managed to gather tens of objects, mainly wooden ones.”



    Today the museum, located in the main street in Lupsa, which links with the main road crossing the Moti Land and leads to traditional mining settlements such as Rosia Montana, is admired by both Romanian and foreign tourists who are happy to discover there objects that they thought had been lost for ever.

  • The Avram Iancu Memorial Museum

    The Avram Iancu Memorial Museum

    An outstanding leader of the Romanians in Transylvania in the 1848 revolution, Avram Iancu was born in Vidra, a village in the Apuseni Mountains of great interest in terms of ethnicity and history.



    Avram Iancu became a legendary figure in Transylvania, and in recognition of his merits and achievements, king Ferdinand set up a memorial museum in the hero’s native village. The museum was opened in 1924 in Avram Iancu’s family house and was visited by the royal family, which was on a journey through Transylvania after the province became part of Romania in 1918. The museum, which isn’t just a memorial house but also an ethnographic museum of a region with an outstanding tradition, has been there for 90 years. Let’s find out more from museographer Ionel Heller.



    Ionel Heller: “The house, which was built around 1800 by Avram Iancu’s parents Alexandru and Maria, and was also bequeathed to his children, is a peasant house with a stone foundation, walls built out of fir timber and a steep roof of shingles so that rain and snow slides off. Another building, which was erected on the premises in 1924 with help from the Sibiu-based Astra Society, is actually housing the museum, which is more of a cultural compound. The premises also include a school, a kindergarten and a church. We have there the memorial house, consisting of a living room and a guest room, a porch and a church. In the museum compound we have a history exhibition, an exhibition of ethnographic artifacts, which has on display tools used in a peasant household.”



    The section devoted to Avram Iancu as a historical figure has on view two swords that belonged to the hero.



    Ionel Heller: “This is a peasant household specific to that region, with a tall bed built in such a manner so as to preserve heat for a long time. On that bed lies a special kind of hey mattress. In front of the bed there is a baby cradle. Then there are shelves all over the place, just like in any other peasant house. In the corner of the room there is a coffer where valuables were kept, such as money and keys. Also in the corner there was a pipe and a cupboard for dishes and food. The stove that you see there was used to heat the entire room and cook meals.”



    A peasant household also included other buildings, where tools used in daily activities were kept.



    Ionel Heller: “The ethnographic section of the museum has on display folk costumes and various tools used in the weaving of cloth; one can see there a shuttle, a loom and other tools very useful in a peasant’s household. In the last room we have the replica of a cart loaded with all sorts of goods to be sold in fairs across the country. People of this area used to barter the goods they produced in their households for grain in the south of the country.”



    The museum in the Avram Iancu village, named after the hero, is more than a memorial house, and it is worth visiting by someone who wants to get a better understanding of the specificity of this region, inhabited by proud and industrious people.

  • The fortified church and the peasant stronghold of Saschiz

    The fortified church and the peasant stronghold of Saschiz

    Saschiz, located in the centre of Romania, was inhabited at first by Szeklers and then by Saxons. It distinguished itself through 2 features typical of Saxon settlements in Transylvania: the fortified church and the peasant stronghold. The church, located in the city centre is one of the biggest and most impressive Saxon places of worship. Today, it can be admired in its original state, being almost unaltered. Saint Stephen is the patron saint, and the church has 22 buttresses and, as expected, it took a long time to build. Alin Pora, historian and co-author of “A monograph of Saschiz ”, tells us more.



    “The construction works began in 1945 and ended in 1525. In order to build this edifice the intervention of the Saxon Community in Sibiu was required and the documents showing how the money was sent from Sibiu were kept. From an architectural standpoint, the church is built in a late Gothic style with a starred arch. A unique element in this church’s construction is the creation of a place, above the arch, from where archers would defend the community in case of an attack. Initially, the fortified church had another fortified wall that was destroyed with time and was never rebuilt. The reason for this was that, shortly after the church was built, so was the peasant stronghold in Saschiz, which served both as a residence and as a storage space for provisions in times of peace. In times of war, the villagers would take cover in the stronghold.”



    Recent archaeological findings show that, despite previous suspicions, St. Stephen’s Church was not built on top of an older basilica. As a consequence, its size and facets are the same today as when the church was originally built. In 1677, the main tower was expanded, having as model the clock tower from Sighisoara, a rival town for Saschiz in the Middle Ages. Therefore, the tower is large and big and it has a clock at its top, as well as a statue commonly known as Bogdan, which rings a warning sound every 15 minutes. The warnings referred to attacks from the Tatars, which was the main reason why the stronghold was built. Alin Pora tells us more:



    “The peasant stronghold was built for defence purposes. The legend says that villagers from 7 villages took part in the construction and you could not pass through Saschiz unless you put some effort into the construction. For instance, merchants who would pass with their carts had to unload their merchandise at the end of the village, fill their carts with rocks and go up to the stronghold, and only after that could they pass through Saschiz. The stronghold dates from around the same time as the church. It had seven towers, one of them being the school tower, built as a token of the Saxons’ respect for education. The stronghold is on a hill, north of the church and tower.”



    Apart from the school tower, the peasant stronghold of Saschiz had other towers, such as the gate tower, the princes’ tower on the north side, the priests’ tower and the ammunition tower. However, none of these can be seen today because the stronghold was never rehabilitated and it was abandoned during the communist period. If it is to be renovated, the City Hall must first get European funds. If rehabilitated, the stronghold of Saschiz would definitely attract as many tourists as the ones in Rupea or Rasnov.




  • Transylvania’s clock towers

    Transylvania’s clock towers

    Born in Romania to a Saxon father, but currently residing in Munich, Mihaela Kloos honours her roots and comforts her nostalgia by writing on her website, saxonstories.com. On this website, the culture and civilisation of Transylvanian Germans come to life. Today, Mihaela Kloos talks to us about the clock towers of fortified church towers and peasant city strongholds, most of which can be found Saxon towns. Equally beautiful as the towers that harbour them, some of these clocks are actually famous, such as the one in Sighisioara, but others are less known, such the one in Seleus. Mihaela Kloos



    “Seleus is a village in Mures County. It has a fortified church like many villages in Transylvania do. In Seleus the tower is typical for a peasant stronghold, because it has a big clock. Connected to the clock’s mechanism, there is a wooden doll with an interesting story. This is a characteristic of clock towers in Transylvania: many have statues and figurines that have beautiful legends. The doll in Seleus was recently replaced. The age of the previous one is unknown. The new doll was created by a craftsman from Medias. It has a height of 92 cm and an arm that starts the clock tower’s mechanism and rings the bell every hour.”



    Around this area is Cisnadie, a town close to Sibiu. The town is home to Romania’s oldest clock tower, dating back to 1425. Mihaela Kloos says the clock is still operational.



    “There is a clock tower in Medias, the one in the Evangelic Church Tower, about which not many people know that it actually leans at a bigger angle than the Tower in Pissa. It is currently undergoing restoration works. The fact that it is leaning is either due to the builders or to the terrain. There are many hypotheses behind this phenomenon, but the fact remains that the tower keeps leaning. The clock is also a town symbol. It was put up in 1880 at the highest level of the tower. Apart from the time, it also shows the moon’s fazes. It also has a statue, which is a copy of an older figurine that can be found at the Municipal Museum. The statue is called Ture Pitz, a symbolic guardian of the clock and the tower. ”



    But the most famous clock in Transylvania is, of course, the one in Sighisioara, the impressive medieval stronghold in central Romania. Mihaela Kroos:



    “This clock tower, dating as far back as 1648, is 64 meters tall and was manufactured in Switzerland. Its famous figurines are made of linden wood and were carefully handcrafted by Johann Kirschel. The statues symbolise the gods Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and the Sun, from which the names of the days of the week come from. On the other side of the disc are shown Justice and Righteousness. Therefore, on a symbolic level, the values of the community are crafted on the clock. The current mechanism is relatively new, also made in Switzerland and was installed in the tower in 1906 and modernised in 1964. It has a beautiful legend, according to which a giant put a golden globe on the top of the Sighisioara tower, above the clock. The giant said that only a person as tall as him would be able to get the globe, and until now no one has been capable of doing that.”



    Although the clock towers mentioned earlier are still working, some Saxon clocks are now too old and have stopped working. Sadly, the clockmakers who knew their secrets are also fewer and fewer.


  • Transylvania’s clock towers

    Transylvania’s clock towers

    Born in Romania to a Saxon father, but currently residing in Munich, Mihaela Kloos honours her roots and comforts her nostalgia by writing on her website, saxonstories.com. On this website, the culture and civilisation of Transylvanian Germans come to life. Today, Mihaela Kloos talks to us about the clock towers of fortified church towers and peasant city strongholds, most of which can be found Saxon towns. Equally beautiful as the towers that harbour them, some of these clocks are actually famous, such as the one in Sighisioara, but others are less known, such the one in Seleus. Mihaela Kloos



    “Seleus is a village in Mures County. It has a fortified church like many villages in Transylvania do. In Seleus the tower is typical for a peasant stronghold, because it has a big clock. Connected to the clock’s mechanism, there is a wooden doll with an interesting story. This is a characteristic of clock towers in Transylvania: many have statues and figurines that have beautiful legends. The doll in Seleus was recently replaced. The age of the previous one is unknown. The new doll was created by a craftsman from Medias. It has a height of 92 cm and an arm that starts the clock tower’s mechanism and rings the bell every hour.”



    Around this area is Cisnadie, a town close to Sibiu. The town is home to Romania’s oldest clock tower, dating back to 1425. Mihaela Kloos says the clock is still operational.



    “There is a clock tower in Medias, the one in the Evangelic Church Tower, about which not many people know that it actually leans at a bigger angle than the Tower in Pissa. It is currently undergoing restoration works. The fact that it is leaning is either due to the builders or to the terrain. There are many hypotheses behind this phenomenon, but the fact remains that the tower keeps leaning. The clock is also a town symbol. It was put up in 1880 at the highest level of the tower. Apart from the time, it also shows the moon’s fazes. It also has a statue, which is a copy of an older figurine that can be found at the Municipal Museum. The statue is called Ture Pitz, a symbolic guardian of the clock and the tower. ”



    But the most famous clock in Transylvania is, of course, the one in Sighisioara, the impressive medieval stronghold in central Romania. Mihaela Kroos:



    “This clock tower, dating as far back as 1648, is 64 meters tall and was manufactured in Switzerland. Its famous figurines are made of linden wood and were carefully handcrafted by Johann Kirschel. The statues symbolise the gods Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and the Sun, from which the names of the days of the week come from. On the other side of the disc are shown Justice and Righteousness. Therefore, on a symbolic level, the values of the community are crafted on the clock. The current mechanism is relatively new, also made in Switzerland and was installed in the tower in 1906 and modernised in 1964. It has a beautiful legend, according to which a giant put a golden globe on the top of the Sighisioara tower, above the clock. The giant said that only a person as tall as him would be able to get the globe, and until now no one has been capable of doing that.”



    Although the clock towers mentioned earlier are still working, some Saxon clocks are now too old and have stopped working. Sadly, the clockmakers who knew their secrets are also fewer and fewer.


  • Director Paul Calinescu

    Born 112 years ago, on the 21st of August 1902 in Galati, eastern Romania, Paul Calinescu won the award for best documentary at the International Film Festival in Venice in 1939, with his movie “The Moti Land”. It was one of the first international awards given to Romanian film, and “The Moti Land” is still a valuable piece, from an esthetic point of view. The political troubles that Romania went trough during and after the Second World War, pushed Paul Calinescu into the area of propaganda movies. In 1941 he directed a documentary on “Romania in the war against the Bolshevism”, only to find himself directing a pro-communist film in 1949, entitled “The Valley Echoes”. Manuela Cernat, a film historian, told us about Paul Calinescu’s cinematic journey:



    Manuela Cernat: “Paul Calinescu must be seen as a pioneer of the Romanian cinema. He established a cinematography fund in the early 1930’s by taking over the taxes that movie distributors paid; this fund was the basis for the establishment of the National Office for Cinematography. He also brought Romania its first international award with his movie “The Moti Land”. In the early 1940s, when Romania entered World War Two, Paul Calinescu and the director of the National Office for Cinematography, Ion Cantacuzino, directed two impressive movies that also won prizes at the International Film Festival in Venice. They were called “Us” and “Romania in the war against Bolshevism”. After the communists seized power, Ion Cantacuzino was imprisoned and Paul Calinescu avoided a similar fate by directing a propaganda movie, which can now be seen as a mockery towards the regime. Subsequently, Paul Calinescu withdrew from the sphere of political films and directed a number of remarkable films.”



    He retired in 1965, after he directed his last movie, “Titanic Waltz”. Manuela Cernat tells us more about his retirement: “He was simply cast aside, because, as the political regime in Romania hardened, intellectuals were increasingly viewed as undesirable, and the perceived ‘flaws’ in Calinescu’s biography and cinematography led to his removal from film sets. At one point he was celebrated at the Radio Hall, and his award-wining documentary, “The Moti Land” was also shown. The soundtrack had been written by Paul Constantinescu, and the off-camera commentary was read by Mihail Sadoveanu. The text proved to be prophetic, considering the fact that, two years after the movie was launched in 1939, the Second Vienna Award reassigned this area from Romania to Hungary.”



    Manuela Cernat also explains Paul Calinescu’s involvement in post-war propaganda: “This was an extremely tragic time for Romania’s intellectuals, who were undeservingly faced with hard ethic and esthetic choices. It is very difficult for us to judge the compromises they had to make, but what we can say is that Paul Calinescu’s films were a testimony to the atrocities the Soviet army committed during their occupation in Bessarabia and Bukovina and they could not be aired in Romania until 1995-1996. Paul Calinescu’s case is symbolic for that period, but the films he directed before communism remain shattering evidence of the war. ”



    Paul Calinescu died in 2000. Two books have so far been published in Romania, one in 1982 and another 1996, which focus on his professional accomplishments.

  • Director Paul Calinescu

    Born 112 years ago, on the 21st of August 1902 in Galati, eastern Romania, Paul Calinescu won the award for best documentary at the International Film Festival in Venice in 1939, with his movie “The Moti Land”. It was one of the first international awards given to Romanian film, and “The Moti Land” is still a valuable piece, from an esthetic point of view. The political troubles that Romania went trough during and after the Second World War, pushed Paul Calinescu into the area of propaganda movies. In 1941 he directed a documentary on “Romania in the war against the Bolshevism”, only to find himself directing a pro-communist film in 1949, entitled “The Valley Echoes”. Manuela Cernat, a film historian, told us about Paul Calinescu’s cinematic journey:



    Manuela Cernat: “Paul Calinescu must be seen as a pioneer of the Romanian cinema. He established a cinematography fund in the early 1930’s by taking over the taxes that movie distributors paid; this fund was the basis for the establishment of the National Office for Cinematography. He also brought Romania its first international award with his movie “The Moti Land”. In the early 1940s, when Romania entered World War Two, Paul Calinescu and the director of the National Office for Cinematography, Ion Cantacuzino, directed two impressive movies that also won prizes at the International Film Festival in Venice. They were called “Us” and “Romania in the war against Bolshevism”. After the communists seized power, Ion Cantacuzino was imprisoned and Paul Calinescu avoided a similar fate by directing a propaganda movie, which can now be seen as a mockery towards the regime. Subsequently, Paul Calinescu withdrew from the sphere of political films and directed a number of remarkable films.”



    He retired in 1965, after he directed his last movie, “Titanic Waltz”. Manuela Cernat tells us more about his retirement: “He was simply cast aside, because, as the political regime in Romania hardened, intellectuals were increasingly viewed as undesirable, and the perceived ‘flaws’ in Calinescu’s biography and cinematography led to his removal from film sets. At one point he was celebrated at the Radio Hall, and his award-wining documentary, “The Moti Land” was also shown. The soundtrack had been written by Paul Constantinescu, and the off-camera commentary was read by Mihail Sadoveanu. The text proved to be prophetic, considering the fact that, two years after the movie was launched in 1939, the Second Vienna Award reassigned this area from Romania to Hungary.”



    Manuela Cernat also explains Paul Calinescu’s involvement in post-war propaganda: “This was an extremely tragic time for Romania’s intellectuals, who were undeservingly faced with hard ethic and esthetic choices. It is very difficult for us to judge the compromises they had to make, but what we can say is that Paul Calinescu’s films were a testimony to the atrocities the Soviet army committed during their occupation in Bessarabia and Bukovina and they could not be aired in Romania until 1995-1996. Paul Calinescu’s case is symbolic for that period, but the films he directed before communism remain shattering evidence of the war. ”



    Paul Calinescu died in 2000. Two books have so far been published in Romania, one in 1982 and another 1996, which focus on his professional accomplishments.

  • Architect Duiliu Marcu

    Architect Duiliu Marcu


    Used to think of Bucharest as the Little Paris, with its 19th century and La Belle Époque buildings, we forget that the Romanian capital’s architecture started to be modernized as early as the interwar period, more precisely in the 1930s; and it was modernized according to the latest and most avant-garde trends of the time, visible today in the architecture of emblematic buildings such as Victoria Palace, which is currently hosting Romanian Government’s offices, or “Carol 1st” National Defense University. Those buildings, and others, were designed by Romanian architect Duiliu Marcu.



    Art historian Oana Marinache will next tell us a few things about him and his work: “ He was born in Calafat, Southern Romania, in March 1885, into a rather poor family. Thanks to his own efforts and resilience, he managed to get as far as the School of Fine Arts in Paris, and studied architecture. The training there was academic, and that can be seen in many of his works in Bucharest and the provinces. From a stylistic point of view they can be described as belonging to historicism, an adaptation of 19th century elements in an eclectic combination of French tradition. He also authored some works that belong to the neo-Romanian style. In the 1930-1940 period, when Romanian architects started adjusting to the international modernist style, Duiliu Marcu too embraced the style and adapted it according to his own personal vision, creating what we can call today ‘the Duiliu Marcu style’. His best known works belonging to that style are Victoria Palace, the extension of the Romanian Academy Library, as well as town planning works commissioned probably by King Carol 2nd.”



    Of the buildings designed by Duiliu Marcu and erected in the 1930s and 1940s, worth mentioning are the ones that originally hosted the Autonomous Agency of State Monopolies and the Romanian Railways Palace, currently the head offices of the Economy Ministry and the Transport Ministry, respectively. The building of the old Athenee Palace hotel, next to the Romanian Athenaeum, was also designed by Duiliu Marcu. But what defines his style?



    Art historian Oana Marinache tells us: “He tried to adjust the international style to the Romanian landscape, in general, and to Bucharest in particular. In theory, they should have been buildings free from any decorations, standing out thanks to their geometrical aspect and their bulkiness, as well as to their large windows. Emphasis was laid on that kind of surfaces that allowed good lighting in the rooms and on comfort. On the other hand, we do see some decorative elements, such as the red brick. Naturally, Duiliu Marcu worked with various contractors, and most of the craftsmen and stonemasons at the time came from Italy. And they, too, brought a new air to those buildings.”



    Although he was an advocate of the modern style, in his early years, Duiliu Marcu also designed some more classical-style buildings. Jointly with architect Nicolae Ghika-Budesti, he worked on a new wing of the Bucharest University building. After the communists had come to power, Duiliu Marcu adapted to the new regime, and even became a member of the Romanian Academy in 1955 and president of the Romanian Architects’ Society between 1953 and 1963. He died in 1966, and details about his adjustment to the communist system and his own tribulations after the war can be found in the excerpts from his diary, published by Georgeta Filitti in Romanian cultural periodicals.

  • Writer Marin Preda

    Writer Marin Preda

    Imposed forcibly in Romania in the late 1940s, the communist regime changed everything, including the arts, in line with its hard line socialist realism and Proletkult (proletarian culture). Literature in particular had to show the victory of peasants and industrial workers, in their class struggle against the bourgeoisie and the landed gentry. A writer would have to subscribe to this ideology to see his work into print. It is no wonder that the quality of printed works plummeted. However, even in this barren landscape, one particular writer emerged suddenly as an exception, restoring hope in Romanian literature. The name of the writer was Marin Preda, born in a poor village in Teleorman County in 1922. He would have turned 92 on August 5th. Literary historian and critic Ion Bogdan Lefter told us more about Marin Preda’s background:



    “He came from a fairly poor peasant family, even though this is debatable. We know from his clan biography ‘Morometii’ that his parents owned land and farm animals, so they belonged to the peasantry owning land, to what the communists dubbed ‘kulaks’. Preda did not have much of a higher education. He graduated a teaching college, and, during the war, when he was 18 or 20, he came to Bucharest. In order to survive, he worked in the press, and by 1944, at the age of 22, he was still working in that field.”



    Marin Preda’s early writing, rooted in the world of the village, where the writer came from, resonated with the pervasive regime’s imposed ideology. Thanks to that, the writer quickly joined the cultural circles cultivated by the communist authorities. The writer knew when to make concessions and when to follow his own path in his published texts. Here is Ion Bogdan Lefter once again:



    “Marin Preda, with his life and family experience, was able to also write whatever he wanted, and to see that it fitted what was required of him. In his youth, Marin Preda wrote about the rural world with no political implications, but he also wrote a few Proletkult texts about the world of the village, which do not stand up to a purely aesthetic analysis. However, in Preda’s defence, he did not write many such texts, and one could separate them from the rest of his work. The two texts, on rural topics, were written between 1949 and 1952, during the early stage of Romanian Stalinism. Then follows the first thaw in Moscow, after Stalin’s death in 1953. Preda takes advantage of this period, and in 1955 he published the first volume of ‘Morometii’, a masterpiece which, in appearance, fits the era’s ideological standards, by the fact that it dealt with peasants and their abrasive relationship with the pre-communist authorities. Beyond that, however, Preda ignored the prescriptions of the official propaganda, and wrote an extraordinary novel about the life of peasants of the south of Romania.”



    The fame that the semi-autobiographic novel “Morometii” brought Preda secured him a permanent place in Romanian literature, as well as within the ranks of artists favoured by the regime. He became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, head of one of the most important publishing houses in the country, and a deputy in the National Assembly. Sheltered by these positions, he continued to write groundbreaking novels for that time. In 1980, he published his three-volume novel ‘The Most Beloved of Men’, which, according to Lefter, puts into question the entirety of the communist regime. That same year, Marin Preda passed away, on May 16.



    “The murky circumstances of his death could only be shed light upon if the archives of the former Securitate yielded documents showing clearly that he was rubbed out, but there isn’t enough evidence to support that. It may have been an accident. It’s not secret that he was having a hard time, drinking a lot, and his death might have been accidental. However, the death of such extraordinary man was, at the time, quite shocking. He was not that old. He died before turning 58.”



    Marin Preda’s literary standing is uncontested, but his relationship to the regime is still up for debate, and any clear image of it is dependant on a possible emergence of documents from the archives of the former regime.

  • Anarchism in Romania

    Anarchism in Romania

    The emergence of socialist ideas in Romania in the second half of the 19th century was accompanied by a surge in anarchism, particularly among intellectuals. Like socialism in a non-industrial country, anarchism was also successful with the educated classes and less so with the working classes. Despite its limited appeal, anarchism was in the limelight because of its rhetoric, its ultra-radical programme and the methods to be used in carrying out its goals.



    Romanian anarchists were inspired by the writings of classics such as Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), Max Stirner (1806-1856), Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1976) and Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921). Russian anarchists were a particularly important source of inspiration for radical Romanian intellectuals coming from Bessarabia and Bukovina. However, the Romanian anarchists such as Panait Muşoiu (1864-1944) and Zamfir C. Arbore (1848-1933) adapted the classic anarchist texts to the Romanian reality of the time.



    Despite being a marginal trend, anarchism was the centre of attention because of the methods it employed to achieve its goals, namely violent attacks, something we may today describe as “terrorism”. Such anarchist attacks were common in Europe in the last two decades of the 19th century and their most famous victims include the Austro-Hungarian Empress Elisabeth, known as Sissi, who was killed by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in 1898.



    As anarchism was gaining ground, socialist thinkers such as Romania’s Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (1855-1920), started to dissociate themselves from it and reject it.



    In Romania, anarchist attacks were not very common. One better-known example is the attack against the Liberal prime minister Ionel Bratianu. On December 8th, 1909, he was walking home after a meeting in the Senate when he got shot in the back, one of the bullets going through his chest and another hitting him in the shoulder blade. The attacker was caught by passers-by and handed over to the police. His name was Gheorghe Stoenescu and he was a railways worker with anarchist-unionist leanings. Trying to explain his action, Stoenescu blamed the prime minister for the soaring prices and the low living standard. He was sentenced to 20 years hard labour, being found guilty of attempted murder. According to speculations in the socialist newspapers of the day, Stoenescu did not in fact shot the prime minister, but he was framed by the Safety Police, as the secret services were known at the time.



    Another attack, committed by Max Goldstein (1898-1924), a Jew born into a family of traders, had a deeper echo in Romania’s history. Goldstein was an anarchist who embraced the ideology of the Communist International, the Comintern, in 1919. His main goal was to destroy the bourgeoisie. He even served time in prison for attempted attacks, but managed to escape. He went to Russia and came back with money, instructions and a hook instead of a hand, as a result of mishandling explosives. After a failed attack against interior minister Constantin Argetoianu in November 1920, Goldstein and two other men, Saul Osias and Leon Lichtblau, planned another attack. The bomb they set off in the Romanian Senate on December 8th 1920 killed the justice minister Dimitrie Greceanu and Demetriu Radu, a senator and Greek-Catholic bishop, and MP Spirea Gheorghiu, and wounded the senate speaker Constantin Coanda. Arrested in 1921, Goldstein received a life sentence and died of pneumonia in Doftana prison at the age of 26.

  • Citadels along the Danube’s Romanian segment

    Citadels along the Danube’s Romanian segment

    The river Danube is a waterway trade route, also lying at the crossroads of various cultures. Its banks have also been home to a string of thriving settlements. For instance, along the river’s Romanian section, from times immemorial various citadels cropped up, in the Danube Delta or on seacoast, but as well as in various points, all along river Danube’s downstream section, where the river flows into the sea. The role of such citadels was mainly a military, defensive one, yet quite a few of those citadels had grown into real towns. In the Danube Delta, there are such citadels as Enisala and Halmyris, but before we reach the Delta, we might as well come across the ruins of other ancient citadels. Speaking about such citadels, here is the archaeologist Raluca Iosipescu.



    Raluca Iosipescu: ”A notable citadel is the one in Isaccea, Noviodunum, a settlement with a long-standing history, which played a major role during the Roman colonization. It also served as a harbor for the Roman army. It had the status of municipal city. It had actually existed prior to Romans’ arrival in the region. Its name does not have a Latin origin, actually. It continued to exist during the Byzantine period, when it became an important religious center. Later on, and that also due to its very good position on the Danube, Noviodumum continued to exist, which ended with a Turkish citadel being placed in the region.”



    While going upstream we reach the citadel of Braila, where archeological research unearthed a series of Ottoman fortifications. Also in the region, but this time around following road taking us from Tulcea to Galati, lies the village of Garvan, the place where the citadel of Dinogetia used to stand.



    Raluca Iosipescu: ”It is a very impressive citadel, thanks to its dimensions, with very thick walls, big towers, with important constructions that had been discovered on the premises. It has been archaeologically researched for a very long time. If we continue to sail upstream along the Danube, we reach yet another very important citadel, the one in Harsova, lying in an important trade hub and being also inhabited from the Neolithic age. It used to be inhabited uninterruptedly until the 19th century, when it was destroyed in the Russian-Ottoman wars. Period photos show an impressive wall, known as the Genovese wall, which closed the entrance to the harbor, having several superb gothic vaults. All those citadels had been inhabited from times immemorial, which speaks about the fact that they were very well-placed, lying at the crossroads of several trade routes, where you passed from Dobrudja to Walllachia, also being proof of the fact that those areas were very prosperous.”



    If we carry on sailing further upstream from Harsova, right opposite to the Bulgarian locality of Silistra, lies the Păcuiul lui Soare citadel. Speaking about the citadel, here is the archeologist Sergiu Iosipescu.



    Sergiu Iosipescu: ”Paciul lui Soare stands out because it is Romania’s only Byzantine citadel, and was built in the 10th century by emperor Ioan Tsimiskes, and was the harbor for part of the Byzantine fleet. Unfortunately, around one seventh of it has been preserved to this day. The thing about Pacuiul lui Soare, which is something you can still see today, and which is unique, is a harbor with stone platforms flanked by towers, a pier having its entrance gate towards the city lying in the middle of the citadel. And that was something extraordinary for its time. No such other archeological evidence has been preserved. Sadly, even much less has been preserved of the Byzantine part of other citadel, the one in Giurgiu, This, as well as the following citadel, the one in Turnu Magurele, is closely linked to the history of Wallachia in the Middle Ages, in much the same way as the other citadel, lying even further upstream, the one in Turnu Severin. With the citadels lying in Clisura Dunarii, we emerge out of the river’s Romanian segment. Unfortunately, Giurgu as well as Turnu Magurele, but also Turnu Severin, had their own problems the moment the Ottoman rayahs were dismantled, and when the stone they were made of was used to modernize small towns.“


    Today the restoration process for quite a few of the citadels along the Danube is still in its early stages, and therefore the citadels are much less capitalized on. Yet their history fully deserves to be known and their ruins are well worth visiting.

  • The Flamanda Slum in Bucharest

    The Flamanda Slum in Bucharest

    Romanians use the Turkish word mahala to describe slums, the dirty and poor areas that could be found in every city in the past. Slums marked a historical stage in the development of many Romanian cities. Bucharest was no exception, as the city itself was initially made up of several slums, that is small urban communities very much like the rural ones. One of Bucharest’s first slums, infamous for the abject poverty of its inhabitants, was suggestively called Flamanda, which means hungry in Romanian. It was located in the area of today’s Union Square, near the Metropolitan Cathedral Hill. The emergence of this slum is closely connected with the life and role of the church within community, as Edmond Niculusca, head of the Romanian Association for Culture, Education and Normality explains:



    “The Flamanda Slum is tightly linked to the Metropolitan Cathedral Hill. This slum had formed, just like many others, around a church, in this case, the Flamanda Church, which still exists today. The church was erected in 1766, by a man named Dumitru. Its construction it’s believed to have taken a long time, although the church is very small. Starting 1782, the church was rebuilt, this time of stone, and construction works were completed only around 1800, with the help of the tailors’ guild in Bucharest, who then settled on the eastern side of the slum. A map of Bucharest in 1770 shows without a doubt that beyond the eastern side of the Metropolitan Cathedral Hill there was nothing more than vineyards and gardens. The land was the property of the Hungarian-Wallachian Bishopric, as it was called at the time, and it was home to a large number of Gipsy slaves, who worked for the church. So there was no mention of Flamanda Slum on the oldest map of Bucharest. In spite of the fact that it was set up in 1766, it was only much later that Flamanda Slum was mentioned by documents as an established community. In 1800 there were around 59 houses in the area.”



    Edmond Niculusca tells us more about the name given to this slum:



    “Some historians say that both the slum and its church had been extremely poor. There were only 59 houses, and very few families. There are also historians who say that it was mostly beggars and people suffering from chronic diseases that were sent to the Flamanda church to ask for food and money. There was a strict hierarchy within every slum. The main road usually boasted the church and the bar, and also the houses of the community’s elite, such as the priest and his family, the policeman and, in some cases — if the slum was not the poorest one — some civil servants. “



    In time, the social structure of Flamanda slum changed and after 1920 even the administrative term of ‘slum’ had disappeared. And this was not the only change. Edmond Niculusca explains:



    “By mid-19th century, when Bucharest began to expand, the Flamanda area became part of the city centre. Beautiful houses, some of which can still be seen today, were erected. One of them was built by the architect of the Peles Castle, who had received a plot of land there. The house is impressive and tells of the city’s historical identity. Unfortunately, it is now bordered on each side by large boulevards that have suffocated the city and changed its identity. And I’m talking about the communist times, especially the 1980s, when new buildings and boulevards were erected in this area to isolate the slum.”



    The Flamanda slum continues to be an identity oasis of Bucharest, miraculously saved from communist destruction. A whole district full of historical streets and buildings was demolished in the 1980s to make room for monstrous communist buildings. Behind them, however, the Flamanda slum continues to exist.