Category: RRI Encyclopaedia

In the past, kind people used to be called “the salt of the earth”. There is also an old saying: “if you spill salt you’ll have bad luck”. In each peasant’s household there used to be a block of salt also known as salt lick which animals licked when returning home. The need for salt made people build settlements near rivers and salt lakes. And this is how the old salt roads developed, which started from the Carpathians and led to far away destinations.

Sabina Ispas, the director of the “Constantin Brailoiu” Ethnography and Folklore Institute in Bucharest, has more details: “In the Middle Ages salt used to be a princely revenue, a revenue of the king. The king was the one who sometimes granted to monasteries and certain personalities or social structures the right to levy a salt tax, the right to have salt. It is well know that in the year 1222 the salt exploitation and transport on the Mures River was leased to the Teutonic Knights. In Bucharest one can still find today the Salt Road that crossed the capital, on which salt was transported to various places. Transportation of salt, which was sensitive to humidity, on the Mures River entailed the construction of special carriers that were supposed to protect it. Salt was also transported by means of beasts of burden or people simply carried salt on their backs. Salt used to be traded at fairs. We should not forget that the word salary is derived from the old meaning of the soldiers’ pay which consisted in a certain amount of salt…”

In Romanian folk culture salt appears in several tales of which “Sarea in bucate”- “Salt in Food” is the most famous. In the tale, an emperor has 3 daughters whom he rewards in accordance with how much love they feel for their father. The youngest of them is thus punished as she said she loved his father like salt in food…science today confirms the wisdom behind the apparently strange words of the emperor’s daughter, since salt is indispensable to humans.

Sabina Ispas: “When Dacia was conquered by the Romans, salt exploitation was as important as gold exploitation. Rush lights and grinders are still preserved from the time of those salt exploitations. The old Romanian legislation included forced labor in salt mines or pits as a form of punishment. Those who were forced to work in salt mines, although they had been exempt from the death penalty, had to live in hard conditions. Some of those who worked in salt mines had the talent to shape salt in artistic forms, which were later put on display. The ethnography and folklore institute in Bucharest has been included, for several years, in a European program called ‘The Mine Memory’. As part of this program the institute chose to focus on salt exploitation simply because it consider it an old traditional occupation on the Romanian territory going back in time thousands of years.”

A very well know ritual in which salt is used is that of welcoming guests with bread and salt as a sign of love, prosperity and kindness.

Our English-speaking listeners may be quite familiar with names like Salt Lake City, for instance, just as German speakers know that Salzburg means “Salt City.” But few people know that the Romanian town “Slanic” in Prahova County also has its name linked to this mineral. The history and the economy of the 6-thousand-people town 130 km north of Bucharest relied heavily on the presence of the salt deposits nearby. The name “Slanic” comes from Slavic and means “salty.”

The same name was given to another town, in the eastern Romanian county of Bacau, some 350 km northeast of Bucharest. Here, too, salt extraction has been the driving force behind the development of the town. Unlike Slanic Prahova, Slănic Moldova in Bacau County is also a spa resort, using salt waters as a therapeutic agent. And also about 200 km northeast of Bucharest we reach the town of Ramnicu Sarat, whose name could be translated into current Romanian as “salt pond,” because the word “ramnic” in Slavic stands for a small body of water. The town was named after the salty, undrinkable river that flows by the town.

Close to Bucharest, about 120 km northeast, there is also the spa resort of Sarata Monteoru, whose name is linked to the name of its original owners, the Monteoru family, and to the salt lake near the village. Moving up to the west, some 200 km from Bucharest, we reach the village of Ocnele Mari, located in the vicinity of salt mines. The Romanian word “ocna,” again of Slavic origin, means “prison” and has become a synonym for “salt mine”, because convicts were usually employed as forced labourers in salt mines.

It is in the Ocnele Mari prison that many anticommunist fighters from the National Resistance Movement were detained, alongside a great number of intellectuals, such as philosopher and writer Petre Ţuţea. In northernmost Romania, in Maramures, next to the Ukrainian border, there is a village bearing a similar name, Ocna Şugatag. And to conclude the series of Romanian salt-related place names, we should also mention the city of Slatina, 200 km west of Bucharest, whose name, according to some linguists, is derived from the Slavic word for “salt land.”

Salt is extremely well represented in the Romanian language as well. Its morphological family of words includes no less than 22 terms and 10 contiguous words. The term “solnita”, Romanian for saltcellar, designates a small dish for holding and dispensing salt and has another nine similar variants in local dialects. There are quite a few expressions with direct reference to salt, both positive and negative in meaning. For instance, the phrasing “salt of the earth” commonly refers to something very valuable.

The idiom “to rub salt into someone’s wound” is used with a negative connotation to refer to making an already painful situation even more difficult to bear. The idiom is based on the practice of using salt to disinfect and treat a painful bleeding wound. Another phrase, “sare in ochi” that literally translates as “salt in the eyes” is used to refer to deceptive behaviour. There is even a website bearing this name that signals dishonest political discourse. The predicament of salt workers has also given rise to a musical genre called “salt miners’ songs”, which speaks of the salt-mining process, saltworks and hard work.

Apart from the specific mining activities, employing convicts in salt-mining was profitable for two reasons: first, the labour force was free and second, convicts were used to mine salt, a precious mineral that up until the 19thcentury was called “the white gold”. Salt is also a commonplace in fairytales. Petre Ispirescu associated salt with love in his famous phrasing “I love you the way I love salt in my food”.

This building was the property of Dumitru Marinescu, one of the first and most important capitalists in Bucharest, who built a beer factory and houses for workers on the 10 hectares of land he had bought near the Metropolitan Hill, on the Beggars’ Bridge. Dumitru Marinescu had humble origins, but got rich thanks to the tenacity and business skills that defined the first days of capitalism. The Colossus is still in place today. It is now called “The Bragadiru Palace — The Colosseum Hall”. Crina Deaconescu, a representative of the company that administrates the Palace, tells us more about its founder.

Crina Deaconescu: “Born in 1842 in a decent, rather poor family, Dumitru Marinescu was the son of a shingle maker, named Marin. He started working at the age of 16 in the distillery of Iancu Stefanescu. During his first years of work, he stood out as very bright and hardworking. That’s why Iancu Stefanescu soon made him his associate. When Iancu Stefanescu was out of town with business, he would leave Dumitru in charge with the brandy factory and would forbid him to buy anything while he was away. Nevertheless, Dumitru would buy surgical spirit on his own, and started making money by himself. His business was most profitable during the Independence War of 1877, when the surgical spirit was in high demand, being used to disinfect wounds. The money he earned was used to build the first refined alcohol factory in the village of Bragadiru, close to Bucharest. At the end of the 19th century, Dumitru Marinescu realized that the beer production in southern Romania was almost inexistent, so in 1884 he started building a beer factory. The factory was called “Bere Bragadiru”- Bragadiru Beer until it was seized by the state on June 11th, 1948, when it was renamed as “Rahova Beer”.

After he bought the estate in Bragadiru, near Bucharest, Dumitru Marinescu added his name to that of the commune. With commercial and financial success already in place, he started focusing on helping the community as well. He used to grant scholarships to young people willing to study, abroad or in Romania, and supported the children of his workers, who wanted to work in agriculture or horticulture. In the early 20th century he built near the beer factory a palace, whose role was, among other things, to provide relaxation for his workers.

Crina Deaconu: “ The construction of the colossus started around the year 1905. In principle, it was designed to be a culture palace. It observed an old tradition of the beer factory and had a special facility for the factory workers. It was built based on the plans drawn up by the Austrian architect Anton Shuckerl in 1894. It’s an impressive building, thanks to its size, architecture and decorations. The building has a garden and a summer terrace that harmoniously integrated into the eclectic architecture, with spiraled stairs and inlays, statues on the façade, Venetian mirrors and loggias built in Victorian style. We can state that the Bragadiru Palace is still the most impressive building of the old Bucharest. It also has a spectacular ballroom, and it can be used as a theatre or concert hall. Back then, the palace used to host a library and a bowling room. Also, there were shops and offices on the ground floor. In terms of style, the Bragadiru Palace comprises the styles of the most famous buildings in Bucharest.”

The days of glory of the Bragadiru Palace would end with the 1848 nationalization, when the state seized it. The Collossus became a house of culture, neglected and turned to ruin. Its fate started to improve in 2003, when its rightful owners, heirs to Dumitru Marinescu Bragadiru, were returned the property. Today, fully refurbished, the Bragadiru Palace plays host to weddings, balls and other social and cultural events.

The museum has long been famous among those who love tradition and ethnography, but also among tourists. It lies right at the heart of the Dumbrava Sibiului Natural Park, with its 10 km of walkways where nature lovers can take short trips by foot or by carriage or sledge during winter. Tourists can also enjoy rowing on the nearby lake. An open-air museum, Astra is similar to the Dimitrie Gusti Village Museum in Bucharest in terms of ethnographic value. They differ, however, in terms of layout. Instead of following the topography of the traditional village, the 150 pieces displayed in the Astra Museum are divided into different thematic groups.

The houses, churches, public buildings, workshops and mills spread over the museum’s 42 hectares are divided into six theme groups, namely: processes and techniques to obtain animal and vegetable food products; transportation and communication; techniques to obtain the raw material used in the production of household goods and construction materials; the processing of animal skin and fibre for household use and clothing; public buildings; and an exhibition of monumental sculpture.

The beginnings of the Astra Museum date back one hundred years. The museum has constantly enriched its collection thanks to intense research activities. The field research continues despite the fact that financing has dwindled in recent years. Ciprian Stefan, the director of Astra, told us more about the research activities carried out by his museum:

Ciprian Stefan: ”As far as research is concerned, we’re doing well. We have a young team eager to do fieldwork. We’re currently trying to finalise the thematic project for the open-air museum initiated in 1963. We hope to finish the project in the next three years. To this end, we carry out research all over the country, especially in north-eastern Romania, Transylvania and the south of the country. Our research is not restricted to identifying the monuments that could form part of the museum. We go even further, by providing the interested local authorities with the possibility of cooperating with our museum and by making them aware of the existing rural development strategies aimed at promoting their local cultural heritage.”

Some of the monuments identified by researchers are first dismantled and then transported to the Astra Museum and reassembled. Others are left on their original site, but are restored so as to become a point of attraction. This is not possible, however, without cooperation from the local authorities and cultural institutions. Ciprian Stefan explains:

Ciprian Stefan: “This summer we had a partnership with the Summer University held in Bucium, a village in Alba County, under the aegis of the Romanian Academy. We were very happy to find that the mayor was interested to work with us to promote the heritage of the wonderful village of Bucium, one of the most beautiful in the Apuseni Mountains. This implies the restoration of an old school to become operational again and be able to host workshops and also include accommodation facilities. We have also drafted a project involving three villages in the Apuseni Mountains to promote the region’s heritage.“

In the meantime, the Astra Museum in Dumbrava Sibiului welcomes its visitors with its valuable heritage collection.

A lot has been written about Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian who revolutionized sculpture in the first half of the 20th century, but little is known about his Romanian biography. Brancusi was born 136 years ago, on February the 19th 1876 in Hobita, a village in Gorj County, southwestern Romania, and his childhood was not different from that of any peasant’s child from Oltenia.

The house where he was born has been turned into a museum. Here is Doina Banu, curator at the Constantin Brancusi memorial house.

“The house is old, it was built 180 years ago. At that time its owners were considered well off, as the house had three rooms. All the family members, 7 children and two parents, used to sleep in the first room, which was a ‘living room’. They all used to sleep on a long bed, covered by beautiful traditional carpets with geometrical motives. There is also a wooden cabinet with a sun carved on it, a chest of drawers, like those that were given to girls before getting married, and a loom that belonged to Brancusi’s mother. A fireplace was in the kitchen, which was also used for heating the living room.”

The second room, also known as the fire room, was in fact what we call today kitchen. Here all the family used to gather around a three-legged round table for dinner. That small table would later serve as inspiration for one of Brancusi’s monuments in Targu Jiu, “The Table of Silence”. The third room was a storeroom for food.

Constantin Brancusi’s father, Nicolae, was a woodcarver who was also trying his hand at farming, because the family owned 7 hectares of farmland. When the future sculptor was only nine, his father passed away, leaving behind 7 children. Here is Doina Banu with details from Brancusi’s childhood.

“Constantin Brancusi lived in Hobita by the time he was 11. Until that time he had gone to the primary school in the nearby village of Pestisani for two years. While in the third grade he carved his initials on a school desk, which attracted him a punishment from the schoolmaster who closed him in a chicken coop. The punishment angered Brancusi who wouldn’t go to that school anymore. He joined a school in his grandparents’ village where he completed his primary education. Lacking the authority of his father, at the age of 11, a rebellious Brancusi fled home and went to Targu Jiu, where he worked as a wool dyer. But his mother soon found him and brought him back to Hobita, where he stayed for a while. His next escape took him further, to Slatina, where he got employed as servant in an inn. From that moment on Brancusi came to his native village only as a visitor. The last visit he paid to Hobita was in 1938, after he had completed the monument in Targu Jiu.”

Having graduated from the School of Art and Trades in Craiova and that of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Brancusi gradually made a name for himself in Romanian art circles as a classic sculptor. However, his dreams – leading him towards absolute originality — were fulfilled in Paris, where Brancusi came to live in the early 20th century. Brancusi shot to fame in Paris, but he kept part of the traditions he first witnessed in Hobita.

Here is Doina Banu at the microphone again.

“He had a small round table in his workshop, where he used to treat his friends with poached eggs, polenta, pickled cabbage and plum brandy. The copious lunches he offered attracted him the nickname of ‘the peasant-prince’. He usually came back to Hobita alone, but in 1922 he came along with an Irish girlfriend Eileen, whom he dressed like a peasant woman from Gorj. For her he organized a peasant picnic on the Cioaca Hill, where he wanted to build a house. He boiled chestnuts in clay pots and served wine in clay mugs. His Irish girlfriend was fascinated with the sound made by liquids poured in these mugs. And when he questioned Brancusi about the sound, the answer came promptly, ‘the sound of earth, the sound of love’. When Eileen left, he gave her several clay mugs and told her to bring them to that big village, called Paris, to show her friends how people in Hobita live.”

Brancusi died in 1957 in Paris, leaving behind famous sculptures, such as “Miss Pogany”, “Bird in Space”’ and the “Endless Column”.

The village of Stefanesti, about 6 kilometers away from Pitesti, in central Romania, hosts the Golesti Museum. The large compound, stretching several hectares, comprises the Golescu family’s medieval residence, as well as an open-air museum: the Vine and Fruit Growing Museum.





Bordered by walls whose height ranges from 5 to 22 meters, and covering an area of 4 hectares, the Golesti Medieval Compound is Romania’s only secular fortified construction. Here is the director of the Golesti Vine and Fruit Growing Museum, Filofteia Pally, with details on the history of the construction.





Filofteia Pally: “The mansion was founded in 1640 by Stroe Leurdeanu and Visa from Golesti, but the 1716 fire destroyed a great part of the building and its outhouses, so that Radu Greceanu, then governor of the region, had it rebuilt in the 18th century. The Golesti family’s medieval compound is typical for the age preceding the time of Brancoveanu-style palaces. Actually it is typical of the old Romanian architecture, which sadly has been preserved in a very limited number of locations in Romania. Master Stoica, brought over to Wallachia by ruling prince Matei Basarab to erect a string of monuments, is the true founder of the compound. Master Stoica brought Moldavian influences, but here he worked with a team of masons from Muscel, so the building illustrates a typically Wallachian architectural style.”





Governor Radu Golescu, one of Wallachia’s far-sighted boyars, is Dinicu Golescu’s father. Dinicu Golescu was a forward-looking boyar himself, as well as a writer, whose diary entitled “The Account of the Journey I, Constantin, made in the years 1824, 1825, and 1826” was indeed groundbreaking, since it was the first Romanian book focusing on a journey to the West. Dinicu Golescu tried to apply at home what he saw during his travels. A telling example in this respect is the first rural school, founded in 1826 in Golesti. And today’s museum venues a permanent exhibition, reminding visitors of that first Romanian school.





The mansion in Golesti became a museum in June 1939, and underwent large-scale restoration works in 1942-1944. Since 1958, the medieval compound has been hosting permanent exhibitions. Filofteia Pally, director of the Fruit and Vine Growing Museum in Golesti again:



Filofteia Pally: “A memorial exhibition of the Golesti family, the 19th century generation, has been mounted within the museum. At the entrance, in the watchtower, there is only one room housing an exhibition that focuses on the 1821 revolution led by Tudor Vladimirescu. On the left of the watchtower, there is an exhibition devoted to the high school in the countryside and on its right, there is the old infirmary, where we mount various temporary exhibitions. Behind the mansion, there is the Turkish bath, the only construction of this kind entirely preserved in Romania.”





The open-air section, the actual vine and fruit growing museum, stretches over 10 ha and is arranged as a village museum made up of over 35 peasant households. Filofteia Pally:





Filofteia Pally: “Another annex on the north-western side houses an exhibition of ethnography and folk art in Arges County. Beyond the walls of the medieval compound covering an area of 4 ha, there is the open-air sector, which is a miniature map of Romania with fruit and vine-growing areas from all over the country. We also take pride in one of the most valuable collections of grapes and other fruit processing outfits, such as wine presses or boilers. There tourists have the opportunity of participating in fruit processing by using old techniques, in making plum brandy in the plum brandy boiler or in pressing grapes in vats.”





A walk along the lanes of that traditional Romanian village is advisable both in summer and in winter, when they are covered in snow. Exhibits from the Vine and Fruit Growing Museum in Golesti are featured on this year’s QSLs of Radio Romania International.

The railway network had two important functions in Romania’s history: it was the driving force behind economic development and ensured the political cohesion of the state formed in 1859. 1868 saw the inauguration of the first railway linking Bucharest to Giurgiu in the south.



The development of the railway network further went hand in hand with that of the machine building industry, the sector that handled the production of railway equipment. Locomotives and railcars have a history similar to that of the railway. Mircea Dorobantu, an expert with the Romanian Railways Museum, gave us an insight into the history of Romanian locomotive production. The museum is part of the training strategy for the future staff of the Romanian railway system:

“At present, the Railway Museum is part of the National Centre for Railway Training and Qualification and its activity is actually a cultural approach of the whole railway activity. The National Training Centre is the only body authorized to train people working for the Romanian railways”.

The history of locomotives starts with the steam engine. Mircea Dorobantu will now talk about this first stage in the history of locomotives and how history was written at the Factory in Resita and the Malaxa Factory in Bucharest after 1918:

“Steam engines started being made on Romania’s territory at the Resita Factory. The first locomotive was a narrow-gauge steam engine made in 1872. Fortunately for us this little engine still exists and it was displayed on a platform in the park of Resita where many other engines made at the town’s factories are exhibited. Steam engines were also made at the Nicolae Malaxa factory in Bucharest. Malaxa built a great number of locomotives and self-propelled railcars. The first railcars were built at the Johann Weitzer Factories in Arad, which later became the Arad Railcar Factory. These self-propelled railcars were taken over by the Malaxa Factory, some of them being functional even today, despite being 80 years old. It is a railway curiosity that such old self-propelled railcars are still in use today. The railcars built at Malaxa were made after Romanian blueprints although certain components of foreign self-propelled railcars were used as sources of inspiration. The component parts, the engine and the whole structure were made entirely at Malaxa. The constructor used a well-known architect of the time, Creanga, who designed the self-propelled railcar after the most modern blueprints of the time and the latest trends in industrial design. This brought the self-propelled railcar a prize at the international technical exhibition in Milan, being one of the stars of the exhibition.”

Although built under license, the Romanian contribution to the production of engines was substantial. The Romanian constructors left their mark on their own models. Mircea Dorobantu:

“The engines and self-propelled railcars built in Resita and Malaxa were similar to those from Germany and Austria. The engines with the series 142,000, the biggest steam engines for passengers which the Romanian railways had, were built under Austrian license. 12 engines were built in Austria while 79 such engines were built in Romania. In 1939 when they left the factory, these engines were the best. The engine could reach 110 kms per hour and could tow heavy fast trains on a trans-Carpathian rail”.

The second stage in the history of locomotives was the Diesel engine that was followed by the electric engine. Here is Mircea Dorobantu again:

“Passing from the steam engine to the Diesel- electric engine was an event that had a strong impact on the lives of railway workers, because very many engine drivers had been trained on steam engines. Drivers and engines had a special relationship, so to say. Engines were dedicated, in the sense that only three teams of engine drivers were working on an engine and they took great care of it, as if it was their home.”

The new generation of electric engines is, for the moment, the last stage in the development of locomotives. In Romania electric engines were assembled at the Electroputere Craiova Factory, which today focuses on producing railway modernisation equipment.

The natural history museum is the capital’s most popular museum, out of a string of museums scattered along the avenue that links the government building in the center to the northernmost regions of Bucharest. The museum building has an interesting history overlapping with the modernization of the Romanian territories.





On November the 3rd 1834, ruler Alexandru Ghica founded the National Museum of Natural History and Antiquities. The initiative belonged to the ruler’s brother, Mihalache Ghica, who also became the first donor of the museum enriching its collections with ancient coins, minerals, shells, mammals and fossils. Along the years, the museum has changed several locations and directors, but the one who identified himself most with this institution was scholar Grigore Antipa, who headed it from 1893 until his death in 1944. His contemporaries decided to name the museum in his honour.





Ioana Matache, director with Antipa Museum told us more about the building: “The museum has been functioning on the same premises since 1908; the building was erected upon the initiative and under the guidance of Grigore Antipa himself, between 1904 and 1906; he conceived it in a special manner in order to be able to house a museum and its vast collections. It was the first construction built for a special purpose in Romania, and is now a historic monument. The façade was designed by architect Grigore Cherchez, who also included a group of statues entitled “The Science”, carved by sculptor Dimitrie Paciurea, which unfortunately were razed down by the 1940 earthquake.”







The museum opened in its present location on May the 24th 1908 and its centennial was celebrated in 2008 with the inauguration of a project aimed at the complete restoration of the premises. Following 3 years of restoration works, the National Museum of Natural History reopened its gates on September the 17th, this year.





Here is what visitors can see: “In the semi-basement, there is a diorama of animals living in various regions across Romania. The country is divided into five bioregions, out of Europe’s total 11 and we are proud to be the richest EU country in terms of bioregions. On the ground floor there is a diorama representing the planet’s biodiversity, from the northernmost, arctic points to the hottest regions on earth. It’s like a journey through the globe’s regions and habitats. On the first floor, visitors can admire the world’s sea giants, as well as the life-size skeleton of a whale, ten and a half meters in length. The second floor hosts the office of scholar Antipa, a room with various rocks and fossils on view and we have devoted an entire space to insects; we have insects from all over the world, over 1 million species.”





Among the unique exhibits of the Antipa Museum there is also the skeleton of a giant elephant, which was added to the collection in 1911 and dates back some 5.3 million years.



Here is Ioana Matache with more details about this interesting animal: “This is the skeleton of Deinotherium gigantissimum, a unique species of elephants, which was discovered by Gregoriu Stefanescu in late 19th century in Vaslui, northeastern Romania. After the skeleton was completely restored a new species was discovered, which the contemporaries named ‘Awesome animal’. And that’s exactly how it was at that time with 4.5 meters in height and 3.5 meters in length. The animal used to roam marshes and ingurgitate huge quantities of leaves and branches. Its tusks grow from its lower jawbone unlike its modern relatives. We also have on view the huge skeleton of an American mastodon; its sizes are impressive indeed. And we have a very rare skeleton of the DO-Do bird, some sort of a giant pigeon with small wings and an enormous beak. It used to live in Madagascar and Mauritius until these islands were settled and the species went extinct.”





Besides the well-represented local fauna – which includes species of rare or extinct animals — the Antipa Museum in Bucharest is also home to a lizard-fish fossil, perfectly adapted to sea life, which dates back to the Mesozoic era.

Romanian wines, generally appreciated by both locals and foreigners, have long been a distinct Romanian brand. What is not that well known, however, is that sparkling wine, or Romanian champagne, as we call it, has a long-standing tradition of its own. And that is the first requirement in assessing the quality of wines.

The first documented reference regarding the introduction of champagne to Romania can be found in the chronicles of Moldavian scribe Ion Neculce. Apparently, in 1710, Russian tsar Peter the Great visited Iasi during his military campaign against the Ottoman Empire. He got a royal welcome from the Moldavian prince of the time, who in turn called him over to his camp set up on the bank of the River Prut.

There he invited the Moldavian prince to taste a “French wine” which enthralled both the prince and his retinue on the spot. It seems that the French wine was champagne, which started being bottled in Romania one hundred years later. At the time, agronomist and scholar Ion Ionescu de la Brad started to make sparkling wines on the royal vineyards in Iasi for the Moldavian Prince Mihai Sturdza.

Once the production line got started, champagne makers, both local and foreign, started to surface in the vicinity of the largest Romanian vineyards. For instance, one of the oldest champagne-making wine cellars is in the town of Azuga. In 1892, the wine cellar was named official purveyor of the Royal House. In our times, the Rhein-Azuga wine cellar, as it is called now, is the property of a private company, and continues to make sparking wine, observing the original recipe.

Mihai Chitic, the representative of Halewood winemakers, told us more about the history of this wine cellar:

“It was built between 1888 and 1892, and it is the oldest wine cellar that makes sparkling wine after the traditional recipe, which is wine fermented while kept in bottles. Romania was among the first champagne makers in the world. In 1841, Ion Ionescu de la Brad made the first sparkling wine for Prince Sturdza in a hut somewhere on the hills of Copou. He left the wine to ferment for one year in bottles, and that is how the first Romanian sparkling wine came into being, before the famous Italian champagne Asti, which was first produced in 1842. On a chronological timeline, Romanian champagnes surfaced after French, Spanish and Russian champagnes. In turn, Russians cherished champagne, and launched the fashion of drinking champagne with caviar, breaking champagne glasses or drinking champagne from ladies’ shoes when they ran out of glasses”.

Nowadays, the Rhein-Azuga cellars also have a bed and breakfast and a restaurant for tourists who wish not only to spend their holidays in the mountains, on Prahova Valley, but also to taste the wines there, champagne included. A similar location is in Urlati, Prahova county. There, a cellar, which the tourists can visit just to see where champagne is stored, was set up in Urlateanu mansion. Mihai Chitic has further details.

“Urlateanu mansion bears the name of a master of ceremonies back in 1784, named Urlateanu, who was brought up into a family of boyars from Muntenia. This mansion was built in 1922 by his descendant, in an absolutely famous area for sorts of wines like Feteasca Neagra , Urlati or Ceptura, up on a hill . It is in Brancoveanu style and has got the same tourist facilities, where you can taste the wines in the cellar. There are wines which can mature in 225 litre capacity vats according to the Bordeaux method. It is actually the last stage at which the wine acquires all the complex flavours and the proper roundness to be poured directly into the decanter. And you can also enjoy a meal, since we don’t have any accommodation facilities, but you can be closer to the vineyard because it is on a hill amidst vineyards and this is a completely different scenery from that found in Azuga.“

As a result, if you are planning a wine trip in Romania, Azuga and Urlati should not be off your list, because there history can happily intertwine with the current method of champagne making.