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$Title{Romania
Flowers For Heroes}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Romanian Tourist Board}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Romania, Washington DC}
$Subject{bucharest
romanian
palace
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december
flowers
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$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Title:       Romania
Book:        Romania Tourist Information
Author:      Romanian Tourist Board
Affiliation: Embassy of Romania, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Flowers For Heroes

     Spring has come and Bucharest is again flooded with flowers. Blessed be
the earth in which such wonderful flowers grow, blessed be the people that
grow this wonder of the earth ... From our pious intention to honour the
memory of the heroes of our freedom who fell in the streets and squares of
Bucharest on the day of December 22, 1989, the idea was born to commemorate
one hundred days that had passed since the bloody events of the Revolution.
The people working in the Trust of hot-houses, which has plantations of
flowers all over Romania, joined their efforts, their hearts and thoughts for
the commemoration of the young heroes and achieved an original premiere at the
National Theatre in Bucharest: the Exhibition of flower arrangements. The
hot-houses of Arad, Cluj, Constanta, Brasov (the famous Codlea), six
hot-houses nearby Bucharest sent to that exhibition genuine works of art. How
did they travel a rather long way without being deteriorated? Without doubt
the flowers, as living creatures, sensed the noble feelings of the people
carrying them and were cooperative .... Without doubt, they were tended with
the utmost care ... and were given oxygen from the very hearts of the people
who had grown them.

     Why did I say it was a premiere? Because it was organized five years
after the dictator had forbidden such exhibitions in Bucharest and the
majority of flower arrangements were in the form of obelisks, tricolour
carpets or banners, wreaths, garlands, crosses. An undercurrent of sorrow was
felt in this exhibition as it was organized in the memory of the heroes. All
the units taking part in it laid wreaths in the places where young people had
laid down their lives.

     From the moment it was inaugurated and till the last day of the
exhibition thousands of Bucharesters came to admire the flowers. Among them
were many tourists from abroad and all valued both the art of the
horticulturists and their noble thought of paying homage to those who died so
that we should live in freedom.

     In the end, the most beautiful flower arrangements were taken to the
Cemetery of Young Heroes. And as a last token of pious homage, telling of the
Romanians' thoughts and feelings, a wreath of white carnations, with a
tricolour woven in the middle remained at the statue of Mihai Eminescu which
stands in front of the Romanian Atheneum, a witness of the Romanian
Revolution.

NATALIA DUMITRU

THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE UNION

     In the northern part of Bucharest, near the Herastrau park, welcoming
like a stone and marble gate the visitors coming to Romania by air, the
Triumphal Arch raised in honour of the creation of the unitary Romanian state
within its natural boundaries, strikes one through the harmony of its
proportions, the classical beauty of its line, the impression of massiveness,
elegance and durability. Under its present form, it was erected in 1936. In
the past, there had been other two variants, both provisional, on the same
site (covering a surface of 300 square m): the first, a homage to the heroes
of the War of Independence of 1877, paid by the town of Bucharest "to the
defenders of independence"; the second, a monument dedicated to the heroes of
the struggle for the unification of the Romanian people was raised in honour
of the Great Union of 1918. In 1935, work was resumed on the present day Arch
with the contribution of some renowned sculptors and architects such as Petre
Antonescu, Ion Jalea, Emil Calinescu. They worked with zeal and dedication,
and so, in the autumn of the next year, the monument was ready; it was
officially inaugurated on 1st December, 1936. 30 m high the Arch is supported
by two pillars provided with interior stairs that go 27 m up to the terrace
and the attic crowning the monument. The small semi-circular arch inside has a
diameter of 10 m and a vertical line of 17 m. The architectural decorative
elements - cornices, mouldings profiles and portals - all preserve a specific
Romanian character. The texts carved in stone on all the sides of the Arch
belong to our great historian Nicolae Iorga, and extol the idea and heroic act
of the Romanians' union: "Glory to those who by their bravery and blood toll
have achieved our national unity". Remembering that the Great Union was
accomplished on 1st December 1918, I can't help wondering who will write the
new texts for another historic day - December the 22nd 1989. It will give us
great pleasure to further present them to you.

DAN ALEXANDRU

THEY DIED FOR THE ROMANIANS LIBERTY

     This cemetery has appeared in only a few days. Almost all the dead who
were buried here bear on their crosses the same dates: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28 December 1989. These were the days in which fell most of the heroes
of our Revolution. This is how the Belu cemetery was suddenly "extended".
That place of burial which lies not far from the tomb of the great poet
Eminescu has become the most frequently visited spot in these days. There is
a continuous pilgrimage here - from early morning till late at night. People
bring flowers, burn incense, light candles. And weep. Those young dead belong
not only to their families, they belong to all the Romanians...

     A tomb. On the wooden cross stands written: Silviu Mincu, b. 1975 - d.
1989. An old woman sets at the head of the hero, who was only 14, a large
bunch of flowers, a platter with a funerary wheat-cake, a bottle of wine; she
lights many candles around crosses herself and utters in a moving voice:
"Cursed be the one who killed this child!"

     "You are related to him?" I ask her. "No, my dear Sir, I didn't even
know the lad who lies buried here; look what a fine boy he was. (And she
points to the photograph on the cross). I always come here to bring him fresh
flowers and light candles; today I've brought a wheat cake for the priest to
bless it - it is the 40th day commemoration".

     "Why do you do this ? Who are you?"

     "My name is Constanta Dumitrescu: I am 70 and I am alone. I don't want
this child to feel lonely. I often think that I should have died in his place,
he had all his life before him. But he went ahead of me an shouted: "Down with
Ceausescu!" I walk further with the stream of people along the freshly opened
alleys. I read the names on the crosses and I often feel a pang, for I find
among the fallen heroes names of people I used to know: Petre Astafei (b.
1967 - d. 1989); Ioan Pop Simion (b. 1949 - d. 1989) my former colleague in
the Television studios.

     I read other names: soldier Savonea Emil Florin departed to heaven at the
age of 19. On his cross there is written: "A pious homage paid by the young
men of the Vilcea district to the victims of terror" - on the tomb of the
soldier there is a three coloured Romanian flag; Popescu Gabriela (b.
1968 - d. 1989); Cretu Florin, an air force captain (b. 1959 - d. 1989); near
the cross there stands a huge aircraft propeller stuck in the ground). The
tomb of Marian Niculescu is draped in a silk flag; by the cross his parents
set a plague on which they wrote: "On the evening of December 22, 1989 our
little hero was shot dead by the Ceausescu troops. "Why did you go there, my
son?" "I went to fight for liberty", these were his last words..."

     Stan Serban Bogdan (b. 1968 - d. 1989). There are a lot of people by his
grave where a woman in mourning tells her story; I learn that she is the
hero's mother and that she daily comes to the cemetery. "He died on Christmas
Eve, he had promised he would come on that evening to carol me. He had raised
barricades in the streets on the 22nd and 23rd of December, he was all the
time out in the streets, he saw young people dying and a lot of bloodshed. He
came back from the University Square on the 24th, the put on a dark
suit - how handsome he looked! - and told me he was going to defend the T.V.
building. 'Mummy', he would say, "in the life of everyone of us there is a
train. You must know when to catch that train. For me this train starts now.
This is the chance of my life. Let me go for I know what I'm doing! If
something happened to me, I trust you'll be able to manage.' And he left. For
ever. For him the train of life had only two stations: the University and the
Television" ... I look more closely at the face of this woman, petrified in
her sorrow; the tears run slowly down her cheeks. She weeps in silence and
relates in a calm voice to all those present how her son died in the
Revolution. And she seems to be proud that her beloved Bogdan had the chance
of his life, that of meeting a heroic death.

     Here is another tomb. The name on the cross is Calin Sandu. A part of
his family is here. I talk to one of the martyr's brothers. "He was a lorry
driver. He died in the prime of life, he was just 40. We had a big party on
his birthday - he had invited his brothers and sisters - we are 11 - his
brothers and sisters-in-law, friends, god parents etc. At a certain moment
he said: I wonder if I'll live to see that criminal dead'. I knew who he was
talking about. And he didn't live  to see Ceausescu overthrown. He was shot
in the head on December 21. He left behind two orphans: one was his child, and
the other he had adopted. What a fine man he was, a good soul, gay, honest and
industrious"...

     Another cross has a portrait on it. Oh God, there is another handsome
boy, Radu Alexandru Ionescu, a pupil in the 12th form of a secondary school,
a sportsman too with high yachting performances. A poem entitled "Quiet" is
nailed to the cross; it is signed Gabriela. Near by, one more cross bearing
a portrait - another good-looking boy. It is the tomb of Mihai Gitlan, aged
19, who "died at the Dallas Hall on December 21, 1989, run over by cars and
shot" as the inscription on the cross says. On a white board we read: "Mihai,
your sacrifice for liberty and peace was not in vain. You will live for ever
in our hearts. Your school-mates". And hanging from the cross discreetly, a
notebook full of verses signed with a girl's name; a poem is entitled. "I
miss you"...

ION PREDA

The Accursed Place

     Dealul Spirii (Spirii Hillock) is a peculiar place in Bucharest's
cityscape. Until the seventies, this crest on the Dimbovita terrace was full
of pictures-que sloping streets and pretty houses shaded by trees, with
courtyards full of all kind of flowers, which the housewives tended in their
front gardens or in pots kept in the windows. Fences, cast-iron gates,
balconies, tapering red tile roofs, in contrast with the white walls. And the
calm, because it was a quiet district, where few cars ever passed. The
Bucharesters living in Dealul Spirii had simply forgotten the older plans,
going back to 1934, which envisaged the building of special edifices in the
wide plain of the Arsenal (some suggested a national cathedral, others a
museum or even a building to house both the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate). And suddenly, a thunderbolt. First a rumour which turned into a night
mare, because the thoughts of the "great builder" did not stop at the abyss
created on the Uranus street. They simply swept modest houses, built with
difficulty by hard working people, most of them on the threshold of old age,
villas, blocks of flats, churches, barracks, everything.

     Thus, Dealul Spirii came once again in the focus; some of the
Bucharesters remembered that the place had known other such fits of madness
which ended strangely: fires, measures stained with the blood of the
guilty ...Far from us the thought of blaming a patch of Bucharest's land to
which we are linked by the years of our youth, therefore, let's say, beautiful
years. It is a coincidence which, in brief, took the following course. In the
beginning there was a century-old forest. Then, there came the vineyards of
Radu Voda and Mihai Voda monasteries, the latter an edifice erected by Michael
the Brave when he was the Ban (governor) of Craiova. The vineyard in Bucharest
started at Grozavesti and stretched up to the Vacaresti hills. And the things
remained like this until March 1776, when Alexandru Ipsilanti decided to
start the construction of the new Princely Court. The old Princely Court in
the centre of the city had become difficult to maintain and the prince, with
his characteristics enthusiasm, decided to built his palace on that site
amidst the vineyards of Dealul Spirii. In addition to the master masons of
Bucharest he brought others from Transylvania and erected a house spread over
some 2,500 square metres. It was enormous in comparison with what existed in
the city at that time. Architect Spiridon Macri drafted the plans for the
church. Month after month the walls rose higher and higher, while the hill was
bore by tunnels tens of metres long. When the question of the payments to
architect Franz Iosef Sulzer, the head of the constructors came up the first
signs of alarm appeared. The prince refused to pay, or he did not have
wherefrom to do it. Later on Sulzer wrote sorrowfully that the greedy prince
wanted to pay his debts ad calendas graecas, i.e. never. Full of sadness he
left the work site. But neither could the prince enjoy the work because the
Porte dethroned him in 1782, when the huge architectural complex was not
finished. He went into exile and left his ephemeral successors Nicolae Caragea
and Mihai Sutu to wander through the cold corridors of the palace. The first
form of megalomania and even of an eccentricity bordering on madness would
be introduced by Nicolae Mavrogheni, appointed to the throne in 1786. He
frightened the city and the country with his diabolical methodes of ruling.
The last straw was when he proclaimed himself the great commander of the
army. Driven away by the imperial army, he fled to Bulgaria and was beheaded
there, in the Beala village. The New Court was turned into a hospital and,
what crowns it all, around the chapel, which was close to the palace, they
laid out the cemetery for those who had died on the Accursed Hill, as the
people had begun to call it. Their graves were found during the research made
in 1978-1979. (The discovery produced panic in Ceausescu's quarters because
the possibility of having come across the graves of the plague victims could
change the top-level decisions). They were, in fact, graves of soldiers from
the army of the Prince of Saxa Cobourg. The first fire occurred on December
14, 1789 and it was quite big, leaving behind a ruined edifice. Things
remained as such until 1798, when Constantin Hangerli came to the throne. (A
short, avaricious and abusive reign). Master builders were brought from all
over the country. The fury of completing it had become obsessive. But the joy
was short-lived because on February 15, 1799 the prince was killed in his
chamber by an envoy of the Porte. The body was dragged down the marble
staircase and thrown outside in the mud. The people of Bucharest, young and
old, came to see him, placing on his barren chest a coin for his last journey.
In 1802, the revolt of the "princes of the Old Court" shook the Court again,
and then, the earthquake of October 14, the same year, put its own painful
seal on it. In 1807 it became again a hospital.

     The final blow would be dealt in 1812, when a huge fire, "an angry
Vesuvius", as an eye witness called it, ended the existence of the Dealul
Spirii Court. No doubt, these are historical realities. There are also pure
coincidences. The Court of Dealul Spirii was exactly ... on the place where
Ceausescu was pompously building his presidential palace.

L. DOJA

A MAMMOTH TO FEED?

     In the last few years Romania was ruled by a madman. Of course, this is
not an isolated case for the history of the world is full of lunatic despots,
all suffering from megalomania and the personality cult. It is perhaps an
occupational disease of the dictators, a side, but very toxic, effect of
power, which only democracy can prevent. The former shoemaker apprentice
fancied himself a great "hero of socialist construction". What a terrible
curse for Romania! In addition to all the communist "advantages", this short
tyrant, frustrated by his complexes, came with megalomaniac designs that would
have ruined countries even larger and richer than ours, which still is blessed
by God to be fruitful and beautiful. The destruction was performed at a
national level; cyclopic chemical and metallurgical combines, utterly
inefficient but giants of the most polluting industries; abberant lines of
communication that alter geographical features - the Transfagarasan highway,
the Danube - Black Sea Canal and the Bucharest-Danube one - which spoil the
ecological balance, as also the large-scale cutting of forests and the
drainage works that left the mountains bare and the Danube plain lifeless, and
would have turned the Delta from paradise into hell. Maybe some of Bucharest's
endowments - the underground, the development of the river Dimbovita, the new
traffic thoroughfares - would have been part of the normal development of the
city if the total expenditure for the pharaoh-type projects that had covered
the country had not brought the country on the brink of bankruptcy as the
socialist planning of the economy had also done. Another megalomaniac gesture
was the payment of the external debt at the cost of enormous "internal
debts", which drove this gentle and patient people into poverty, wariness and
despair.

     What had lately made the people's life unbearable was primarily the plans
for the "systematization" of the villages and towns, for their destruction or
transformation into camps of concrete blocks in which the traditional Romanian
architecture, so warm and human (look at the Romanian churches) was to be
replaced by inhuman constructions, cold, depersonalized and often of crushing
dimensions, the product of an unhinged mind. The Ceausescu regime left a
heritage of many such urban "elephants", the fate of which we have nilly-willy
to decide: to demolish them, to sell them, to use them for some purpose. Among
them, a real mammoth, the House of the People, which was in the finishing
stages on the death of the dictator and for which 16 billion lei were spent so
far.

     But it is not the expenditure that gives the real dimension of the
sacrifice and effort made by the Romanians in order to build this edifice.
265,000 square meters of built area on three levels, towering 84 m from the
ground may convey a little more about the dimension of the toil of the more
than 20,000 workers and soldiers and over 400 architects who worked here in
the course of years to achieve a madman's ambition. Everything, from cement to
nails, wood and marble, to the lowest humiliation of those who toiled to build
the House of the People, everything is Romanian. And if we can never speak
enough of the human sacrifice, who can measure-as a poet said - the rustle of
the endless oak forests that cover the countless square meters of walls, the
fragrance of the flowers of the hundreds upon hundreds of cherry-trees or the
taste of the chestnuts from the thousands of trees cut for the same purpose?
And who can say how many statues were never born out of the marble of
Ruschita, Moneasa, Gura Vaii, Alun used for the giant-size halls and rooms
on the first two levels? The two monumental galleries alone are 150 m long and
18 m high! We have spent much to succeed in building such a palace. And now,
after the revolution to what use could we put this mammoth that must be fed?
What destination could be given to this collosal edifice? However, we are too
small a people (and with too much common sense) for such a big palace. That is
why, its destination cannot be but an international one - for a cultural,
social, scientific, educational, even political purpose. (On the second level
alone 450 rooms are finished and ready for use, most of them fully furnished
offices). The Romanians are directly interested in receiving as many
suggestions as possible, perhaps also with a view to that future European
unity.

ALEXANDRU CONDEESCU

The City's Green Gates

The Forest Lake

     Once upon a time there was a huge forest, stretching from the place
where Bucharest lies now to the plain of Teleorman; it had age-old trees
and was crossed by rivers, and, rarely, by paths.  With the passage of time
the green expanse of trees got smaller and smaller and only forest and groves
remained here and there to break the monotomy of the plain.

     At Snagov, man's environment consists of two essential elements - the
forest and the water. In spring there occurs a green outburst. Among the
willows weeping on the lake shore white walls mirror in the water.

     In a small gulf, sheltered from the wind, a small tourist area has been
arranged: area for accommodation, a lot for tents and trailers, a restaurant
built in Romanian rustic style, bowling. In summer the swimming pool and the
aquatic base are very much in demand.

     In the middle of the lake stands the island on which the Snagov monastery
was built. The place, full of charm and mystery, can be reached only by boat.
More than six hundred years have passed since the first documentary mentioning
of the church, considered to be the oldest in the south of the country among
those still functioning.

     The monastery bears the name of Prince Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler).
During his short reign a bridge, a tunnel for refuge and a prison for thieves
and traitors were built. The present church was rebuilt in Byzantine style by
Prince Neagoe Basarab, and the porch, where great boyars (beheaded or banished
to the monastery) are buried was changed into pronaos by Prince Mircea
Ciobanul. An old fresco shows them in the traditional manner, holding in their
hands the miniature of the church.

     The walls of the monastery do not exist any longer. From all the
constructions erected here during the Middle Ages only the big belfry and the
church, where Prince Vlad Tepes is buried, are left. And here end all the
trips following the legend of Dracula, inspired by the severe reign of Prince
Tepes, the place where fiction and historical reality are confronted.

     On the lake glide the kayaks and canoes of the sports people who have
regained the right to use a wonderful base for training.

     On the shore, silent anglers stir the anxiety of ducks living in the
reed. The bustle calms down in the evening only to start again the next
morning with the same vigour.

MARIUS TITA

18 STEPS FROM BUCHAREST

     I must admit that the distance I calculated myself, according to the
speed I like to drive and the restlessness with which I wait every year for
April. 15. On that day I am celebrating the real coming of spring. The place
chosen for this celebration, Cernica, is 18 km far from Bucharest and it
represents the escape of the Bucharesters from the stress of a city winter.

     The setting? You may choose it yourself: the rustle of the green forest,
which is dominant, the rather wild shore or that part of the shore where a
beach has been arranged for the warm days, one of the sport grounds or a table
in the rustic restaurant.

     In the last few years I preferred to welcome the new season in a swaying
boat, with an indifference unsuitable to the century I live in. This year
it's the same thing. However, I hold an angling rod in my hand (some people
around me do it passionately) only to justify to myself the too many moments
lost on a Sunday morning. But I never bait the hook. So, I have no qualms of
conscience ordering a fried fish in brine, which is the speciality of the
nearby restaurant, surrounded by reeds, which recalls something of the Danube
Delta.

     Where do we stay? If we do not call the days spent here "active rest" or
"picnic", then we are not to worry because we do not see rich hotels around.
Those who come from afar are being offered places where they can park their
cars or their trailers or fix their tents, in case they want to get better
acquainted with Cernica region.

     What do we take for lunch? Those who prefer fish, as I do, have an
extremely wide choice. The others, gathered around an immense and inviting
grill watch the "ritual" meat roasting, and consider that this should be done
with a glass of cold beer in hand. Many kiosks selling soft drinks have been
arranged for the drivers; one has to make a sacrifice for his family if they
want to visit Bucharest that very afternoon. We recommend them a specific
Romanian dish they must have heard about till now, and which, sooner or later
they have to taste anway: rolls of minced meat in cabbage leaves with a sort
of thick porridge of maize flour. I am again privileged, because, beside the
fact I am living in a Bucharest district close to this wonderful touristic
centre, I have also learned to prepare them by myself. I shall reveal the
recipe only in exchange for one which is specific to other nations! Those who
have suggestion to make can find me, almost every Sunday, on the beach,
beginning on April 15 and ending on October 31, when I return to my table to
write about my winter preferences ...

ANNE-MARIE BANESCU

Brothers into Suffering

     Fire assaulted the Palace Square as many times as it had been offered the
occasion. In 1927 a great fire destroyed completely the house built by Dinicu
Golescu, the noble scholar, a house that had been a royal palace for a long
time. As soon as architect Dumitru Nenciulescu erected it, the new palace was
seriously damaged by the bombardments of 1944.

     Simultaneously with the re-construction of the Palace, a wing was
prepared in order to shelter the National Art Museum.

     In December 1989, the square knew the unforgettable days of fight for
freedom and dignity. People drove away the dictator who had been hiding in an
imposing building in the neighbourhood, that is, the headquarters of the
Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, a malefic neighbourhood.
After his flight, fire was opened in the dead of the night, tracers
enlightened the square penetrating the buildings' bodies. There were firings
in and from inside the Palace, Kretulescu Church, the towers of the Central
University Library. And, just as in Dante's images, the flames crowded at the
windows, taking in their furious dance a treasure of books and paintings...

     The most intense activity carried out at present in the National Art
Museum is that of restoration. Outside, a web of scaffolds ornate the
building's front, while inside, in real workshops-laboratories, a work, at the
limit between artistic creation and scientific research, is being carried out.

     The works of art suffered damage that only the god Mars's imagination
could offer: they have been penetrated by bullets, the blast of the explosions
threw them on the floor, splinters and pieces of the wall scratched their
cheeks, they were burnt by fire and drenched in water. In order to restore
their initial aspect, the restorers reverse the process: they remove, the dust
and plaster from the pictures with soft brushes or with mere quills, combining
as in a puzzle, the fallen pieces, and extracting bullets from inside the
sculptures and paintings' frames.

     The group of researchers-restorers working at the Art Museum is made up
only of young people. As I was to find out, their specialization is very vast,
they are professionally very well quoted in the world, but, at the same time,
they were frustrated of the advantages offered by the modern technique. Up to
now, many museums in America, Europe, including USSR, offered their help, in
various ways. The complete equipment of a restoration laboratory has already
come from Holland, and a number of paintings with their dressed wounds are
going to be "treated" abroad, and, besides, grants for specialization have
been offered.

     There is still much work to do before visitors will be able to walk
freely through Romania's Art Museum, which will take over the whole palace, in
fact.

     Also in the Revolution Square, as it is called now, there is the brother
into suffering of the museum, the Central University Library. Erected after
the famous architect Paul Gottereau's plans, the building was dedicated to the
students right from the beginning under the name of Foundation Carol I. As the
years went by, the institution changed its name, but never its designation.
At present, it has an unwanted holiday. While the constructors strive to give
it again the aspect planned by Gottereau 85 years ago, the existing funds are
being inventorized in the building on Transilvaniei Street no. 6. and
donations are received at the same address. The latter aim at replacing the
stock of books, manuscripts and microfilms, which, physically, could not
resist napalm and was turned to ashes.

     Unlike its antique predecessor of Alexandria, another fate was reserved
to the Central University Library - that of the Phoenix bird. Years ago, in
this same square that witnessed so many horrors, writer Dinicu Golescu was
telling his father: "I am building for those to come..."

MARIUS TITA