Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0303/03030.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 26.4 KB | 435 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03030}
$Pretitle{360}
$Title{Romania
150 French People on the Trail of the Romanian Revolution}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Romanian Tourist Board}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Romania, Washington DC}
$Subject{bucharest
romanian
museum
town
old
world
parks
time
tower
years}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country:     Romania
Book:        Romania Tourist Information
Author:      Romanian Tourist Board
Affiliation: Embassy of Romania, Washington DC
Date:        1990

150 French People on the Trail of the Romanian Revolution

     Otopeni Airport, Bucharest, a month after the victory of the Romanian
Revolution. We witness one of the most uncommon "operations" in the history
of Romanian tourism and, perhaps, a world premiere: the absolutely free
entrance of a numerous group of foreign tourists in Romania, a country which
liberated itself from tyranny fighting heroically and paying a terrible cost.

     It is past 7 pm, darkness has already fallen and the charter flight by
which the tourists of the Clud Mediterranee are making a prospecting tour of
the East European capitals (Berlin, Prague, Moscow, Budapest, Bucharest,
Sophia) is already late. At the airport's command a decision has been made,
one possible only now, during these revolutionary times: that the guests who
have had to wait in the Soviet customs for hours, being late because of the
same bureaucracies on Budapest airport, should be spared the customs
formalities in this last but one call of their journey. The five coaches that
had been waiting for them entered the runway, led by one of the airport
commander's cars, and the guests boarded them directly from the plane. The
passports were gathered by one of the French organizers and only they passed
through the Romanian customs, while the tourists were heading peacefully
towards Bucharest where the Intercontinental Hotel awaits them. On our way,
the French confessed how intensely did they live the events of the Romanian
Revolution, in the year of the French Revolution bicentennial. Mme. Michele
Gauvain, owner of Caparim Immobilier (Boulevard Menilmontant, Paris) is still
deeply moved: "I spent the whole Christmas period and the winter holiday
watching the events in Romania on the TV. Our souls were one with the Romanian
people whose drama moved us very deeply. Throughout this interesting tour
we have waited most anxiously to come to Romania. Do you, Romanians, know that
all the French people think of you? Back at home, everybody thinks of Romania
as of a terrible tragedy. We had only one thought: to come here. I was as
if the earth was burning under our feet ..."

     The coaches passed through some villages "planned" by the dictator,
where great part of the traditional houses were demolished, leaving the
concrete impersonal buildings take their place to show the world coming to
Bucharest by air the "advantages" of peasants' new life. There are only few
windows lit: the blocks seem deserted. Philippe Caron, photographer at
SYGMA Agency, in Paris, is talking about his impatience to take photographs
in Romania, a country which has became very well known and respected in
Europe: "But can I photograph anything I want?" He still had doubts. "Is there
any censorship?" I assured him he will see for himself the next day.

     Next day I hardly managed to talk to Mr. Philippe Caron: he was very busy
taking photos of everything he say - people, places, buildings - during their
tour around Bucharest on the Revolution's tracks. On leaving for Sophia, the
last leg of their tour, he signaled to us that everything was OK. I hope
the photos are as satisfactory as his sojourn. What did the 150 French people,
businessmen in their majority, photograph on that day in Bucharest? Early
in the morning, they gathered in the lobby of the hotel that had witnessed
directly the bloody events on the night of December 21 to 22, 1989, and
then went to the University Square where hundreds of candles are burning day
and night to the memory of the Revolution martyrs. The Bucharest's geographic
centre, the so-called 0 km, is considered to be here, as well as the epicentre
of the earthquake that demolished the tyranny. Their itinerary continued
on boulevards Balcescu and Magheru, as far as Romana Square, the other pole
of the revolutionary movement in Bucharest. Here, too, near the grey concrete
wall of that would have had to become another communist monument, people
light candles and lay flowers on the very spot where the young who shouted
"Down with Ceausescu" were killed. A student has put here a placard on which
the opinion of all the honest Romanians is expressed: "Communism is a
monstrosity."

     The French people were well-acquainted with many of the places they were
seeing, from the TV. The traces of bullets and fires, the weeping eyes of
those in mourning, as well as the joy of those who managed to get rid of the
dictator, were no longer mere film images for them but a tangible reality.
Mme Calvet and Mme Malaui, from Paris - as we came to know, both wives of
important people in France (president of Peugeot Company, and a former
minister during Valery Giscard d'Estaign) - have tears in their eyes seeing
the suffering of the relatives, lovers and friends of the heroes who defended
the Television building with their young bodies from the terrorists of the
crazy dictator. Here, too, traces of the fights are very fresh, like in the
Palace Square - the heart of the Revolution's crucial events. The guests
recognized the destroyed buildings whose images they knew only too well:
the Central University Library, the Art Museum (in the former royal palace),
the former headquarters of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist
Party, the strategic and secret buildings of the Security Department - where
terrible fights were fought. M. Allan Saunderson, vicepresident of Julius
Bar bank of Frankfurt am Main, was very interested in the details that the
direct participants in the Revolution, met in the Palace Square, could offer
him. Because we must not forget that many Romanians speak French, while many
others, especially the young people, know English. As a matter of fact, at
the end of the visit, Mme Calvet confessed that she had been very impressed
with the level of general knowledge, the culture, and the open and warm soul
of the Romanians met during this short visit. After the visit paid to the
Civic Centre (where stands the unfinished yet gigantic administrative building
'People's House" - at the dictator called it with a devilish irony), and
the hill where, near the old Parliament building, the beautiful church of the
Romanian Patriarchate has been watching the city for centuries, she told us:
"I hope to return here and spend much more time, to get better acquainted with
your heroic country, whose beauty I have now discovered." This is what the 150
French people had in mind on leaving for Sophia.

ALEXANDRU CONDEESCU

BUCHAREST'S GREAT EVENT: THE STREET

     Although it is the most fascinating show, the tourist programmes do not
include it. It is a live show, with no director, moving due to its scope
and originality, and for the time being no fare is required to be attended.
Moreover, willy-nilly we all enter the stage and play a more or less important
part.

     It is easy to guess the show I refer to - the street. The arena of so
many joys and surprises, the most telling hallmark of a city. And in equal
measure it is the witness of numerous disillusions and even tragedies.
Regarded with admiration or suspicion, the life of the street goes on taking
no account of our opinions.

     Like all the capitals in the world Bucharest reveals its charm the moment
one enters its first street, be it from the Otopeni International Airport
or from the Nord Railway Station. An old adage says that all roads lead
to Rome. This holds true in Bucharest too - all streets lead to the centre of
the city. But it is not a guide-book that we intend to present in these
few lines...

     We rather wanted to speak about the greatest event in the streets of
Bucharest: the smile. For those who visited us in the last five years the
event seems quite ordinary. But not for the Romanians. They are joyful, kind
and hospitable people and for the last fifty years the healthy laughter has
been in danger of disappearing for ever. The Revolution of December 22, 1989
has restored one of the characteristic feature of this people. The Romanians
are not able, at least for the time being, to display a professional smile.
The light that has been revived in their souls and is now reflected on their
faces is a sure guarantee of their sincerity. Trust the smile of the
Bucharesters, which expresses genuine joy. For them the guests are always a
reason for joy.

     The present-day street of the greatest Romanian city looks for an
identity. It tries to live not only with the memories it preserved from the
time prior to the last world war - when all people used to call it a little
Paris - but strives to build a beautiful image for the future. Let's take for
instance Calea Victoriei, one of the most popular street with the Romanians
and foreigners alike. It has a fascinating history, which made the object
of an excellent book, and with every passing day it regains something of its
former charm. And there are many other streets undergoing a similar change.
The streets of the beautiful district known by all as "the highway", which
seem part of the big parks surrounding them, still preserve the memory of the
joyful walks interrupted suddenly by the communist darkness. As a matter of
fact each of us will find the street that suits best his or her mood. I think
of the lovers and the romantic people, of those who love the busy atmosphere
or those interested in shopping ... And let us not forget the students. One of
their streets not only theirs, of course, stretches from the University Square
to the Opera House.

MIHAI OGRINJI

THE WATCH TOWER

     Travellers visiting Bucharest may be struck by a somewhat strange
building - similar to the tower of Pisa but smaller and certainly not leaning
- which has lent its name to the little square around: Foisorul de Foc (The
Fire Tower). From the height of this building, on very clear days, one can see
the outline of a part of the Carpathians' southern range. In the past century
this tower was the tallest construction of Bucharest. More than 150 years have
passed since the first fire brigades were created in lasi, and 140 years since
such a useful anti-fire corps was initiated in Bucharest. Therefore, I
proposed to pay a short visit to the Museum of Firemen set up here in the
well-known Fire Tower, and I invite you to accompany me, to learn some more
details about one of the few museums of that kind in the world.

     The tower - which has now become a symbol for our firemen - was built in
1891, as a seat of the fire brigade of the "Outer Borough" of Bucharest. It
was from here that the alarm was sounded by means of bugles and bells when
some fire broke out. The building had a functional role at that time: it was
the seat of the fire brigade and the place whence they started on their
missions; it had been raised after the plans of the Romanian architect George
Mandrea and it was about 50 m high, being made up of a ground floor and three
storeys with a water reservoir on top that could "take" cca 700 tons of that
"classic" fire extinguisher. In the highest point of the construction there
was also a watch post.

     In 1961 work was started on the old edifice to turn it into a Museum of
the Firemen; it was completed in 1963. The place of the water reservoir was
taken by three more floors; the metallic staircase was extended up to the last
floor and a lift was put in. Various exhibits were displayed there showing to
whoever is desirous to learn something of Romania's history that the firemen
also took an active part in the great events of a not too distant past.

     Thus the Fire tower of Bucharest is one of the most interesting
institutions of the kind in the world, displaying exhibits that speak about
the way man has fought the scourge of fire perfecting his means of struggle
against the flames, from the old-fashioned water pipe to the sophisticated
chemical froths and asbestos costumes they use today.

GHEORGHE DARAGIU

A Document of Romanian Perenniality: THE VILLAGE MUSEUM OF BUCHAREST

     In the last years of the hateful regime the people of Bucharest were
fearing for this place which, for over half a century has lent a particular
charm to Romania's capital. Could it escape destruction at a time when
Ceausescu's bulldozers made their way ever more menacingly through the town,
pulling down from one day to another, churches, splendid old buildings, and
many other monuments of history and art, all sacrificed for the crazy
constructions of an epoch dominated by stupidity, ignorance and terror? Could
the two illiterate tyrants who seemed to have been born in the gloom of
prehistoric caves understand the importance of this unique museum, not only
for Romanian culture but for the world treasury of traditional arts and
crafts. Those who had conceived and partly applied the diabolical plan of
"systematization", in fact of destruction of the Romanian villages would
certainly not have spared the Village Museum, set in the very heart of
Bucharest. Ever more alarming news spread among the people, stunned and
deprived of any means of protest. It was known that the demented rulers were
irritated by the existence of that place of beauty, peace and harmony on the
border of the Herastrau lake. At least five times, confessed after the
December Revolution Mr Gheorghe Focsa for several years director of that
institution, the Village Museum had passed through dramatic moments. A simple
gesture (one of those chaotic wavings of the dictator's arm) or an order by
telephone could have put an end to a creation that had been born out of
skilful work and devotion, and had brought joy to several generations.

     After the ethnographic open-air museum of Cluj, founded by Romulus Vuia
(the initiator of the Romanian school of ethnography), the Village Museum in
Bucharest came into being in 1936, having as founder the sociologist and
dedicated cultural animator, Dimitrie Gusti. It was the materialization of a
decade of researches throughout the Romanian villages, of minute studies
pursued after rigorous scientific methods by teams made up of ethnographers,
sociologists, specialists in folklore and musicology, enthusiastic students.
Owing to the efforts of a group of passionate researchers. - H.H. Stahl,
Victor Ion Popa, Mircea Vulcanescu, and two younger students, Gheorghe Focsa
and Mihai Pop - several peasant households with their whole belongings were
moved from their original places and brought over to Bucharest; they
represented the most typical samples of each ethnographic zone of this
country. Peasant master-builders worked assiduously at the reconstruction of
each house, piece by piece, of each courtyard with their fences, stables,
barns and ovens for the baking of bread, thus making a superb rustic zone
emerge in the midst of a town scenery; it was a village of villages which
roused, all along the years, the admiration of every traveller through
Bucharest. Stretching on 10 hectares with lanes, trees and lawns, with the
mirror of a lake nearby, the Village Museum appears as the materialization of
a peasant fairy tale whose poetry is gradually changing with each of the four
seasons. In silence, with great deprivations, with money resources that were
dwindling from year to year, the museographers have passionately protected, as
best they could, the treasure on the border of lake Herastrau. A world of
colours, good taste and nobleness greets you in every house: cushions, icons,
rugs and towels, earthen vessels, dowry chests, painted cupboards, hearths,
etc.

     The Village Museum of Bucharest has fortunately remained unhurt. The
ethnographic research work closely connected with that institution of noble
tradition will no doubt revive. We shall see here important shows,
demonstrations of the peasant handicraftsmen, encounters of specialists of
the whole world. And like always, a lot of young people, lovers seeking the
peace and quiet of the place, the song of birds nestling in the foliage of old
trees. This year, on the 18th of March, priests, students in theology,
ethnographers and a crowd of Bucharesters gathered here to attend a religious
service in honour of the martyrs fallen in the December Revolution. Those
moments of pious recollection and gratitude were watched by the steeple of the
1722 Orthodox church, brought over from the Dragomiresti village of Maramures.
Near the old peasant houses, the meeting had the significance of a symbol: the
Romanian village as well as the Romanian soul revives under the sign of
tradition and faith in God who, in his great power, saved this people so
sorely tried.

ANDA RAICU

THE RE-DISCOVERY OF PARKS

     A park induces an atmosphere of serenity and holiday in the soul of a
city. Every town has its parks and maybe the love of beauty and the degree of
civilization of town planners is measured by their love for these gardens.
There was a time, not very remote, when Bucharest was still called "the town
of parks". Then the parks were an organic part of the city's everyday life, of
its people so close and devoted to nature by their very traditional peasant
origin. It is worth mentioning in this respect, that up to the beginning of
the 19th century the town of Bucharest bordered northwards on the fabulous
"Vlasia forest" of which - despite the massive fellings - there have still
remained large patches of woodland and lakes. They form the "Green Gates" of
Bucharest, quite conspicuous for the traveller who is about to land on the
Otopeni airport, the "Air Gate" of our Capital; as well as the woods and lakes
of Snagov, Mogosoaia, Buftea, Baneasa, Caldarusani, Cernica, Pasarea, and the
famous Bucharest park, Herastrau.

     Two decades of urban "systematization and of deprivation of the most
elementary joys under the terror of dictatorship have almost eliminated the
parks from the daily, ever more worried preoccupations of Bucharesters. Thus,
people were perfidiously prevented from any daily contact with beauty and
cleanliness, with trees, green grass and flowers laid our in accordance with
the harmonious laws of gardening. The parks have not disappeared, of course,
but they had become ever more deserted and sad, like the souls of the
inhabitants of this town haunted by the presence of tyrants who wanted to
change it in keeping with their hideous minds.

     In this spring of liberty so dearly paid for, the still tearful eyes of
the Bucharesters discover with fresh delight the extraordinary outburst of
colours in the parks of their town. Whether these are the old gardens in the
centre of the town - Cismigiu (the most famous) and Icoanei or Carol - or
those in the northern part of the town, formed along the course of the
Colentina river, impounded and turned into a series of lakes - Baneasa,
Herastrau, Floreasca, Tei (the zone of the "great lakes"); or finally the
verdure spots in the new quarters - Drumul Taberei, Tineretului, Balta Alba,
Lacul Morii, the joy of finding again the poetry of the Bucharest parks is
equally great. And how we longed for the liberty of roaming again along the
paths lined with the silhouttes of tees mirrored in the lakes!

     The water, the stone and the vegetal blend here, brought together by the
skillful hands of men, to create a space for rest and leisure and
dreaming - veritable sanctuaries in which to seek refuge from the daily round
of trudgery and stress inevitable in the life of a big town. That is why the
entrance into a park is similar to a ceremonial by means of which the townsman
leaves his unrest and daily problems behind, to pay homage to a subtle art,
the art of gardening. The laying out of a garden is an artistic creation in
whose midst we find ourselves, guided by the skill and phantasy of the
landscape architect. Having this become an "aesthetic nature", the park lies
mid-way between the joy man always feels in contact with friendly nature and
the artistic joy he feels when beholding works of art.

     The passage from the asphalt of streets to the gravel paths of a park
ennobled with the presence of flowers, trees and grass somehow becomes a
mysterious ritual which changes the hurried pedestrians into typical garden
characters: lovers, grandparents and children, chess players, people quietly
reading their papers or commenting on sports and political events, old-age
pensioners, school-children playing truant and very happy of it, and others,
simply admirers of nature. The ordinary townsman penetrates here into an oasis
of freshness, soothing his mind in the comforting, relaxing peace of the air
refreshed by the leaves of trees and the bright colours of flowers. The
children can play here protected from the dangers of the town, the lovers tell
each other definitive and absolute truths, kissing under the shield of thick
bushes; people's verbal energy is given free vent in discussions about the
oldest of the ephemeral gods of our planet - politics - or the newest and most
ephemeral of all, football. Here the grandfathers take their grandchildren
for a walk, pondering on the ups and downs of life, on its achievements and
its imperceptible passage, here some old-age pensioners, warming their limbs
in the sun, wait for life's sunset, either in silent meditation or in the
absorbing pastime of a game of chess, while some students are engrossed in
books, forgetful of food or rest. Here everybody is subject to the laws of a
world different from the usual one, a world in which the implacable mechanics
of town-life is replaced by another time, freer, more generous, more human. In
Cismigiu, Herastrau, Carol, Balta Alba, Tineretului, everywhere, Bucharesters
rediscover the old and for ever young charm of parks. You can accompany them,
and you will find again that true measure of things: the liberty of man's
interior time.

ALEXANDRU CONDEESCU

THE SWAN FROM THE DREAM

     Entering the Pantelimon commune near Bucharest one catches sight of an
elevation standing out in the surrounding landscape, watching over an expanse
of water formed by a meander abandoned by a river. Toward the middle of the
17th century, on that quiet site, so close to the capital, Prince Grigore
Ghica took pains to erect his principal foundation whose thick walls had two
enclosures and a church with remarkable architectural lines. It was surrounded
by a beautiful garden. The prince added a house to the building because the
Old Court in Bucharest had deteriorated to a large extent. The new princely
house, although not too big, could shelter the prince's family and, sometimes,
the emissaries of the Porte. Among its walls or in the shade of the vigorous
trees in the park, the old prince spent his last years of life, till 1752,
when he was laid to rest in the beautiful marble tomb in the church erected
at his order. Unfortunately, the building could not survive the years of
odious dictatorship, the church being demolished in 1985.

     By setting up the Lebada (Swan) hotel complex in the Pantelimon island
and introducing it into the tourist circuit the old edifices, the part
preserved after the imposed demolitions, underwent a long process of
restoration and consolidation. In addition to the concern for preserving the
original, valuable and useful elements, there has been a successful search
for solutions concerning the integration of the new components necessary for
the development of this complex, in order to turn in into a monumental
ensemble, equal to its rich tradition, but which would also answer the new
comfort exigencies of tourism.

     In its three wings, the Lebada complex offers the tourists a hotel
accommodating 250 people in 127 rooms situated in two blocks, one with three
levels and one resembling the traditional inns of Bucharest. The rooms are
furnished with ultra-modern furniture that create an elegant, remarkable
setting. The same high standard is to be found in the wine cellar, the
vinotheque, the summer terrace, the confectioner's shop. A multi-purpose hall
is reserved for receptions and meetings. Those fond of entertainment have
mechanical games and bowling. In summer, water-skiing possibilities equal
those of a genuine nautical club. The hemicycle alley, the interior gardens,
the artesian wells, the esplanade going down to the banks of the lake
invite to relaxation and reverie.

     The tourists benefiting from the excellent conditions offered by the
Lebada complex can admire from the "Belvedere" tower the surroundings that
entice one to take leisurely walks through the Pustnicul forest, through the
Pasarea valley or toward the Cernica monastery.

     Prince Alexandru D. Ghica attached well-deserved importance to the
constructions raised on the Pantelimon ridge and the surrounding area. In
1835, on the Pantelimon estate the first tests with farming machines were made
in Wallachia in the presence of the prince, and six years later a School
of Arts and Crafts was set up, the main emphasis being laid on the
manufacturing and maintenance of farming equipment. A year later, in addition
to the school, a National Agriculture Institute was established, and in 1864
the bases were laid in Pantelimon for the cultivation of forest and
fruit-bearing trees in one of the first state organized nurseries ... As a
testimony to those constant preoccupations of a century ago, we have today
a pine-tree plantation and an oak grove which we know as the "Pantelimon
forest" ...

     The Central Military Museum preserves in its collection the joint coat
of arms of the Romanian Countries in the time of Grigore Ghica II, and the
inscription from the tower that stood next to the fountain. The inscription
reads: "I am the water fountain made by Prince Grigore the glory of Dacia's
princes, with a cooling flow and silver waves ..." "and a tower was also
made with all that was needed as it could be seen, so that those thirsty and
tired get rest, for memory eternal ..." The coat of arms remind of the reigns
of Grigore Ghica II in both Romanian Countries, four times in Moldavia and
two times in Wallachia.

     Thus, the Lebada complex offers those who stop there not only splendid
services but also vestiges of a rich historical past.

NICOLAE PETRESCU
GHEORGHE DARAGIU