Bran Castle is the most famous in Transylvania thanks to its claimed connection with Dracula

After escaping Romania in the early 1980s, Kalman Teleki reclaimed his castle in 2011

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I have to find a purpose for having a castle in the 21st Century”

Kalman Teleki

Teleki Castle has more than 50 rooms, and is set in vast parkland

Kalman Teleki hosts a wide range of events at the castle to help pay the bills

Mikes Castle serves traditional Transylvanian cuisine to its guests

Mr Roy Chowdhury’s family had to fight a long legal battle before they got their castle back

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I’m a little upset with this whole Dracula promotion, Transylvania cannot be reduced to Dracula”

Kalman Teleki

Vlad the Impaler is said to have been imprisoned at Bran Castle

Photo credit (c) Traian NEGULESCU / AGERPRES

At its consecration on March 8, 1679, the church received as donations several plots of land and forests from the landowners in the surroundings, and it turned into a hermitage where subsequently, its founder himself took vows, becoming hieromonk Isaia. He became then the abbot of this place of worship. The fact is mentioned in the documents discovered by historian C. C. Giurescu in the “Collection of the Pamfilesti” in Odobesti.

The donations have also continued over the 18th and 19th centuries. An authentic document dated May 2, 1744 reads that Athanasie the monk gave the church a plot of land when he became a monk.

A monastic settlement safe from the very beginning from the invaders’ eyes and anger, the Buluc hermitage was defended by the secular dangers of those times.

Over 1922-1928, the monks constructed a new church, next to the old one, dedicated to The Transfiguration of Jesus. Made up of bricks and much bigger compared to the first one, this was partially destroyed by the powerful earthquake occurred on Nov. 10, 1940, but the legionary leadership at that time ordered its full demolition.

Disbanded by Decree 410/1959 and removed from the List of Historic Monuments, the hermitage hardly came through the communist period thanks to the missionary activity of priests in the Varsatura village. Its official closing by the then-authorities, between 1959 and 1989, did not prevent the Christians from visiting the hermitage each and every single year. On the contrary, the pilgrimages to Buluc became a mass phenomenon after 1959. On The Transfiguration of Jesus feast, large groups of believers from all the surrounding towns used to climb the century-beaten roads till the little wooden church to attend the church service held by the priest of the Varsatura parish.

Reopened after 1989, the settlement, elevated to the status of a monastery, continues to be the spiritual refuge of the believers in the area of Jaristea. Over the past four years, a steeple and a big house for cells, home to nuns and charity sisters were constructed.

At the proposal of the Vrancea County Department for Culture, the Buluc monastery regained its status of tourist attraction included on the list of monuments of the national heritage, on Nov. 11, 2014, under the signature of the prime minister.

The interior walls of the church are not painted with images of saints, but painted in a simple colour, blue, being adorned with over one hundred iconographic representations, such as the icon with double face, one representing St. Mina and St. Charalambos, the other one the Mother of God ”Hadighitria”, painted in oil on wood in 1831.

“The Buluc monastery is visited by many believers for both its religious significance, and the noise and pollution-free natural environment,” abbess Justiniana Talaban told AGERPRES. The place of worship is very well maintained by the nuns who found here their peace of mind, living in communion with nature and divinity.

Summer is the best time to visit the monastery, when the flowers in the courtyard form a multicolored carpet and the forest smells like heaven. The pilgrim finds the peace and calm one rarely “hears” nowadays, but also the humility of the local residents, and the modesty of those who come from other parts of the country and even beyond the country’s borders. The cells are true oases of coolness in the hot days of summer and in the winter, the fire of the wood burned in stoves spreads a unique fragrance, heat and mystery.

To arrive to the Buluc monastery in Focsani, one travels to Odobesti for 16 km, then from the city centre there is a 4 km-long road leading to the Jaristea commune, and another 4 km till the end of the journey.AGERPRES

Photo credit (c) cesavezi.ro

The geological structure of the Casin-Bisoca area, with very many shifts and made up of sedimentary rocks (gritstones, clay, ash tuff) of the Miocene Epoch, correlated with the lack of some deep underground waters, favours the surfacing of some dry gas emanations accumulated in the underground that catch fire, usually from the sun beams. When it rains they are put out, with water bubbles being visible in the place where the burning gas was coming out.

There is not a stable number of the places where the hydrocarbon comes out of the earth, as they shift along with the appearance of new orifices or with the coverage of others on an area that specialists approximated at 40 hectares. The intensity, duration and the height of the flames also vary on a temporal basis (daily, weekly, seasonally). According to the extended observations of the locals the flames height reaches from a few centimetres to almost half a metre. During earthquakes, the fire beams exceed two metres in height. The highest flames burn in some micro formations with alveolar shape. The gas emanation flow is influenced by precipitations and the variation at the level of the underground water. Recent monitoring carried out by specialists at six such alveolar orifices point to the fact that they were emanating approximately 24 tonnes of methane or marsh gas per year. For the entire area a 50 tonne annual output is estimated. Together with this gas smaller quantities of carbon dioxide, nitrogen or helium also emerge to the surface.

The area where the flammable natural gas catches fire can be easily visited due to the access infrastructure, being delimited by a cement wall, and the access is made on a set of stairs. Climbing the approximately one hundred steps, a plateau is reached, where, through the shifts of the earth shell, the natural gas burns with multi-coloured flames. Near the living fire there is a watch tower allowing tourists to take shelter from sun or rain or simply to admire the landscape.

Tourists who come to Andreiasu can enjoy a real spectacle of nature, especially during the night, when the yellow, reddish or even blue flames give a mystical touch to the place. Moreover, they can find out various legends, tales or traditions related to the living fire from the locals, who are known for their hospitality. For instance, the place has a powerful religious symbol, being regarded as a protector of animals. Locals also say that the moment when the flames exceed two metres in height they forecast an earthquake.

The truth is that Andreiasu de Jos is an area with a special tourist potential, those coming here having the opportunity to enjoy the fresh air, charming landscapes and, of course, flames surfacing the earth. The local authorities say they are constantly trying to draw more tourists to the area through new facilities, but also through organising each year a folk traditional festival, called ‘The Living Fire,’ meant to highlight this wonder of nature, as well as the landscapes or the hospitality of the people in the area.

Near the living fire of Andreiasu de Jos there are three lakes — Mocearu, Meledic and Limpede. Also, the muddy volcanoes and the caves in the area can be visited.

The accommodation facilities provide offers affordable for everyone, from a tent on the Milcov River bank, to some local’s house or one of the guesthouses near the village, in Mera or Odobesti. Besides the nature trails in the geological reserve or on Milcov River Valley, tourists can organise off-road and hunting competitions, visits to the wine cellars where they can taste the best wines, accompanied by traditional foods of the area.

Declared natural reserve in 1967, by a Decree of the County People’s Council and then through Law No 5/200 on the setup of the national territory, the living fire tourist landmark is not the only protected area of Vrancea, other such 20 areas having acquired the same statute over the past 20 years.

AGERPRES

Photo credit (c) TRAIAN NEGULESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Vrancea villages count a land of 68 communes and over 300 villages or hamlets, remote from the towns’ noisy tumult, and are profound in the Romanian values’ richness exactly through their apparent simplicity.

Vrancea has a great number of ethnographic values, from the simplest work tool, to houses and installations of the popular technique, all ‘speaking’ to the watcher of the creativity of the inhabitants of these places, of their inventive and practical spirit, and also of their artistic sense which awaits to be discovered by the thirsty traveler of knowledge and beauty.

‘Ceramics, the stitches’ motifs on the shirts and skirts, the hand-made wooden tools, all are revealing an abstract, geometric ornamentation. This geometrical artistic fund is having its roots from the Thracians and it is the strongest, the rest of the ornaments have an auxiliary role,’ Ion Diaconu, the most important ethnographer who was born here and studied the Vrancea folklore, says.

Emil Giurgea, in his work ‘Vrancea-based lands’ says that ‘a few areas of Romania have kept with such fidelity the rich legacy of the past generations, such as Vrancea.’

The Vrancea villages which gave the Romanian culture personalities whose names last over time, among whom metropolitan Varlaam of Moldavia, deputy in the Moldavian Parliament Ion Roata, painter Gh. M. Tatarascu, architect Ion Mincu, the father of the national school of architecture, writer and diplomat Duiliu Zamfirescu, scholar Simion Mehedinti, founder of the Romanian school of geography, are special through their houses’ architecture, through building the space of habitation, through the functional arrangement of their households, through placing their belongings as basis of their living, yet also as a mirror of its cultural practices.

The people of Vrancea lived in areas covered in woods, which is why most of their houses were made of wood, by using various techniques, with a great variety of geometric motifs.

As for the religious sites, made of wood, erected most of them from the initiative and contribution of the inhabitants, local talented and inventive craftsmen, most of whom anonymous, the specialists say they meant an important political, social factor of the Vrancea villages’ life.

The wooden churches and monasteries, some built back in the past six centuries, are places of worship still preserving the Orthodox traditions of the inhabitants of this county and cultivate as well the feeling of solidarity and respect for the elder generations, through the social or cultural settlements they have under their wings. On Vrancea territory exist 45 such monuments. The most representative to be included in a future tourist promotion plan are located at Manastioara, Nistoresti, Valea Sarii, Prisaca, Ruginesti, Anghelesti, Musunoaiele, Herestrau, Buluc, recently introduced on the national heritage list of monuments.

The characteristics of these wooden worship places are their shape of vessel, with a high roof and large eaves, reminding of the architecture monuments of Moldavia erected during the rule of Stephen the Great and Saint. So are the wooden churches of Ruginesti, Chitcani, Movilita and Campuri-Tei.

Not only the wooden churches, but also the houses of Vrancea are decorated by carved traditional motifs, such as rosaces, ropes, sun in case of those of Anghelesti and Ruginesti. The ornamenting consists in carving the porches’ and patio’s pillars and the transformation of the board to make the ‘fence’ of the verandha, an ornamental board put vertically at the outside edge of the eaves roof’s rafter in order to hide its ends.

The costumes, used currently only in the rural celebration’s day are in general specific to the shepherds, with predominant white.

Photo credit (c) CRISTIAN NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

A special chapter of the Vrancea-based popular art is the ceramics. The older pieces were made of a porous paste mixed with straws and then of a finer material, cleaned of impurities, and the finite goods were made with richer ornaments, as they are easily to be seen in the Cucuteni culture’s vases. They used to be and still are made at the wheel.

In Vrancea County, the most valuable centre for ceramic is Iresti, the potters there keeping the Dacian tradition in the vases’ shape. Some older potters still work red and black ceramics of Dacian origin, as the Poiana and Bontesti sites’ discoveries do attest. Yet, next to the traditional ceramics the enameled ceramics is still worked, which adapted to the transformations imposed by life and taste of the Vrancea population.

The most interesting popular Vrancea artistic achievement is ‘undoubtedly’ according to specialists the wood indentation art. The large forests covering the Vrancea Mts. have always offered the raw material for the houses’ construction, the furniture, the household tools and items necessary to living.

A special field, through the technique used in Vrancea is the poker work which applies especially on large water vessels and small such vessels, on wooden boxes. This is a technique practiced in particular in the Nereju and Paltin communes. Their ornaments consist of geometric or simple floral motifs, yet especially attractive, through repetitions and symmetries.

The Vrancea-based artistic creations, in their entire amount of achievements, offer the image of a high popular art, impressing not only through the variety of the artistic elements and diversity of compositions, but also through unveiling the permanent attraction of the inhabitants for beauty. They prove an aesthetic, charming, refined taste, where soberness is at rule, elements the tourist discovers with the passion of the novelty and balance and harmony.

AGERPRES

Photographs by Paula NEAMTU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Ochiul Beiului Lake — meaning The Bey’s Eye — is located in a wildlife area in Nerei Gorges — Beusnita National Park, where the Aninei Mountains meet the Locvei Mountains, at a height of 310 meters. The lake has the shape of a 3.6 meter-deep crater and its water is so clean that the trout swimming in it can be admired in their full splendour.

It is an outstanding feature that the lake never freezes, since its temperature remains unchanged all the year long, at between 4 and 8 Celsius. As a result, the migratory birds — the grey heron or wild ducks — instead of leaving for the warmer countries in winter, stay here.

Legend has it that the lake emerged after the son of a renowned Turkish lord — or bey — who ruled the land a few hundred years ago, while having gone hunting fell in love with a shepherd’s daughter. The bey named Beg fell wildly in love with the local young woman, whom he kidnapped and locked in the Big Tower in Nerei Gorges. At night, however, the young woman manages to escape with the help of a rope made from her own dress and she flees, reaching the foot of the cliff at Nerei Valley. The escape enraged the bey, who ordered that the woman be killed. The bey’s son was so grieved at the news that he shed so many tears as to fill the lake that today bears his name and has the colour of his eyes. Desperate that the young woman cannot be brought back to life, the bey’s son killed himself at the lake. In fact, the lake is shaped as an oval crater or an eye, being around 20 meters in diameter.

The legend also says the woman turned into a river — the River Beusnita, and the young man into a lake — Ochiul Beiului.

The lake is located not far from three waterfalls of River Beusnita, the same-name wildlife reserve; the luxuriant surroundings as well as the ruins of the nearby medieval fortress Ilidia are some of the most beautiful tourist sites in the western Banat region.

Near the village of Sasca Romana, after the Bei flows into the Nera, the picturesque Nerei Gorges end — they are a wildlife reserve, where the hikers have to pass through tunnels dug into the steep rock on the right bank.

The International Environment Day is also the Day of Nerei Gorges — Beusnita National Park, where Ochiul Beiului Lake also lies. The Park Day was set up and organised for the first time in 2013, as part of a project implemented by Nera Ecological Collaboration Group (GEC Nera).

“Ochiul Beiului and Beusnita Falls are two important objectives in this fascinating world of the legends, because they complete each other. The area has a fantastic potential for the development of tourism, but if emphasis is laid on tourism and the two objectives, we feel the need to set up a visiting centre here. One can thus introduce the tourist in the park context, one can show him for the first time how water flows down the Beusnita and it is in this way that one makes the tourist eager to discover the impressive legends. Unfortunately, until we learn how to carry out ecological tourism, we will keep only discussing about the special potential of the area”, said GEC Nera chairman Cornel Popovici Sturza.

While GEC Nera, last year, initiated a range of major events to promote Nerei Gorges — Beusnita National Park , some of them in cooperation with neighbouring Serbia, this year unfortunately the National Park administration failed to organise any such action on the Day of Nerei Gorges — Beusnita National Park.

“We already have several brands as regards the national heritage. It is about Ochiul Beiului, Beusnita Falls and Bigar Falls where there is a flow of tourists, whom we do not know how to introduce into the area. We further plan to set up theme mini-tracks and develop ecological tourism in the area, in order to protect the environment. Also, we oppose the pressure the Park is put to when it comes to various official approvals, particularly Bigar Falls, for the development of the commercial activity”, Popovici Sturza stressed.

Last year, GEC Nera together with its volunteers used specific means to set up a theme track and organised a traditional customs and music show in the area. These are but a few examples of promoting and making good use of Nerei Gorges — Beusnita National Park.

The clear water in which the fir-tree forest and the sky mirror, the unbelievably turquoise water of the lake make the place a fairy-tale one. The locals say that if every Romanian visited Ochiul Beiului Lake at least once a year, they would be healthier and the ever-present depression would remain virtually unknown.AGERPRES

Photographs by Paula NEAMTU / AGERPRES PHOTO

The Bigar Waterfall is in Caras-Severin County, in Minisului Valley, half the distance between the towns of Anina and Bozovici on National Road 57B.

The Bigar Natural Reserve includes an intermittent natural spring, a cave, a stream and a waterfall, all located towards the Almajului Country, on the right side of Minisului Gorges, where the road meets, imaginarily, the 45th northern latitude parallel of the globe.

In Banat, the locals use the name of ‘izbuc’ for a spring from which the water comes to light from under the rock. The water of the Bigar spring comes out from under a rock which is over 50 meters high. Part of the water of this spring, of a rare purity, is routed to Minis trout farm. Also here, but above, close to the peak of the cliff, is the hole of the cave with water. Also, the water in the Bigar creek falls, from stage to stage, forming a line of small waterfalls so that the water is clear and foamy intermittently.

At a distance of about 200 meters from the intermittent spring, the water flows into Minis River from a volcanic tuff cone of seven meters tall. This formed the Bigar Waterfall, a natural phenomenon of a special beauty. The rock cone is covered in green moss and the water that falls on it seems to be the dress of the mountain’s bride.

To do tourists’ stopover here even more enjoyable at the waterfall, the gazebo built here was rebuilt, and benches and tables were placed. Also, the railing between the alleys will be extended with a staircase that will descend to the Minis River, for the tourists to take photos of the waterfall in good conditions, which cools them in summertime and in wintertime it offers them an unforgettable image, because the icicle curtains.

‘The famous waterfall belongs to the Caras-Severin Forestry Directorate, but, at the same time, also to the National Park Nerei Gorges — Beusnita, which has already begun to manage the this area, because increasingly many tourists come here and we want the area to look well, to be clean. Here there was an old gazebo which has been rearranged, its roof has been replaced, protective fencing has been put to avoid possible injuries and a few tables and rustic benches have been placed,’ said Stefan Stanescu, the Caras-Severin Forestry Directorate’s head.

At the same time, at the intermittent spring, where there is a cave, stairs have been built for it to be visited under optimal conditions, especially since, in the last period, the number of tourists has been growing. In summertime, as many as 200 cars carrying tourists come here daily.

‘Fortunately, we have a county rich in natural beauties. I could not do a rankings of waterfalls, as to me they are all equally beautiful,’ said Caras-Severin County’s Prefect Silviu Hurduzeu.

The World Geography website posted in 2013 a list of the most impressive waterfalls in the world. The first place is held by the Bigar Waterfall in Caras-Severin County.

Until now there has not been a legend of this waterfall, but teacher Floarea-Ana Tunea has created one, trying in this way to attract as many tourists as possible to this area.

According to this legend, on the wonderful lands of the Almajului Valley, there was a family of peasants very appreciated by locals. The man was hard-working and honest and his wife, of a rare beauty. Their only bitterness was the lack of a son to carry on their names and help them in their old age. One night, the woman saw a witch in her dream, who told her that only if she drank water from the spring beneath the rock placed at the border between the worlds would she get pregnant. Also in her dream the woman was told that if she ever had a girl, she would not be allowed to fall in love if she wanted to live. The woman went to the spring and drank water, and after a while she gave birth to an incredibly beautiful daughter, wanted by many lads. The young maiden fell in love with a handsome and hard-working boy named Bigar. The girl’s father, who knew the story, tried to make his daughter forget about the lad, and because the girl would not renounce her love, he locked her in the cave above the spring of the world. The maiden’s cries of despair were heard by a witch who lived on the other side, known as the Love Finding Realm, teacher Floarea-Ana Tunea’s legend goes.

Persuaded by the huge suffering of the girl, the witch told her that the only thing that she could for her was to turn her hair into a waterfall on which her tears would slip.

‘The roar of the waterfall will bring the one that you love close to you, but I warn you, you will never be allowed to live in this world. He will have to die drowned in your tears and you will die along with him, in order for you to revive then in the other world, in the Love Finding Realm. It is only there that what was destined for you upon your birth will not be fulfilled,’ the legend goes.

According to the legend, the lad came and threw himself into the waterfall, charmed by its soothing sound and thus they were reunited on the other realm, the only place where they could live their love. Later, the waterfall has remained the testament to a love that surpassed the limits of a human being, but also to the fact that love means happiness and sacrifice at the same time.

Since then, the couples in love come to drink water from the waterfall named after the lad Bigar, to seal their love and also to have an eternal and absolute love, according to legend created to spark even further the interest in the impressive waterfall.AGERPRES

Photographs by Paula NEAMTU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

However, the Oravita town is famous not only for the first mountain railroad in Romania, dating back in 1863, but also for a whole series of other such firsts. Besides the first theatre that was established here as early as in 1817, Oravita also had the first train station (equipped with an elevator), the first natural pharmacy (1793), the first vocational mountain school (1729) and the first exhibition ever devoted in Romania to industry and trade (1869).

The first mountain railway in Romania, Oravita-Anina, is also known under the name of Banat Semmering, taking after the famous Semmering train route in Austria. It is still considered to this day to be a work of art and a masterpiece in the field of rail construction, with no less than 14 tunnels having been carved into the hard rock of the mountain, overcoming an altitude difference of 340 metres. The constructors needed to carve into the stone for a distance of a total 21 kilometres, with the retaining walls also summing a long 10 kilometres.

Some of the curves measure a 114-metre curvature radius, compared with 150 the usual value. This railway represents a true engineering masterpiece, unique in Romania and in south-east Europe. In fact, the great art of its construction relies in the fact that its average gradient of 14 per thousand.

Despite an aerial distance of only 15 kilometres between Oravita and Anina, the railway measures 33.4 kilometres, more than double that is. However, the beauty of the landscape along the route takes the traveler’s breath away, be it in the summertime or the winter.

One of the tunnels bears the name of architect Johann Ludwig Dier Dollhoff, who blamed himself for one of the first failures in carving the tunnel at Garliste when he saw that, in the end, the two galleries they were carving failed to meet, because of a vertical deviation of almost three metres, which in the end led him to suicide. More precisely, he jumped off a cliff, from one of the viaducts, as according to University Professor Dr. Gheorghe Popovici from the Eftimie Murgu University of Resita, as he wrote in his book ‘Through the Banat Mountains — Travel Guide.’

‘Any passenger who travels through the mountains in Banat should take the train from Oravita to Anina, at least once in a lifetime. It will be for the first time when he/she will want that his/hers travel by train would never end. The beauty of the landscape along the entire route to which it adds the emotion given by the numerous surprises that he/she encounters with almost every new kilometre done: tunnels carved into stone, viaducts built across the deep valleys and narrow crossings through the mountain, also built by men, opening up to the sky. Everything built in stone with the cleverness of the mind and the hand of the skilled workers in cutting the limestone, since the dynamite was yet to be invented at that time and they didn’t use cranes back then either,’ said Gheorghe Popovici.

Today, the leadership of the Caras-Severin County Council is in search for a solution to rebuild the Oravita-Anina railway and have it function again at its best. Thus, the County Council President, Sorin Frunzaverde, has recently discussed the matter with the representatives of the Timisoara branch of the National Railway Company (CFR) — Infrastructure and Passengers, in order to identify a way to access European funds. The President of the County Council stated that it is natural for such a partnership between institutions to exist, for the purpose of accessing European funds.

‘It is natural that this institution, the County Council that is, to make all the efforts to save this masterpiece that belongs to the Banat historical heritage,’ said Sorin Frunzaverde.

The representatives of the CFR say that they have no intention to stop traffic on the Oravita-Anina segment.

Today, the train that travels on this route is made of a Romanian Diesel electronic locomotive that was especially built for the Oravita-Anina railroad and two second class uncompartmented cars, with wooden benches made in 1914. A third car of this type is currently waiting to be repaired at the Oravita Car Overhaul.

The engine is different from the other wagons, through the fact that from the four axes that it has the first and last one are inclined toward the right and toward the left respectively, which allows it to enter such curve with smaller radius. The cars are designed to carry passengers and are also equipped with a rotation device. The basic rule is that two of the four axes should be always with their brakes on.

Although the cars have been rebuilt many times, they did not suffer any chance on neither or outside or the inside. The heating is done with steam, with an oven for that purpose being located in the very middle of the car. The average speed of the train is 17 km per hour, which means that train needs around two hours to travel between Oravita and Anina. Besides this train, there is also a track car that travels on the same route, pushing an uncovered freight car, a platform with two seats for passenger transport, which is meant for tourists visiting the area.AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) Luiza ABU-SALEM / AGERPRES PHOTO

The 5 km of the road exiting Turnu Magurele quickly introduce the traveler into the misty atmosphere of the times of the 15th century, when the wilderness of this place was a major trump in the defense strategy against the Ottoman threat. From the port to the fortress, the cobbled, sometimes rugged and cumbersome path leads one directly to the site reigned by history.

The thick stone and brick walls of the Turnu Fortress were largely preserved to this day: the surrounding vegetation confers it an air of mystery, that is also an invite to explore and get to know it. It was built by voivode Mircea the Elder as defence against the Turks, but at the end of his reign it came under Ottoman rule.

The Turks left the Turnu fortress turned into a Turkish garrison only in 1829, when the structure — or more precisely what had been left of it after having been through a destructive fire — was returned to the Romanian Principality.

The Turnu Fortress is often confounded with the Turiss citadel, but the truth is that the two stand in no connection to each other.

The version according to which the Turris citadel would be Turnu results from the writings of historian Procopius of Caesarea, who in his ‘De Bello Gothico’ written in the sixth century said that it was founded by Roman Emperor Trajan.

Photo credit: (c) Luiza ABU-SALEM / AGERPRES PHOTO

“It is a theory that did not get the validation of reality. It starts from the book ‘De Bello Gothico’, based on which some historians assumed it would be this citadel. The Turiss citadel is mentioned there as being the same with Turnu. There is another theory according to which the fortress dates from the time of Constantine the Great, namely from the fourth century AD. Finally, a third theory that got validated by reality is related to archaeological evidence, as archaeological research produces the best proof. The oldest archaeological layer dates from the late fourteenth century. The Turnu Fortress, which is located near nowadays Turnu Magurele city, was built with certainty at the end of the 14th century. It is known that it already existed in 1397,” head of the Teleorman Directorate for Culture and National Heritage Constantin Tintariu told AGERPRES.

According to him, the fortress was part of a fortification system built by ruler Mircea the Elder to fend off the Ottoman danger.

“It was erected as part of a plan of Wallachian voivode Mircea the Elder, in a move intended to strengthen, actually create a chain of fortifications with a defensive role against the Ottoman Empire. Mircea the Elder wanted to strengthen this fortification system in the current Teleorman County. Apart from the Turnu Fortress, there were another two hill forts that backed this defensive plan — the Zimnicea and the Frumoasa citadels,” said Constantin Tintariu.

Preserved to this day of the old fortress is a keep with diameter of 17.40 m, circular and polygonal enceinte walls, a curtain wall and a counterscarp.

The construction walls had a thickness ranging from 4 to 5 meters, were built of stone mixed with brick and reinforced with wooden beams.

According to the locals, the ruins of the fortress and the unspoiled wilderness of the landscape are a real tourist attraction. AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) Luiza ABU-SALEM / AGERPRES STREAM

After earthquakes and floods which affected it, but couldn’t ruin it, the church has made it in the past years through an ample process of restoration so that its threshold could currently be passed through by the tourists interested in the story of the building. The church was originally made of wood, but it needed consolidation, so it got added brick walls.

“Of the few wooden churches of the Teleorman county, only two were restored: the church of Bujoreni and the one in Videle. The other wooden churches face a precarious state due to the time’s hostility. The Videle church, also named the Cartojanca (after the name of the neighbourhood), was erected at the beginning of the 17th century of oak beams and was coated on its outside with bricks. It was endowed, initially with a belfry tower which never exists anymore, as it has disappeared and could have never been rebuilt. The revamped church is special due to its architecture and traces of painting which it preserves inside its walls. Presently, it is not used anymore, only occasionally for the religious services for the dead, as it is placed in the cemetery at the margin of the city. But, through its presence it attests that in the county of Teleorman wooden churches were erected, too, some of which are still up and in use, such as the church at Scurtu Dracesti. Yet, the church in Videle, for those who wish to visit this part of the county, an objective which deserves to be seen thanks to the architectonic beauty and to those special jointing used in its construction, the wooden edifice being protected with the brick construction and due to the paintings which are still preserved inside the church,” says His Grace Galaction Stanga, Bishop of Alexandria and Teleorman.

The church with modest dimensions and garmentless shapes, still preserves a genuine trait. In front of it stands a cross of stone dating from 1819.

Photo credit: (c) Luiza ABU-SALEM / AGERPRES STREAM

”Currently, in Teleorman there are ten wooden churches. And, very curious they all lay in the Eastern side of the county. Why so? Not accidentally that part of the county belonged to the former county of Vlasca. There was a county called Vlasca, torn apart into several pieces. These ten wooden churches were brought in particularly from Arges and Dambovita. Not by chance these areas were localities of free peasants. They have had the money to bring them here, too. There are two theories as regards the church’s construction. The historical reality says it has been erected before 1782, we don’t know exactly the year. But, why 1782? Firstly, because, on a religious book dated 1782, there is a note referring to the church, so the church already existed in that period. Secondly….in 1819, this is where the confusion starts, it has been restored and modified. Portions of wall have been added. With portions of wall, it was also painted on those sides. An extremely well done painting and extremely resistant. Then, it degraded and was restored through the National Restoration Programme where the Culture Department of the county played an important role because otherwise it wouldn’t have existed. The 1977 earthquake has very much affected it, followed by the 2005 floods. It was one step of total collapse, but it has been restored, re-introduced within the cult,” the director of the Teleorman Culture and National Heritage Department, Constantin Tintariu, says.

Another worship place which impresses through architecture and grandeur, is the Assumption Church, located in the NW of the county, on the road to Pitesti, in the Balaci commune, a locality with tourist potential.

Of the official records we learn that the erection of this worship place began in 1684, but was only finished in 1825 because of some hard periods through which the Balaceanu family has crossed, the one which actually has been busy with the erection of this edifice.

The church is different from the other constructions of this kind erected in the rural area. Its tower is octagonal and its porch has three arcades. The painting degraded in time, remaining visible just a small part of it.

”The Assumption Church of Balaci is a place of special historical value, yet it is also remarkable through its architecture. It is built in the second part of the 17th century by Constantin Balaceanu, and its architecture is special. Unfortunately, as the time passed by and due to the hardships it endured, the interior painting is not visible anymore but in fragments. Still, even these fragments of painting speak to us about the beauty this worship place has had when it was garnished inside on its entire surface with paintings. The edifice needs refurbishment, but due to the high costs, its reparation is delayed. The roof was only repaired so that the water could not infiltrate inside the building. The Balaci Church is a tourist objective worthy to be searched by the travelers and pilgrims, keen to see special places and holy places in the South of our county,” his Grace Galaction Stanga, Bishop of Alexandria and Teleorman, says. AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) baiamare.ro

The building where the Mint functioned, constructed near the defence wall of the city, is kept intact after hundreds of years and in time it underwent multiple improvements, in the ?90s having become the headquarters of the Maramures County Museum of History and Archaeology.

Located in the older area of the Baia Mare city, the current Millennium Square, the Mint and Museum represent one of the attraction points for tourists wanting to discover the history of Maramures.

‘Baia Mare benefitted from one of the most important privileges of the time: the right to mint coins. The area was known as having plenty of resources and non-ferrous mineral deposits, rich in gold and silver, which most likely led to the establishment of the mint that functioned uninterruptedly over 450 years. The documents show that the first coins were minted towards the end of the 14th century, the beginning of the 15th century, being a complex activity for that period,’ said Lucia Pop, museographer at the Maramures County History and Archaeology Museum.

The functioning of the mint, historians say, brought advantages to the upper class, but the labour force coning from the villages near the city was drastically exploited in the works of mining the non-ferrous ores, rudimentary back then, and in processing the raw material. The natural resources rich in gold and silver created for kings, emperors and princes a state of perpetual conflict from one generation to another, difficult to solve, but the great benefit, the gold and silver resources also determined the development of the city, trade and education.

The organisation structure of the mint seems to have been well-thought and coordinated and the authorities of the time strictly followed its activities.

‘The first signs engraved by craftsmen on the coins minted were R-I and R-P. The letters I and P could have represented the name of the person authorised to run the mint and the letter R probably came from the Rivulus Dominarum name (the River of Ladies in Latin), the supposed former name of Sasar River. The N and B letters are also frequent, which could mean the Hungarian name of the city of Baia Mare — Nagy Bany. Sometime during the 18th century Austria’s Emperor Joseph the Second introduces the signs standardisation in alphabetical order, the mint of Baia Mare being thus attributed the letter G,’ Lucia Pop said.

The documents of the time also show that around 1600 the mint of Baia Mare was going to issue a golden medal with the effigy of voivode Michael the Brave, at the initiative of the mint’s governor, Felician Herberstein, as a sign of acknowledgement for erasing some debts had to Michael.

During the 18th century, the administration of the city expands the working space of the mint, which would include the headquarters of the first newly established mining companies. Since 1784, the activities of non-ferrous ore mining, already undergoing in Baia Mare and Baia Sprie, would be run by the first Superior Mining Inspectorate, with the mint going under its coordination.

Historians say that between 1850-1860, following some repeated fires, the mint ceased its activity for good, and the bodies of the salvaged buildings would host for many years the institutions coordinating the mining activity. After these activities moved to other buildings in the city, the mint was turned into the current headquarters of the Maramures County History and Archaeology Museum.

The mint is seen as a landmark of the past of Baia Mare city and enjoys the appreciation of Romanian and foreign tourists visiting the Maramures area.AGERPRES