Archives

(Photo: Sarah In Romania) Protests have erupted throughout Romania and across Europe with people flooding the streets in their THOUSANDS, triggered by the Romanian government's approval of a draft 'law' granting national interest status to the Canadian gold mine project aimed for Roşia Montană last Tuesday. Roşia Montană Gold Corporation (RMGC), controlled by Canadian firm Gabriel Resources, plans an open-cast gold mine in the heart of Transylvania - a region praised by Prince Charles for its natural beauty and exceptional wildlife.... [Lire la suite]

At approximately 30km from the city of Buzau, sculptures cut in stone from the limestone quarries of Naeni and Ciuta adorn scattered clearings in the hills of Magura. They are a tribute to local ancient stonecutting traditions and were created for the largest exhibition of its kind in the country and one of the biggest in the world. The Sculpture Camp, held between 1970 and 1985, was initiated by sculptor Gheorghe Coman and supported by the Union of Romanian Artists to mark 16 centuries since the first documentation of Buzau. The... [Lire la suite]

In Odobesti, jud. Vrancea, southern Moldova stands a church. Or the remains of a church. More the shell of a church. If there is anything left to see of it at all, it is no thanks to contemporary efforts made, but to a spankingly solid structure built to last two and a half centuries ago. It is a masterpiece in architecture boasting impressive quality material and majestral ornamentation. But one can see very little of that today. Found on str. Cazaclii in the Satul Nou neighbourhood, the history of the church dedicated to Saints... [Lire la suite]

Last week on a trip to Vrancea, I visited the impressive mausoleum of Marasesti built in 1919. An imposing site and final resting place to a prestigious list of Romanian military names amongst them Henrik Cihoski and Eremiah Grigorescu, the mausoleum holds the remains of 5,073 Romanian soldiers and officers killed in the First World War. It is dedicated to the commemoration of the Battle of Mărăşeşti and the Romanian army. The memorial took architects George Cristinel and Constantin Pomponiu 15 years to build and was unveiled on 18... [Lire la suite]

(Photo by Sarah In Romania) It's not often I write blogposts recommending restaurants, but this is an exception to the rule. Just before leaving Bucharest for yet another great jaunt, I was invited to lunch by a friend on str General Berthelot here in Bucharest. We went to Chez Marie, a lovely pad style 1930's owned by Maria Popa who is something of a star. With her thirty year career as head chef at the British Embassy behind her, she has cooked for an impressive list of British PMs visiting Romania over the years along with Prince... [Lire la suite]

On the top of a hill overlooking the Sinoe Lake near the mouths of the Danube on the western coast of the Black Sea, the ancient city of Histria - Istria in Greek - stands proud and nostalgic but distressfully neglected. If you know your history and/or have an active imagination however, the atmosphere of Histria cannot fail to evoke visions of an ancient era. Who walked on the stones upon which you walk? Who stood in that doorway? Who sat sewing at that window? I felt myself transported to a time of leather sandals and white togas,... [Lire la suite]

(Photo source) sorin oprescu, Bucharest's grotesquely corrupt and incompetent mayor, ploughs on in his frenzied, hell-bent determination to destroy the city's patrimony where Ceausescu left off. Those who care and grieve these losses at his hands are a tragic, shameful minority seen as nutty eccentrics standing against progress and modernity. Doubtless, if there were to be an election tomorrow, oprescu and all those others intent on eradicating the Bucharest we know and love would win again. And again. And again and again and again.... [Lire la suite]

(Photo source) Oprescu's 'pasaj rutier' destined for Piata Presei Libere has been deemed useless by the OAB in an open letter, and rightly so. It does not take the traffic coming from the Bucharest-Ploiesti motorway into any consideration whatsoever, and, apart from that rather erroneous oversight, it will destroy the beautiful zone of Kiseleff itself - one of the very few left in the capital today. It is nothing more than another example of megalomanic emperor oprescu's hell-bent determination to mutilate and slaughter what remains... [Lire la suite]

(Photo source) Over? Finished? You're kidding. We truly believed this had been put to bed, and that Florentina would be left alone to put her life back together again after it was destroyed by the tragedy which took the lives of six babies, injured five, and left her the scapegoat and whipping boy of a disaster that was neither her fault nor her responsibility. But no.  Today, Florentina was condemned to two years and two months in jail. The technical service chief, Gigel Oprea, was sentenced to two years (is that ALL?!?) and... [Lire la suite]

This afternoon, I received this very moving and superbly written note on FB by my friend, journalist Roxana Dascalu, in response to my post HERE yesterday (which, I'm ashamed to say, reads like a cold list of distant events rather than something emotional by comparison). She has given me permission to share her text with you here and so I beg you to read it and then circulate it far and wide. It should be published in the Romanian national press for these are memories that make blood run cold and hair stand on end - and it is REAL,... [Lire la suite]