Cultural Heritage Romania

Cultural Heritage Romania

Archaeology.  The history of archaeological research begins in the 19th century. A distinct place is held by Alexandru Odobescu. who supported and encouraged the first systematic archaeological diggings in Romania, as he organized and coordinated the National Museum of Antiquities of the Bucharest University, where he also was the first professor to teach archaeology. One of his important works is the description of the Pietroasa Treasure Trove (1900, 3 volumes) which is also called "The Hen with Brood" and which is currently at the National History Museum in Bucharest. 

The prehistoric archaeology of the Carpathian-Danubian space was focused upon by professor Gr. Tocilescu, the first to study thoroughly the Roman monument of Adamclisi (Tropaeum Traiani) erected by emperor Trajan in A.D. 109.

A labourious archaeological research of the Romanian prehistory develops in the 20th century, when Vasile Parvan, an university professor, member of the Romanian Academy and director of the National Museum of Antiquities, brings this actiyity to an European level. V. Parvan focused on the pre-Roman period, to the end of solving the issues related to the history of Dacia, and opened many archaeological sites. His vast historical-archaeological synthesis titled Getica (1926) illustrated the political and cultural role of the Geto-Dacians. Parvan was also the initiator of the archaeological site at Histria (an old Hellenistic citadel on the Black Sea coast) and the founder of the Romanian School in Rome, an institution for the professional improvement of young archaeologists and historians. In his work and in the lectures he delivered at Cambridge, he underlined the importance of the native Daco-Getian population and its relations with the Italiotes, the Scythians, the Celts, and the Romans.

The development - in Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi of some history and archaeology institutes attracted many specialists (Ion Andriescu, Radu Vulpe, Ion Nestor, Dumitru Berciu, I.N. Crisan, H. Daicoviciu, D. Tudor a.o.).

Archaeological diggings helped to research partially and sometimes wholly a considerable number of objectives from the Paleolitic, the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age identifying the areas of the cultures that belong to these ancient periods. Standing proof are the archaeological sitea at Bugiulesti, Valea Darjovului, Ripiceni, Turdas, Petresti, Boian, Hamangia, Ferigele, Sighisoara, Monteoru Cucuteni, Ariusd, Gumelnita, Bucharest a.o.

A great deal of attention was given to sanctuaries and Geto-Dacian citadels of Sarmizegetusa Regia (Gradistea Muncelului), Cistesti, Blidaru, Piatra Rosie, Banita, Popesti, Pecica, Tinosu, Capalna, Batca Doamnei, Ocnita, Zimnicea, as well as to the castrums and towns built during the Roman rule.

Material evidence was unearthed dating back 2,000,000 years attesting to human life in Romania's territory; the oldest art object in Romania, a 21,000 year-old pendant-

amulet, nearly 10,000 baked clay statuettes, about 800 treasures comprising gold and silver jewelry and vessels, as well as thousands of household, military and other objects now on display in almost 60 museums throughout Romania.

Architecture

In the first years of the second century, when Dacia became a Roman province, the material culture of the Dacians interfered with the civilization and art of the Roman Empire. The Roman architecture, with buildings mainly of stone, gave Dacia the military camps (castrum) that guarded the expanded limits of the Empire. In its Transylvanian nucleus there existed urban settlements with an octagonal structure, the forum being placed at the inter-section of the two main streets, with gates and cannons at the entrance into the town: Alba Iulia (Apulum), Turda (Potaissa), Cluj-Napoca (Napoca), Drobeta-Turn Severin (Drobeta), close to which there was the famous bridge over the Danube - whose pillars have been preserved-built by the Syrian architect Apollodorus of Damascus on commission from Emperor Trajan. The Ioanin and Dorian colony-citadels founded as early as the 6th century B.C. (Tomis, Callatis, Histria, Aegyssus, etc.) and having an urban civilization of the Mediterranean type, remained under Roman domination until the 4th century A.D, when the Byzantine Empire took possession of them. Architectural fragments unearthed here attest to the degree of material and aesthetic comfort.  

Mediaeval architecture displays stylistic particularities dependent on the spiritual space to which it belonged: Byzantine (Eastern) Orthodox Christianity or Westem Catholicism.

In Transylvania, the Catholic monastic order transmited successively Romania, Renaissance and Baroque stylistic forms, under the spur of the evolving styles in Western Europe. At the Roman-Catholic cathedral in Alba-Iulia, the elements of the late Roman style coexist with the early Gothic. In the Transylvanian Romanian villages, the early voivodal buildings evince influences of both architectural styles mixed in original local syntheses (the Strei, Santa Marie Orlea and Densus churches).

South of the Carpathian, the ecclesiastical architecture will perpetuate typoligies and technique characteristics of  Byzantium (the princely St. Nicolae Church of Curtea de Arges,  Vodita, Tismana, Cozia, Cotmeana).

The 15th and 16th centuries prove the originality of the architecture in Moldavia and Wallachia, attested by many exceptional monuments that have no match in other artistic spaces. The major element is constituted by the religious monuments built under Stephen the Great (1457-1504) in Moldavia. The Byzantine architecture and the decorative elements Gothic inspiration combine in a novel conception as in the case of the Putna, Patrauti, Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita, Harlau, Dorohoi, Neamt and other monasteries painted both inside and on the outside. The rulers of Wallachia consolidated the Danubian citadels (Giurgiu, Braila, Tumu-Severin, etc.) and founded exquisite monuments such as the Dealu monastery, the episcopal church at Curtea de Arges, or the church of the Snagov Monastery near Bucharest.

In Transylvania, beginning in the later half of the 15th century, the elements of mature Gothic are obvious in most religious edifices and in some of the lay ones in the main towns: Sibiu, Sebes, Cluj, Medias, Brasov, Sighisoara. Typical for the mediaeval architecture are also the fortifications of these towns, the most important being the one of Sighisoara, with 14 towers bearing the names of the guilds that defended the town. The castle of the Corvin family in Hunedoara, the Bran castle, the peasant citadels and the fortified churches provide another example.

In Wallachia, the model of the episcopal church in Curtea de Arges was replicated. One can trace it in the narthex of the Caldarusani Monastery (1638), in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Bucharest and the church within the precinct of the Cotroceni Palace (1679) as well as in the most beautiful edfice founded in the Brancoveanu epoch, the church of the Hurez Monastery (1692).

In Moldavia, in the 17th and 18th centuries the religious architecture tends towards new horizons. Three important monuments of the late 16th century - Galata (1584), the St. Nicolae-Aroneanu church (1594) with decorative elements that synthetize forms of the cultivated architecture and of the folk art, and the church founded by metropolitan Anastasie Crimca (1608), all in Iasi - are exemplary. They will stimulate the artistic ambitions of voievode Vasile Lupu (1634-1635) who builds two unique monuments: the Trei Ierarhi church (1637-1639), an exquisite edifice the exterior of which is decorated in gold and lapis lazuli, and the Golia Monastery (1652), also in Iasi.

The acme of the lay and religious architecture of that epoch is connected to the name of ruler Constantin Brancovean. The palace at Mogosoaia, near Bucharest, and the one at Potlogi are examples of the compositional principle and the whole Renaissance, Baroque or Oriental repertory of ornaments.

The principal Romanian architect who promoted a neoclassicism unaltered by other tendencies was Alexandru Orascu (1817-1894). Together with other architects trained at French or German schools, he militated for urban modernization through Western models adapted to the requirements of the Romanian environment. It is to him that we owe the architectural conception of the University (1857) and of the Bulevard Hotel (1865) in Bucharest.

In Transylvania, the neoclassicism with Empire suggestions is asserted in several towns, with a more austere decorative language. The starting point may be considered the Banffy Palace in Cluj-Napoca.

Eloquent in point of the architectural landscape at the turn of the century is Calea Victoriei avenue in Bucharest, lined by buildings forming an almost integrally conserved reservoir of architecture. Worth mentioning are also monumental buildings such as the National Bank, the Romanian Athenaeum, the Justice Palace, the Palace of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Palace of the Post, the Palace of the Savings Bank in Buchares, or the national theatres in Iasi and Cluj-Napoca, the Baroque Palace (the Museum of the Cris Land) in Oradea, etc.  

The Romanticist outlook which is also present, used construction and decorative elements borrowed from the feudal Gothic, resulting in architectural views filtered by the classical laconism: the Sutu Palace in Bucharest, the Cuza Palace (Ruginoasa, Iasi county), the "Carul cu bere" restaurant in Bucharest, the Administrative Palace in Iasi, and many others. In Transylvania, the neo-Gothic Romanticist architecture is tied to the name of Antal Kagerbauer who built the palace of the Cluj-Napoca Town Hall, whose facade constitutes the starting point for the Transylvanian Neo- Reinaissance style. Also the Peles Castle of Sinaia belongs to the German-school of Romanticism.

Remarkable for the Romanticist spirit is the orientation that revives the Romanian mediaeval tradition. The founders of the national school of architecture - for instance, architect Ion Mincu (1852-1912) - creatively take over some specific elements of the autochthonous feudal architecture (the porch with arches, ogees or lancets, specific alternations of fullness and emptiness) and apply them to the neo-Romanian style (the Lahovari House, the building of the "Pub" on Kiseleff Avenue, the Central Girls School, the Bucharest Town Hall, all in Bucharest, as well as the Administrative Palace in Craiova). The peasant architectural styles can be seen at the Village Museum in Bucharest. Architects like Petre Antonescu (1873-1965), N. Ghica-Budesti (1769-1943), Grigore Cerchez (1851-1927), Cristofi Cerchez (1872-1955), a.o. embrace the new style. In Transylvania the emerge elements of the Secession style, of the traditional local architecture or of the German Jugendstil. In the South of the country, several edifices in Bucharest and Constanta remind of Art nouveau.

The fine arts

In the big ensembles of frescoes dating back to the time when the first Romanian statal formations were getting shape one can recognize, as a constant, the synthesis which also contains references to the sacred and to history. In case of the murals of the monasteries in Northern Moldavia, the paintetid images wholly cover the walls of the church (inside and outside) in a fluid that provides a bond between the sacred space an the natural environment. The scope and brilliancy of the frescoes at the monasteries of Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita. Arbore, Humor or Patrauti made the great Byzantinist Andre Grabar consider this artistic phenomenon "an illustrated book open on all its pages". Great painters worked on these frescoes: Gavril Uric - the first known Romanian painter, a monk at the Neamt Monastery and author, among other things, of a book of the Four Gospels dating back to 1426, which is preserved today at the Bodleian Library of the Oxford University-, Stefan of Densus (in the Hateg zone), Nicodim the Monk, Gavril the Monk, Spiridon of Putna, Toma of Suceava, a.o. Preserving the ties with the Byzantine stock, the culture of the Modern Age manifests an increasing tendency to follow the European artistic movements which send in turn echoes of the Renaissance, Romanticist, Academist or Impressionistic trends. After the 1859 union of Wallachia and Moldavia, the foundations were laid in Iasi and Bucharest for the artistic higher education, which would decisively contribute to the development of arts in Romania.

In an atmosphere long dominated by academic and Romanticist formulas, there emerge the signs of novelty brough by artists frequenting the innovating milieux of Paris and its environs. Nicolae Grigorescu and Ion Andreescu work for a time at Barbizon, alongside the artists who pioneered the Impressionist movement. These two painters and Stefan Luchian - who contributes elements akin to Art nouveau and expressionism - are the founders of modern Romanian painting. They will be followed, in the first half of the 20th century by great personalities who opened as many new vistas in the Romania painting.

A first generation comprises artists like Theodo Pallady, Gheorghe Petrascu, Nicolae Tonitza, Stefa Dimitrescu, Francisc Sirato, Jean Al. Steriadi, Dumitru Ghiata, Nicolae Darascu, Lucian Grigorescu, M.H. Maxy, Hans Mattis-Teutsch, Hans Eder, Corneliu Michailescu. Having made their debut before World War II, several artist continue their activity also in the following decades, succeeding - despite all adversities in the postwar totalitarian period - to enhance the substance of the national artistic heritage: Ion Tuculescu, Henri Catargi, Catul Bogdan, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Victor Mihailesti-Craiu.  Lucia Dem. Balacescu, Paul Miracovici, Margareta Sterian,  Micaela Eleuheriade, Corneliu Baba. Part of the time's out-standing painters worked mostly abroad: Victor Bauner, Marcel Iancu, Eustatiu Stoenescu, Dimitrie Berea, Eugen Drutescu, Alexandru Istrati. There are, then, some artists who still work abroad: Horia Damian, Iosif Iliu, Natalia Dumitrescu, Serban Epure, Petru Hartopeanu, Toma Roata, Dana Roman.

Modern Romanian sculpture has been market by Constantin Brancusi, the man who initiated the restructuring of  the world's sculptural language in this century. Interested in the fundamental problems of form and expression, Brancusi undertakes a careful examination of the cultural precedents, going down to the "dawn of archetypes" where he discovers the pure, essetial and fully significant form. From this trip on the historical vertical, into the horizon of the Neolithic world whose spirit is preserved in folk art, the artist returns to the present, managing to restore, in his works, the bridges of communication so affected by the routine and excesses of the technological era. If Brancusi revitalized the abstract expression of archaic art, Dimitrie Paciurea heads for those figurative and fantastic mythological representations that have functions in the old symbolical repertories but which still prove to be pertinent.

With Gheorghe D. Anghel, Romanian 20th century sculpture regains the purity and severity of the Byzantine form, controlled by a spirit fed by classical ideals.

 Old Books

The manuscripts of religious books, copied by monks in those centres of cultural emulation and ebullience that were the monasteries, circulated in the Romanian Countries between the 14th and the 16th centuries. The museums of the monasteries in Romania preserve most valuable illuminated manuscripts in the Slavonic, Greek and Romanian languages.

In the first decades of the 14th century printing presses begin to function in Bucharest, Targoviste, Brasov, Iasi, Alba Iulia, Ramnic, Buzau, Blaj.

The Life of Patriarch Nifon, written by the monk Gavril between 1517 and 1521 is the first wide-scope work of importance to the Romanian historiography. Neagoe Basarab's Teachings for His Son Teodosie, an original textbook of moral and political education, written by ruler Neagoe Basarab also contains an fresco of the epoch.

In 1528-1532 there appear the first Romanian traslations of religious books, preserved under titles like: Psaltirea Scheiana (Schei Psalter), Codicele Voronetean (The Deeds of the Apostles), Psaltirea Voroneteana (The Voronet Psalter), Psaltirea Hurmuzachi (The Hurmuzachi Psalter), Catehismul Luteran (The Lutheran Catechism).

A sustained activity of printing texts in the Romanian language began in 1559 when Deacon Coresi prints Catehismul at his own printing house in Brasov. There follows the Tetraevanghel (The Gospels) in 1561, Apostolul in 1563, Liturghierul and Psaltirea in 1570, Evanghelia cu 'nvataturi in 1581, Palia de la Orastie (Old Testament) in 1582.

After Noul Testament (New Testament) (1648) and Psaltirea (1651), printed in Alba Iulia by Metropolitan Simion Stefan, as landmark editions, we shall mention: Evanghelia (1682), Apostolul (1683) and Biblia (1688), the first integral edition of the Bible in Romanian, commissioned by ruler Stefan Cantacuzino and achieved by the translators Serban and Radu Greceanu.

Divanul sau Galceava inteleptului cu lumea (The World's Parley with the Wise Man) (1688) a book of philosophical essays by Dimitrie Cantemir, Capetele de porunca (Statutes) (1714), a textbook of civil law written by Metropolitan Antim Ivireanu, Jumalul de calatorie in China (Traveller's Notes from China, 3 volumes, 1675-1678) by Nicolae Milescu,  Fiziologul (Physiologus) (1693), a popular textbook of zoology translated by Costea Dascalul of Scheii Brasovului, Istoria politica si geografica a Tarilor Romanesti (The Political and Geographical History of the Romanian Countries, 1688-1695 by Constantin Cantacuzino are some of the bibliophilic values of the old Romanian book heritage.

Literature

The literary works configurating a first stage in the evolution of the Romanian modern literature belong to a generation of writers in the fifth decade of the last century, during a historical epoch marked by social and political changes determined by the 1848 revolutions.

What defined the works of the most outstanding writers of the time were the ideals of national emancipation and unity, the wish to bring an original share to the European cultural patrimony: Vasile Alecsandri (1818-1890), Mihail Kogalniceanu (1817-1891), Alecu Russo (1819-1859), Nicolae Balcescu (1819-1852), Dimitrie Bolintineanu (1819-1872), Gheorghe Baritiu (1812-1893), Ion Ghica (1816-1897).

The second half of the 19th century represented a peak moment on a literary level. It was the epoch of the great classic authors of the Romanian literature, including illustrious writers, whose creations fundamentally defined the line of the Romanian literature: Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), the national poet, Ion Creanga (1839-1889) and loan Slavici (1848-1925), prose writers, I.L. Caragiale (1852-1912), playwright. Alexandru Macedonski (1854-1920), poet, Titu Maiorescu (1840-1917), estetician, literary critic, and cultural mentor.

In the 20th century, until the setting up of communism, after the coup d'etat in August 1944, the Romanian literature had known an ascending evolution, the climax of which was the brilliant generation of inter-war writers: Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961), Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944), Lucian Blaga (1895-1961), Tudor Arghezi (1880-1967), Ion Barbu (1895-1961), George Bacovia (1881-1957), Hortensia Papadat - Bengescu (1876-1955), Camil Petrescu (1894-1957) a.o.

Some of these writers continued their work in the post-war period, avoiding, as much as they could, the compromises imposed by the new ideology. In the 60s, a new generation of good writers appeared, whose names stood up as solid foundations of the contemporary Romanian literature: Marin Preda (1922-1981), Eugen Barbu (1924-1993, Geo Bogza (1908-1993), Ion Lancranjan (1929-1991), Emil Botta (1912-1977), Nichita Stanescu (1933-1983), Stefan Banulescu (1929-1998), Nicolae Breban (b.1934), Constanta Buzea (b.1941), Augustin Buzura (b.1938), D.R. Popescu (b.1935), Marin Sorescu (1936-1997), Ion Alexandru (1941-2000) a.o. After December 1989, the main line of the Romanian literature has been represented by the effort to bring before the young generation the names and the works of writers of the Romanian emigration, who had been forbidden during the communist regime.

Theatre

The beginnings of drama performances can be detected in the primitive forms of folk theatre occasioned by magic rituals, celebrations or ceremonies. Historical documents attest them as early as the Dacian period. Archaeological testimonies point to the existence of an open-air theatre at Histria.

In the Middle Ages, theatrical performances were given at the princely courts or the residences of the big feudal lords, evincing mostly a formal character. 1817 marked the opening of the Oravita theatre, the first in the Romanian language, while in 1818 the Arad Theatre had its premiere. In 1819 the Theatre of the Red Fountain in Bucharest staged Hecuba by Euripide, featuring Ion Heliade Radulescu, a renowned writer, linguist, politician, and man of culture.

In 1848 the Iasi Theatre was established, and in 1852  the Bucharest Theatre, with a capacity of 1,000 seats.          

The foundations of the Romanian theatre were further consolidated by prosewriter and playwright Ion Luca Caragia1e (1852-1912). Caragiale's artistic maturity came at the time when the Romanian society, after Romania's, gaining her independence in 1877, entered a fresh stage of evolution. The ideals and dreams of the Romanian artists and intellectuals implied also a critical view of the social developments. Thus the vein of Caragialeâ€^TMs writing is satirical, inspired from the theatrical realism of the 19th century. Other personalities of the same generation with Caragiale, also contributing to the development of Romanian drama, were: Dimitrie Bolintineanu (1819-1872), Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), loan Slavici (1848-1925), Alexandru Davila (1862-1929) and Barbu Delavrancea (1858-1918).

The pace of Romanian drama was further enhanced in the period between the two world wars. Grave problems of human existence were contemplated and treated philosophically. 

Customs, crafts, art, costumes

Following, after many years, the steps of Brancusi who was taking to the world the experience of the Romanian folk culture, but in the opposite direction, that is, from the Eurpean West to the island of Eastern Romanity which is Romania, a reputed traveler, Giulio Carlo Argan, expressed his administration for the genius of the folk creator: " ... What interests us is to find that which may constitute the fertility of a folk ethos. From this viewpoint, Romania, which, as far as I could see, boasts the largest folk art in the world, is a country that may play a major role in the development of tomorrow's art. "

This enthusiastic appreciation refers to the important stock of works preserved in specialized museums, in reserves "in situ", but in mainly highlights the living character of the folk creation, the uninterrupted existence of the folk artist since immemorial time to the date. Actually, in spite of the changes brought about by time, and especially by this century, governed by modern technologies, in all regions of Romania the folk craftsmen continue to exist, to build up houses of wood, to shape the gates of their households into triumphal arches, to make their tools and objects necessary to the household, (even if these objects co-exist today with those industrially manufactured), making pottery, painting on wood and glass.

There are handicraft workshops in numerous centres all over the country and women still work at home on the weaving loom. The existence of these workshops has allowed, along centuries, for the preservation and continuity of crafts, handed down from father to son traditionally: pottery, carving in wood and stone, embroidery, painting, processing of metals and bone, egg painting, weaving of vegetal fibres. The study of folk art, has multiplied, along the years, the modalities of examining and interpreting the ancientness, continuity and originality of the Romanian ethnic culture.

In direct agreement with the formal balance, with the composition of space, the chromatic range of the folk artist is based on harmony, understood as a peaceful passage from a science of maintaining certain coloured surfaces in a state of peace. The costume, the textiles, the other categories of objects in the folk art breathe a sobriety of the colour, with nuances sometimes invested with symbols. The range and dosage of hues are used to create "signs of age", as is the case of the red-black combination in the costumes of the inhabitants of Padureni (Hunedoara-County), of Maramures and Oas. In this costume, the red dimishes with the age of the person wearing it, finally being replaced by black. The stylistic variety of the Romanian folk costume is infinite, always other in each zone. But all this variety of forms holds a basic common trait, so that no matter from which zone the costume, anybody can immediately recognize it as Romanian. On Trajan's Column (3rd century A.D.) in the Roman Forum in Rome, the Dacians on the bas-reliefs bear the costumes of today's Romanian peasants: the same posture and sometimes even the same heardo

Folk music

Folk music is an oral collective creation and art, by excellence. According to the performing manner it can be divided into three categories: vocal, instrumental and vocal-instrumental. They can be interpreted by individuals or by group,

The music folklore knowns three genres: lyrical, epic and dramatic. The lyrical genre includes: doina, lament, lullabies, songs of wedding and work. The epic genre: old age songs ballads, burial songs, disenchantments, wedding songs. The dramatic genre: the puppeteers, the evening sittings of the village women, the rainmakers.

The folklore of the winter season, occasioned by Christmas and the New Year, is represented by carols, wishmaking, and mask games.

The carol is one of the ancestral musical genres, partly practiced by the church, with a rich prophane content. Through the carol, wishes of thriving and happiness are addressed especially by groups of children or young people sometimes accompanied by instruments.

The mask games hold a strong magic substratum, lost iin the long run, preserved only as a musical ritual. The following games are known: the goat, turca and the deer in Transylvania, brezaia (a man masked as an animal dancing in front of the peasant's houses) in Wallachia, the old man, the goat and the bear in Moldavia. The goat and the bear game involves the masked man (as a goat or bear) and the train of musicians. The folk practice of mask games seems to descend from the ancient Dionysiac festivals.

The folk theatre is performed in a laic manner - in the Jienii, the New Year and the Old Year - and in a religious one in Herodes.

The Crown Song, one of the most spread genres in Transylvania, is related to the end of the wheat harvest. Calusarii is a dance with a magic load. It is performed by young men and its related to fecundity and to the initiation in the ancient cult of the Sun. Numerous songs are addressed to family life.

The nuptial songs and dances are most varied: vocal pieces - the song of the bride, of the groom, of the mother-in-law, of the dowry, of the fir-tree, of the hen, of the dawn; instrumental pieces: dances, marches, the dance of the bride, the basil, etc.

The burial folklore includes group songs - the dawn and the fir-tree - and individual songs - laments. The song of the dawn, a very old one, is performed by women at the window of the departed.

The folklore genres related to no special occasion are: the ballad and the doina.  

The ballad, also called the old-age song, is sung on the occasion of gatherings, before an audience; it has a wide theme range - over 300 themes are known. The masterpiece of the genre is the pastoral ballad  "Miorita".

Doina is so widely spread that it is often mistaken for the folk song proper. Doina features a musical style of a lyrical nature which conveys feelings of sadness, longing, nostalgia.

Folk dance

As a result of the co-existence of several stylistical strata, belonging to various epoches, the dances cover a wide range of genres, both musical and choreographic. Their picturesqueness lies in the syncretic nature - the dance is combined with music, poetry (chanted verse), costumes, gestures, ornaments. Dances can be classified into two large categories: entertaining and ritual. The most widely spread are: Sarba, Hora, Salcioara, Purtata, Invartita, Hategana, Barbuncul, Fecioreasca, Ardeleana, Ghimpul, Areanul, Ursareasca, Rustemul, Ariciul, Chindia, Alunelul, Oltenasul.

The Village Museum

Fruit of the sociological researches of a monographic nature in the rural regions - brain fathered by professor Dimitrie Gusti - the Village Museum opened its gates in 1936; this and the one from Skansen (Stockholm) are the first open-air ethnographic museums in the world. As intended by the organizers and the ones who have ensured the good running of this institution, the Village Museum is meant to offer, in an original synthesis, the image of the Romanian village such as it has developed along the time, as a repository of a specific spirituality. Located on the bank of the Herastrau Lake in Bucharest, the Museum is a reconstruction of the traditional Romanian village, including houses, household facilities and churches deemed typical for the main ethnographic regions of this country. The houses display their original complete inventory of objects (costumes, carpets, tools, pottery, etc.), thus contributing to the realistic reconstruction of the localities of the country.

We can find here original households, some of them built back in the 18th century, houses and churches made of wood, specific of the Maramures area, houses from Moldavia, the Apuseni Mountains, the Olt Valley, the Jiu Valley. Each household represents a universe in itself, expressing the qualities and inventiveness filtered generation by generation.

The Romanian TOURISM

The natural tourism resources of Romania which, due to their beauty and diversity, places it among the best endowed countries, can be turned to best account through the significant accumulations made in the process of reform which pursues the decentralissation and privatisation of this important sector of the national economic, on the one hand, and following the rehabilitation of the tourist infrastructure with benficial effects on service quality on the other hand.

An evaluation of the Romanian tourist industry shows that tourism can become one of the powerful export industry of Romania to actually compete wiht other countries. As a matter of fact, the development of the Romanian tourism is seen as an objective and a means of the economic-social development as a whole in the general context of the national policy of economic and social development and of integrationm in the European structures.

The development of Romania's tourist product should be made in three main directions: the achievement of a new, internationally competitiver tourist product based on cultural and natural values especially in mountain areas; the modernisation of the tourist product of the seaside and spa resorts; the development of the domestic offer in harmony with local and regional specific character.

The improvement and consolidation of the tourist product in the areas that are best known by foreign and Romanian tourists and where there alreay exist tourist facilities and infrastructure should be seen as a priority.

This means, among other things, to expand tourist structures in Bucharest - to upgrade the existing ones and develop new structures for business and leisure tourism; to ugrade Mamaia and Neptun seaside resorts for international and domestic tourism and develop the town of Constanta from a tourist point of view; to modernise and develop the tourist offer of the Brasov/Sinaia area for winter sports and summer tourism; to develop Northern Moldavia, including Suceava, Neamt and Iasi counties, as an integrated tourist product addressing the cultural tourism market; to develop cultural and mountain tou ism in Maramures, a region with rural traditions, magnificent landscape and wooden churches, as well as the spa of Borsa with a rich potential for winter sports; to develop the tourit offer of the Sibiu area for cultural tourism, tourist circuits an one-day excursions to the Brasov area; the development of the Fagaras Mountains area for mountaineering.

Also in the focus should be the tourist development of the Apuseni Mountains zone, of ecotourism in the Danube Delta and the capitalisation of the turist potential offered by the Danube.

During 1995 the private sector experienced remarkable development regarding accommodation facilities, a number of mini-hotels and boarding houses were set up. They are located in both new buildings and in older, modernised ones., situated in Bucharest as well as other towns in Romania. The spas, as a result of the privatisation process, have seen a great number of villas modernised, thus becoming more friendly and hospitable.

In some of the counties of Romania, which have special potential for rural tourism, the peasant's houses selected for tourist accommodation have been subjected to criteria used by other countries with sound traditions in this field. Thus, at Bran, a locality situated in an extremely picturesque area, in the vicinity stands the famous castle of the same name, making it one of the places of greatest interest for those on the Dracula tours, a number of boarding houses and farms are ready to welcome tourists from Romania and abroad. The foreign tourists will find in this type of accommodation the chance to come into a direct contact with the traditions of the Romanian people, as well as with the hospitality and genuine cuisine of each zone of the country.

The "National Association of Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism in Romania" (ANTREC) has already started identifying and rendering the rural potential profitable, for the professional training of those working in this field, for the promotion of this tourist product in Romania and abroad.

As for restaurants, bars, coffee-shops, etc, important changes have been noticed as a result of the increase and diversifying effect of private capital. In Bucharest and in other major towns as well as in the areas of tourist interest, new trading networks specialised in pastries, pizza, fast-food and so on, offer fast, quality services. The restaurants specialised in traditional Romanian and international foods (Chinese, Italian, Arab, etc.) are also quickly developing.

The supply of diversional and recreational facilities is developing according to the demands of national and international tourism: new bars, nigh-clubs, casinos, discotheques have all been opened. It is worth mentioning the expanding of casinos equipped with modem infrastructure located in large towns or in localities of tourist interest.

 Main programmes and tourist arrangements

Romanian tourism offers as main programmes and arrangements, sejours on the Romanian sea-coast, mountain holidays in summer and winter, as well as balnear cure in various spas throughout the country, as well as in clinics with Romanian original therapy, tours including certain areas of cultural and hisotrical interests, organisation of congresses" symposya, hunting and angling parties to which opportunities are adding for individual tourism throughout the country.

Opportunities for foreign investors in Romanian tourism

A basic component of the strategy and programmes for reorganising the Romanian tourist industry is to attract foreign capital for investments in the infrastructure of hotels, restaurants and entertainment centres.