voyage en Roumanie

THE NAME OF THE COUNTRY

AS IT APPEARS ON ITS STAMPS

Quite often people ask questions about the name of Romania, especially because it appears differently, depending of the period when the stamps were issued. This is possible the first attempt in the philatelic literature to give a full explanation of the different modes in which this country's name was written, with some explanations why the name apparently changed.

The Romanian people names its country România, with the emphasis on the "i". Please note the circumflex accent on the "a". This vowel doesn't exist in English, but is very used in Russian (written as "y" in English) and Turkish languages. Try to read it as the second "e" in the English word "yesterday".

In English the name of the country is either Romania or Rumania. I prefer the first version, because it is closer to the name of the country in Romanian, and also to its origin (Roma, the capital of Italy, in Italian). In older stamp catalogues (like Stanley Gibbons) the name of the country appears sometimes as Roumania. Roumanie is the name of the country in French, Rumynia in Russian, Rumänien in German.

On the Romania stamps the name of the country appears in the following forms:

The different forms, mentioned above, appear through the history of Rumanian stamps. In the following table I will try to show when which form were used when. Then below the table I'll try to explain also why the name changed. Please note that the names weren't used very consistently through the time.

Period of TimeCountry's NameExampleJanuary 9/21, 1865 to

February 15/27, 1872

+

July 1880 to October 14, 1889

POSTA ROMéNAOctober 1/13, 1872 to

November 10, 1947 (*)

ROMéNIA or ROMéNIA POSTA or

POSTA ROMéNA

January 25, 1948 to

April 15, 1954

REPUBLICA POPULARA ROMéNA or R.P. ROMéNA

POSTA

Mai 26, 1954 to

March 25, 1964

REPUBLICA POPULARA ROMéNA or R.P. ROMéNA

or

POSTA ROMéNA

April 25, 1964 to

April, 1996 (**) (***)

POSTA ROMéNAMarch, 1996 to

Today

ROMéNIA

Comment

Some tried to explain the change of May 26, 1954 by the fact that Stalin, the USSR dictator, forced Romania to change the rules to make the language more Slavic in form, although a few exceptions, such as "România", were allowed to survive. The i-form,of "Romînia" would not look very good. [The Rough Guide to Romania, by Rough Guides (Editor), Tim Burford, Norm Longley (Contributor), Dan Richardson].

Actually Stalin died April 30, 1953. It's about a year after his death that his true followers changed the orthography, so that country's name changed accordingly, to ROMINIA. It wasn't more Slavic than earlier, but, and this was important, it was more distant from ROMA, Italy's capital. That meant more distant from the Western Civilization, from the

The theory that asserts that it's under Stalin's pressure only that the orthography and the name of the country were changed, was pushed by the Romanian communist rulers (those who earlier executed Stalin's orders), in order to look better in the eyes of their own population. We see here how Western sources have taken the propaganda of the Romanian Communist Party without the necessary precaution.

Where is located Romania?

Where is located Romania: in Eastern Europe, in Southeast Europe, in Central Europe, in Europe at all? OK, because the last question seems a bit strange to you, please keep reading.

We will begin with a true story. A Romanian citizen (name of the country purposely changed) voted with his feet and arrived in the country of his dreams - Switzerland. He met there a nice Swiss girl (actually his future wife, but he didn't knew the end of the story yet), and, during a flowery afternoon of May, the girl proudly presented her freshly discovered boyfriend to her exact Swiss mother. Because, understandably enough, guy's German was different from the local dialect, quite the first question he was asked by his future mother-in-law was about his country of origin. The question isn't unusual in Switzerland, where about each 6th citizen was at that time a foreigner. To mother's stupefaction, the guy answered that he came from... Romania, at what the poor mother commented, totally confused: "But you know, *we* are Europeans!" This happened mid 1960s.

We show below some maps of the eastern Europe, found on the Web, and also publish near to them some classifications of some European countries, that follow criteria like positions related to North, South, East of West of the continent, or geographic criteria like Balkan, Baltic, Caucasus. Please note the different opinions concerning the location of different countries, and eventually try to find out a certain tendency.

Russian and East European Network Information Center (REENIC)

Balkan:

Albania

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Macedonia

Romania

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

Central Asia

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Tajikistan

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

Courtesy of

Coming back to the above story, just to remind you that it happened during the period of the Cold War and of the so called Iron Curtain, that separated two different kind of societies, the free Western countries from the Socialist Camp. For this reason, for many inhabitants of the Western Europe the limit of the Europe that they knew was at the East of Finland, West Germany, Austria and Italy. This psychological limit was actually more than real, because too few of acquaintances went there or came from there, dead or alive.

Fortunately, the political situation changed dramatically after the year 1989, and consequently a lot of countries re-appeared on the horizon. Even new names, for along time forgotten, like Croatia of Bosnia, were permanently mentioned in the (always bad) news.

Canadian International Development Agency

Balkans

- Albania

- Bosnia and Herzegovina

- Bulgaria

- Croatia

- Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

- Macedonia

- Moldova

- Romania

- Slovenia

Baltic States

- Estonia

- Latvia

- Lithuania

Courtesy of:

For this reason some Westerners became interested in what happens "there", and some of them even dared to personally visit these recently liberated countries. This brought with it a certain change of the external limits of Europe too, and many remembered some obscure geography lessons where they were told that actually the Eastern limit of Europe are marked by the range of the Ural Mountains and the Ural river. Just to mention that these distant places are a bit more familiar to the author of this story then to to Westerners, among he lives at time, because he was born just there, in Ural.

And suddenly a strange thing happened -- not only people, but the very center of Europe started to wander to the East too. There were the Czechs, Croats and other Romanians who begun to "pretend" that they never lived in the Eastern Europe. So that, little by little, on the one hand in order to be polite with them, on the other hand facing their strong geographical arguments, the center of Europe started to stepwise drift toward... Ukraine.

Because the stamp collectors are among those particularly interested in geopolitics, we include a philatelic reference, the largely known US Scott catalogue, 1999 Edition:

- Lithuania. Location: Northern Europe bordering on the Baltic Sea

- Czechoslovakia. Location: Central Europe.

- Romania. Location: Southeastern Europe, bordering on the Black Sea

- Ukraine. Location: In Southeastern Europe, bordering on the Black Sea

- Poland. Location: Europe between Russia and Germany.

- Russia. Location: Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.

Courtesy of:

Why so far away, actually? OK, we'll answer by a hopefully easily understandable "technical" note: A meridian that splits the Europe in two equal parts passes through... Ukraine. One who knows that Switzerland is in the Central Europe and who will try finding out where is the symmetrical point, as referred to the mentioned meridian, in order to find out till where the Central Europe actually extends to the East, will have a big surprise. We had it too - the limit falls somewhere in Caucasus.. Well, not only the times, but also the positions, we are meaning those memorized by our brains, they are changin' too.

Please see on the above map a graphical representation for the limits of the Central Europe. The lines painted in this color shows the Western (Portugal) and the Eastern (Ural) limits of Europe, and the line between them, having the same color splits the Europe in two equal parts. Please notice that is passes through Lithuania, Ukraine and Moldova. Optically, the line doesn't seem to be in the middle, but please consider that in this projection of Europe, the continent is seen from the height of Austria, and consequently the Eastern part of Europe is shown compressed. At best, take a look at Europe as shown on the Earth's globe, in order of see the real dimensions.

The blue line that starts in Switzerland (a typical Central European country) goes to the line that splits in two the continent and is then prolonged by an approximate same distance to the East. The blue line, parallel to the Ural mountains, demarks the Eastern limit of the Central Europe. At its South part it crosses... Georgia.

Returning to the question that we have asked in the title (Where is located Romania?), we infer that Romania is clearly located in the Central Europe, and by no means in the Eastern Europe!

Credits: Many thanks to Dr. Georg Dobrovolny,

In the year 1868 a new currency was introduced on stamps, that replaced the older one, from Turk, Parale.

The name of this currency, one that survived till today, is LEU.

Singular: 1 leu (means one lion

Plural: 2 or more lei

The Leu was subdivided into 100 Bani, something that never changed since 1868.

Singular: 1 Ban

Plural: 2 or more Bani (bani means also money)

1 leu = 100 bani

On the stamps, the name of leu (lei) can appear either fully, or abbreviated as L. The abbreviation for ban (bani) is b.

When Lei appears before the numeric value, it is correct to write: LEI 1, Lei 2.

It is also correct 1 + 1 LEI for surcharged stamps.

On the stamps issued 1894 and later there are also values written as 1 BANI 1. This can be considered correct, because BANI 1 is (even is 1 BANI isn't, correct being 1 Ban).

The Epoch of Dacs

and Romans on Romanian Stamps

History would be an excellent thing if it would be true

Lev Tolstoi

We know that over 2000 years ago there was a people living on the actual territory of Romania, mainly in Transylvania and Oltenia, named the Dacs. They where organized in a kingdom and where ruled by a warrior king named Burebista. This king practiced what all other tribes tried also, i.e. invasions on the territory of the richest country of that time, the Roman Empire, and forced its population to "share" with him and with his fighters their most precious goods. The Romans reacted, but they lost some battles, being ruled at that time by a weak emperor named Domitian.

This worked a certain time, but all changed when an young and ambitious Roman emperor, named Trajanus, decided to stop the bleeding. A first war (101-102 AD) between the Dacs, then lead by their king Decebal (Decibalus), and Romans ended by a defeat of Dacs and a peace treaty that foresaw the destruction of Dacs' fortresses and a Roman supervision of the Dacs' territory.

Decebal quickly reconstructed the destroyed fortress and found new allies among Romans' enemies. For this reason Trajanus started a second war against the Dacs (105-106 AD). A Greek architect, named Apollodor of Damascus, built a bridge over the Danube at Drobeta (today Turnu Severin), considered a technical miracle of that time.

After terrible battles the Roman legions won the war and entered in Sarmizegetusa, the capital of Dacs kingdom. The King Decebal committed suicide, avoiding being brought to Rome as a slave in the triumphal procession of Trajanus. The territory was renamed Dacia and it was ruled as a Roman colony. Colonists were brought from the whole Roman empire in order to replace the populations that died during the war. In a short time the colony became very prosperous, and will be known under the name of Dacia felix (the Happy Dacia).

We have many information about the wars between the Romans and the Dacs thanks to the victory column build by Traianus after the war (Columna Traiana, located in Rome), one that survived by a miracle during two millenniums. This old history gives a first explanation why there is a population in the North of the Danube river that speaks for centuries a language derived from Latin, and this despite of being surrounded by populations that all speak Slavic languages (with the exception of Hungarians, who speak a language related to Finnish).

If you are interested in more information about the stamps shown above and about their relationship with the history of Dacs and Romans, please move the mouse pointer over them and read the text that appears in the pop-up window.

Note. The ironic jest of the Russian writer Lev Tolstoi, put as a motto of this page, doesn't refer the the history told above, this one being generally accepted, but to its continuation. We know for sure that in 271 AD the Roman Emperor Aurelianus decided the evacuation of Dacia, because his army couldn't protect anymore a colony located so far away from Rome. About what happened afterwards with the population living on this territory different historians hold different opinions, that (too) often depended on their political and national views and sympathies. These quarrels are fortunately of lesser important for us, the stamp collectors.

The three sets shown above present peasant houses from Romania. The first set was issued on Dec.25, 1963, Scott 1590 - 1596. The second set was issued in July 21, 1986 and commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Open Air Museum of Historic Dwellings in Bucharest, Scott 3387 - 3392. The third set was issued on Feb. 8, 1989 and present the architecture of Romanian peasants houses. Please move the mouse index over the stamps for more information about the individual stamps.

Victor Manta, PWO, AIJP. Suisse

The renown Romanian (Moldavian) coat of arms stamps issued in 1858 belong to the jewels of the world philately. Hand stamped in very small quantities, they were already collected by the greatest stamps collectors of the past, like Count Ferrari and Burrus.

They display the head of a (probably mythical) animal named Bour and for this reasons they are known in Romanian under the name of Capete de Bour. This animal is the symbol of Moldova (Moldavia) and his head appears also on later Romanian stamps, because Moldova became later a province of Romania. The recently becoming independent Republic of Moldova has also good reasons to consider these stamps as its first stamps. The values shown by the stamps are: 2 parale, 54 parale, 81 parale, 108 parale. The stamps presented above were sold in 1999 auction of the Swiss auction house Corinphila.

See above some fake stamps, fabricated in Romania in 1881, and known under the name of Moroiu fakes. A 135 parale value is the result of the big fantasy of the faker, the highest issued value being of 108 parale. They aren't very dangerous, like the so called Sperati fakes. Next to it please take a look at the 40 parale value from the second Bull's Heads issue, 1859.

Dracula is a famous character of the writer Bram Stocker (1847-1912), inspired by a Valachian prince of the 15th century. Describing the archetype of a vampire, the Dracula novel, published in 1897, was at the origin of numerous movies, like F. Murnau's "Nosferatu the Vampire (1922), and of those directed by T. Browning (1931) and T. Fisher (1958).

Dracula lived in a castle situated in the middle of Carpathian mountains, in the region of Transilvania. Valachia and Transilvania are parts of Romania, and for this reason the Romanian Postal Administration has issued on May 5, 1997 a set of interesting stamps dedicated to Dracula and to his archetype, the Prince Vlad. The mentioned set was issued as part of a general European postal action, dedicated to "Stories and Legends".

The stamp of 400L shows the portrait of the Prince Vlad and that of 4250L displays an image of the terrific vampire (brrrr!). Both labels show the feared Dracula's castle, where upon the legend the victims quenched the thirst of the vampire with their own blood.

Strangly enough, the young and nice female victims weren't totally innocent, because upon legend the vampire could begin the feast only when his victims agreed to the moods of their preferred blood sucker.

The labels display the text: Povesti si legende, meaning Stories and Legends. The whole set was designed by the artist P. Comisarschi. The run was of 120,000 sets, that were issued in sheets of 12 stamps and 8 labels. Please note the big difference in face values of both stamps (practically an one to ten ratio).

The postcard, showing the Vlad Tepes Tower in the Carol I parc of Bucharest, was issued by the Internationa Forum of Postcards Collectors, Bucharest 1999.

Please take a look at the portrait of the Prince Vlad (known under the name Tepes = the Impaler), the son of a prince known under an even so nice name: Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Devil). Vlad Tepes (1431-1476), pronounced as Tzepesh, has reigned during the years 1448, 1456-1462 and 1476. Even if he wasn't a vampire, he was renowned for being extremely cruel. Tepes and the powerful boyars (reach land owners) permanently fought each other, and very often Tepes' the Impaler enemies finished their lives quite uncomfortably, on the top of piles.

The miniature sheet commemorates the 500th anniversary of the founding by the Prince Vlad of the city of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The sheet was designed by Serban Zainea. The face value is of Lei 20, and the print run was of only 30'000 pieces.

ROMANIA IN THE WORLD WAR I

Because the Romanian PA hasn't issued special stamps related to the WWI during the war, we show some interesting postcards, displaying foreign soldiers and the common text: Our Allies. They were designed by Steurer. In the first row soldiers from: England, Russia (Cossack), and France.

The above soldiers are from: Japan, Belgium, and Serbia.

FROM DICTATORSHIP TO FASCISM

AND BACK (PART ONE)

Carol II (1893-1953) was the king of Romania between 1930 and 1940. Son of the King Ferdinand I, Carol was born in Sinaia. He became crown prince in 1914, when his father ascended the throne. His first marriage, to a commoner, was dissolved, and in 1921 he married a Greek princess. Four years later he left his wife, renounced his right to the throne, and went into exile in order to live with his mistress, Magda Lupescu. He returned in 1930, at the invitation of Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu, and he was crowned king, replacing his young son, Michael, who had been placed on the throne under a regency in 1927. Despite opposition from the politicians, Lupescu joined Carol II in 1931.

Following his authoritarian bent, Carol gave covert support to the Iron Guard, the Romanian Fascist movement, but later became alarmed by its grows and popularity. A contest between the king and the fascist Iron Guard ensued, with assassinations and massacres on both sides. He then (1938) established a royal dictatorship and had the Iron Guard leaders executed.

The country remained neutral at the outbreak (1939) of World War II, but in 1940 it became a neutral partner of the Axis powers (Germany and Italy). Romania was powerless (1940) to resist Soviet demands for Bessarabia and N Bucovina or to oppose Bulgarian and Hungarian demands, backed by Germany, for the S Dobrogea, the Banat, Crisana-Maramures, and part of Transylvania. The Iron Guard, thirsty of power, rose in rebellion against Carol's surrender of these territories. King Carol was deposed (1940) and exiled, and Michael returned to the throne. The army gained increased influence and the Marshal Ion Antonescu became dictator. His next step will be the creation of a National-Legionary State.

Carol II was a passionate stamp collector, and also for this reasons during his reign appeared some of the most beautiful Romanian stamps.

The photograph was taken in Caribbean, in exile, after the abdication of Carol II.

FROM DICTATORSHIP TO FASCISM

AND BACK (PART TWO)

Nicolae Iorga, 1871-1940, was a Romanian historian and statesman. A professor at the University of Bucharest, he founded (1910) and later led the National Democratic party; after World War I he was president of the Romanian national assembly. In 1931-32 he was premier of a coalition government under King Carol II. In November, 1940, Iorga was murdered by the Iron Guard legionnaires. His many fine historical works include detailed studies of Romanian religion, education, and literature, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (5 vol., 1908-13), and History of the Rumanians (10 vol., 1935-39, in Romanian). After 1965, Iorga's reputation as a great nationalist

ROMANIA IN WORLD WAR II

A PACT WITH THE DEVIL AGAINST HIS BROTHER

ROMANIA IN THE WW II

THE "LIBERATION" OF BUCOVINA AND TRANSNISTRIA

Source: Microsoft Encarta, Simon Wiesenthal Multimedia Learning

ROMANIA IN WORLD WAR II

MICHAEL, THE LAST ROMANIAN KING

Farming in the Post - W.W.II Romania

As Shown on Its Stamps

In 1907 Romania, at that time a still underdeveloped country, has known an uprising of a part of its peasantry against the remainder of feudal rules and the resultant poverty. The stamp below in the middle was issued in a set celebrating the birth anniversary of the most important Romanian dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale. It shows a page of his book "1907 - From Spring to Fall" and the well known painting "1907" of the Romanian painter Octav Bancila (1872 - 1944), Sc. 814. The same painting was shown on a stamp issued in May 1967, Scott 1923. The Romanian government has bloodily repressed this also bloody uprising, but in 1920, thanks also to collaboration of big ground owners, it has operated a large reform and put an important part of poor peasantry in possession of ground. Thanks to a new dynamic due to a certain freedom to act, the farming has progressed then, and Romania became between the world wars of the 20th century an important exporter, often mentioned at that time as "The Granary" of the Europe.

The situation radically changed after the W.W.II. Romania was practically occupied by the USSR, that imposed its own (pro-communist, then later entirely communist) government and the unique party system. To "celebrate" the new rulers of the country, Romanian post has issued many stamps with Lenin (first on Jan. 21, 1949, not shown) and even one with Stalin, as perforated and imperforated (see above on the right, Sc. 718, Stalin's 70th birth anniversary). Stalin's portrait is shown because the Romanian government will step by step implement the strategy that Stalin implemented in the Soviet Union, in order to "socialize" the agriculture of his country and to make the farmers, like all other social strata, dependent of the communist state.

The first act of the communist government in the farming domain was the agrarian reform law of March 23, 1945. The big land owners (most of them fled the country) were expropriated and their land was distributed to peasantry. The reform was much less extensive that the reform of 1920, but was presented as the final solution of the agrarian problem. Above one can see on the sheet the Prime Minister Petru Groza personally distributing new property documents (sheet issued in June 1946, Mi. Block 31).

This measure won for a short time sympathizers and voters for the new government. As usually after such reforms, a famine shortly followed (see above the "Help to Starving" sheet).

The second act started in 1949, under the ruling of the First Secretary of the Romanian Workers Party, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej (see above the stamp, Sc. 1822, and the sheet). The communist party officials, using the forces of the Securitate (Secret Police) and of the army, started by imposing to the majority of farmers the joining of the so called collective farms (named "kolkhoz" in USSR). The farmers were practically deprived of their ground and cattle, and were obliged to work together in these units. The recalcitrant who refused to join the collective farms were crudely repressed. The opposition of the peasantry was so important that the government hasn't dared to issue stamps on this event till 1951/1952.

The stamp issued in 1956 and labeled "5 years from the founding of collective farms, 1951 - 1956" is one of the most interesting in the Romanian post - W.W.II philately. It was issued the July 23, 1956 and was withdrawn after only a few days. The authors of the stamps have obviously taken the provisions of the Five Years Plan of 1951 as the starting point of collectivization, and not the earlier decision of the Communist party, that actually started the collectivization of agriculture. On October 18, 1956 the stamp was replaced by a new one, with the exactly same design (not shown, Sc. 1107), marked "7 years of collective farm, 1949 - 1956".

On April 27, 1959 the post issued a set of 8 values, commemorating Ten Years of collective farming (Sc. 1269 - 1277.) The set is uninteresting, but some stamps display interesting labels, like Breed Fowls of Good Race, The Collective Farm "The Way to Abundance", More Milk, etc. One can understand also from this impulses that the collective farms continue for miserably performing in Romania, as in all other countries that applied the same system The most of production during those years actually came from the small individual parcels near its houses, that the peasantry could freely work.

On April 27, 1962. was issued a set of 3 stamps (many thanks to Tom from UK for the scans), celebrating the Full Collectivization of the agriculture. This was the third act, the goal of the socialization of the whole Romanian farming being thus attained. The great result of this action will be that Romania, an important exporter of cereals before the W.W.II, will be obliged to import them, in order to feed its population.

The sheet shown above was issued on June 29, 1982, Sc. 3076. Logically enough, it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the full collectivization of the farming in Romania. But it shows also the beginning of the forth and final farming act of the communist regime - the so called modernization of villages. The idea came from the secretary seneral of the Communist Party and Romania's president, Nicolae Ceausescu, shown above, on the right, on a stamp dedicated to his 70th birth anniversary (1987, Scott 3503) and 55 years of "revolutionary activity". He appears also on the stamp issued in 1986, Sc. 3379, dedicated to 65 years passed since the founding of the Romanian communist party. Just to note that Ceausescu was then 3 years old, this being just another expression of Ceausescu's personality cult, a Romania wide movement orchestrated by himself.

Ceausescu decided to move by force the peasantry into blocks of flats, and to destroy the individual houses, in order to better control the rural population. The opposition that came from many villages (and less from governments) of Western Europe, twinned by the Operation Romanian Villages to Romanian ones in order to save them, slowed down a bit this last plan of the collectivization of the farming life. The fall of the Communism in 1989 put an end to this long destructive period of the Romanian farming life.

Usually this sort of title leads to an article about the horrors of Nazism. This page is a bit different. It deals with horrors which the mainstream of modern historians and philosophers try to evade or forget - the crimes of Communism in the 20th century. The reason for this evasion is simple to understand. Most of the intellectuals still believe that the basic ideas behind Communism are generous and that only the implementation failed. Different reasons are given: bad places, bad people, bad moments.

The purpose of this page is to illustrate, using some partly largely philatelic materials, how Communism was chosen (or imposed) and what consequences it had for people who had its extermination machine. The horrible Nazism period had a duration of about twelve years, and even if it finished over 50 years ago, it is still fully in the center of attention. Unfortunately, we hear much less about the fate of over a billion people who live today under communism. This short historical presentation, based on philatelic material, is therefore more relevant than ever.

ROMANIA, THE DANUBE - BLACK SEA CANAL

The first work on this canal started at the beginning of the 1950's. The freshly installed Communist regime decided eliminating many people it declared as enemies, and silencing the rest of the population at the same time. The Canal was an immense concentration camp, with many thousands of prisoners. During those times a "political" joke was sufficient for rejoining the camps. Some of prisoners were not allowed to even use overcoats during the very cold local winters nor to receive medical aid. A lot of prisoners died of cold, inhuman working and living conditions, and lack of medical attention.

Thirty years later, more exactly in October 1975, the Romanian President Ceausescu, a loyal follower of those criminals who preceded him as rulers, restarted this megalomaniac project and, spending billions of dollars that his starving country badly needed, succeeded in finishing the works. At the time the project was restarted, water transportation had already begun being replaced by road transport, a development that only accelerated later and made the whole investment useless. The works started on another route, south of the city of Constanta, and they were finished in 1981. Later was finished also the part Poarta Alba - Midia - Navodari, one that practically followed the route of the old Canal.

Please notice on the material presented above the evolution of the name of the country from Republica Populara Romana toward the Republica Socialista Romania. Neither translation nor further comments are necessary.

CENSUS AND MAPS

Census: periodic governmental count of population (Merriam-Webster, 1989). The idea of this page comes from a discussion in which my talking partner wondered if it would be possible to write something interesting about the census stamps. In my opinion it is possible; it is up to my readers to judge if I succeeded or not in this task.

The above stamps were issued on December 24, 1930 by the Romanian post (Scott 380-383, Mi. 393-396). I have got them for free from a Romanian collector, because I have bought some stamps from him in a philatelic club in Bucharest (opened daily on the Calea Dorobanti) and because they aren't in perfect shape. These are the first Romanian census stamps. They were issued in a period when the country experienced a long period of economic expansion. The stamp valued 1 Leu shows the map of Romania (at that time 20% bigger than today); the other three stamps show a mother with her child, the mother holding a census card in her left hand. The print run was of 200,000 sets.

The blue stamp above, on the left, was issued on January 25, 1948. It is the Scott 678, Mi. 1093. It was printed in 1,000,000 copies. On the right is shown its overprinted version of 1952, Sc. 819A, Mi 1299 (print run: 96,150) . It is not a simply coincidence this was the first stamp of the newly proclaimed Romanian Popular Republic, the census being a political and economic action, perfectly planned by the new communist government . The information collected during this mandatory census was later used in the process of nationalization, i.e. of confiscation of private properties by the state, without compensation.

The census stamps of 1948 displays the new map of the country and some workers and peasants. The new map of the country can be easily compared with that shown on the stamp issued in 1930 and with that shown on the sheet dedicated to the so called "Great Union", issued in 1994 (we show here the already corrected version of the sheet, that was firstly issued in 1993, when the 75th anniversary of the union was celebrated). Take also a look on the Tourism sheet, issued in 1967, Sc.1937. The missing provinces from the North-East, named Bessarabia and Bucovina, were (re)annexed by the neighbor and "liberator", the USSR, after the WW II.

Eight years later the socialist state, now victorious in each respect over his own people, wanted a confirmation of its politics and organized a new census. This is reflected on the green stamps shown above, Scott 1081 & a, Michel 1564 & I, the print run of the regular stamp being of 832,000 pieces. The rare variety displayed on the left has the center inverted. On the image one can recognize a happy family with two children and the inverted map of Romania. The whole country was actually turned upside down, and this during tragic 45 years. To be complete, we show also the (blue) census stamp issued in 1992, Sc. 3693.

The National Museum

of Art of Romania

Byzantium after Byzantium

The theory of the Byzantine permanence has today an ever increasing number of proponents. A radical branch of modern historiography placed the fall of the Lower Empire in 1204, with the establishing of the "Latins" in Constantinople; the chronology in most textbooks stops at the year of the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, 1453, when the Byzantine political power disappeared, destroyed by the armies of Mehmed II.

Nevertheless, historians no longer deny that for centuries, until the down of the modern age with the establishment of national states in Southeastern Europe, the institutions and ideas in this part of the world preserved and defended the only form of civilization to which they were culturally connected: those of Byzantium.

The different stamps displayed above show monasteries and churches from Romania. Please move the mouse pointer over the stamps for more information

The National Museum

of Art of Romania

Art in Monasteries

Byzantium endured through people and through autonomies, namely through that which, spiritually or politically, had maintained a relative freedom after the conquest of Constantinople. Among the people - exiles, clerics, scholars, merchants, and high officials - the most important were the archons and the princes.

Among the autonomies, the most powerful and the most efficient were Moldavia and Walachia, much more so than the Christian communities on the continent or on the islands, at Athos or in the oriental patriarchies.

The different stamps displayed above show monasteries and churches from Romania. Please move the mouse pointer over the stamps for more information

The National Museum

of Art of Romania

The Curtea de Arges Cathedral

and the Princess Roxanda

The National Museum of Art of Romania re-opened recently, so I took advantage of my trip to Bucharest for pay a visit to the museum. From the Department of Medieval Art I have chosen to show you on this page a fresco fragment of the master Dobromir from Targoviste, painted in 1526. The fragment was taken from the cathedral in Curtea de Arges (read Arjesh) and shows one of the founders' portraits, originally located in the pronaos. The fragment was detached in 1881 - 1886, during a restoration.

The Curtea de Arges cathedral and monastery is the place where many princes and kings of Romania are buried. The fresco on the stamp above, displayed on the left, shows the Walachian prince Neagoe Basarab, the initial founder of the cathedral and the first prince who was buried there, in 1521. The cathedral was sanctificated by Patriarch Teolipt I of Constantinopole, who created an ecumenical center at this seat (after N. Iorga). The fresco showing the Prince Basarab is situated in the cathedral itself. The stamp shown below on the left, dedicated to the 475th anniversary of the monastery, presents also the Prince Neagoe Basarab and his wife, the Princess Despina Militza.

The Curtea de Arges cathedral appeared several times on the Romanian stamps, so I have the privilege to show many of them throughout this page. Unfortunately the fresco of Princess Roxanda hasn't appeared on a stamp yet, but it is so interesting that I have put it on this page too, in the hope that this wonderful work of art will be one day shown by the Romanian post.

Monastery

A nun monastery consecrated to St.George, Voronet lies at walking distance from the Gura Humorului town. An old Romanian chronicle written by Ion Neculce records that Stephen the Great founded Voronet Monastery in 1488 to fulfil a pledge to the hermit Daniil who had encouraged the ruling prince of Moldavia to chase the Turks from Wallachia. After having won the battle against the Turks, Stephen erected Voronet in three months and 21 days, on the very spot Daniil had his small wooden hermitage.

Its interior and exterior paintings were made later on, between 1534-1535, during prince Petru Rares' rule and at the behest of Metropolitan Grigore Rosca, a salient scholar of his time, who also added to it a porch in 1547.

Voronet Monastery is probably the most accomplished sample of artistic achievement in Moldavian architecture and painting. The monastery was built at a time of peace with the Turks, when Stephen had centralized the state, giving a new impetus to its economy and culture.

The Church has a trefoil form proper to the medieval Moldavian architectural style, predominantly Byzantine. Voronet is quite impressive by its size, i.e. 25.50 m long (apart from the porch), and 7.70 m wide. The doors of the porch have a Renaissance framing, whereas the stone carvings of the broken arches at doors and windows belong to the Gothic style. The existence of exterior buttresses signal a Roman and Gothic architectural influence in the strengthening of constructions, and hence the affiliation to western styles of art.

The paintings on the church walls which have been made by masters whose names remained unknown, except that of Marcu, master painter, whose name is inscribed on the left side of the entrance door, have a distinctive chromatic harmony, a special manner of composition, nerve and clarity. They are imbued with the softness and warmth of the Moldavian spirit, whereas their colors were drawn from the surrounding nature abounding in blue and green.

Voronet Monastery has been dubbed the "Oriental Sistine Chapel", whereas Voronet blue, a color obtained from lapis lazuli entered the lexicon of art alongside Titian red and Veronese green.

The artistic approach of painters has a warm humanism, as religious scenes depict Moldavian living people of those times. Thus the angels of the frescoes have the sweet faces of Moldavian women, the archangels blow the bucium - a Romanian shepherd's musical instrument similar to an alpenhorn-, the souls carried to heaven are wrapped in Moldavian towels, whereas the souls doomed to the fire of hell wear turbans just like the Turks - Moldavia's fierce enemies at the time.

The "Resurrection of the Dead", a very dramatic scene, is performed to the sound of the bucium. The animals, too, take part in the judgement, handing back fragments of human torsos to complete the bodies that were torn to pieces by wild beasts. The deer alone has nothing to hand back, for in Romanian folklore it stands for innocence. At the Gate of Heaven people rush to get in; the painter wishes to express humorously how people hurry to enter the Garden of Eden.

The southern wall displays "Jesse's Tree", the fabulous genealogy of Jesus. A fresco including eight panels and almost one hundred characters develops in luxurious interweaving of vine branches and tendrils. Also on the southern side are painted the portraits of Grigore Rosca and Daniil the Hermit.

On the northern wall, more exposed to the elements of weather, there are still a few elements representing the "Creation of the World" and a popular legend, "Temptation of Adam", which is also painted at Sucevita and Moldovita monasteries.

Among the paintings on the interior walls of the church mentioned should be made of "The Last Supper", wheareas the nave holds a painting representing Stephen the Great, his wife, Lady Maria Voichita, and their son, Bogdan. The chair of the ruler in the church is a masterpiece of wood carving.

The history of the Romanian culture has included Voronet Monastery as a place of reference where historic and religious works were issued. Among them, it is worth mentioning "The Old Manuscript from Voronet" and "The Psalm Book from Voronet". Daniil the Hermit has been canonized as a saint and celebrated by the Orthodox Church on the 18th of December; his tomb is to be found on the right hand side of the narthex. (Source: after a Romanian travel site).

Background: Voronet Monastery, outer wall painting.

Links to other Monastery Frescoes pages:

Monastery

The first monastery erected on the site was the one built by Alexander the Kind-Hearted (Alexandru cel Bun, 1400-1432), between 1402 and 1410, but it collapsed at the beginning of the 16th century because of the very heavy rains and ground sliding; its ruins can still be seen today. Moldovita Monastery that one can we see today dates back to 1532 and is due to ruling prince Petru Rares (1532-1546)*. It has, like Sucevita, the aspect of a fortress, with imposing towers and high, thick walls (6 m high, 1.2 m wide). According to the architectural tradition set by Stephen the Great (Stefan cel Mare), the church has a three-cusped plan, as well as an open porch. The masters who painted its interior and exterior walls have decorated them with scenes from 16th century Moldavian daily life.

But the most interesting painting is the Siege of Constantinople on the south façade, relating to the Romanians' fights against foreign invasions, especially Turks. The painting combines scenes of the siege of Constantinople from 1453 with others referring to a previous such attempt made by the Persians, in 626. The frescoes are due to Toma of Suceava and were painted in 1537, when Petru Rares had not yet given up his fight against the Sultan.

Against an intense blue background, you can also see the Hymn to the Virgin composed by Metropolitan Sergius in thanksgiving for her intervention, while further along is a lovely Tree of Jesse, with dozens of figures entwined in a foliage. The Last Judgement is also present, and displays apocalyptic images of dignitaries being taken along by Satan to Hell.

Another valuable fresco is that of the Customs of Heaven, also present at Humor, Arbore and Voronet monasteries, which is inspired by folk legends. In the ¿customs' of heaven, the souls are judged as soon as they have died and go over several barriers before they enter Paradise with the angels' help, after having paid their tribute to devil publicans. This is the origin of an old Romanian tradition of throwing coins into a dead person's coffin or into the recently dug grave, or throwing coins into the rivers that are crossed over by a burial procession on their way to the graveyard.

On the right side of the nave, there is a mural painting of Petru Rares and his family, presenting the monastery to Jesus.

Moldovita's frescoes along with the ones at Voronet, have best preserved their colours which are astonishingly fresh and vivid. The two-story "clisarnita" with a circular tower houses a rich museum with 17th and 18th century books, as well as other monastic treasures, including a silver-chased Evangelistry presented by Catherine the Great, empress of Russia. The latter piece has not only a highly artistic and religious value, but also an intrinsic one, as each and every page of this book was made from the skin of an unborn lamb, killed together with his mother. (Source: after a Romanian

Background: Voronet Monastery, outer wall painting.

From the Sucevita Monastery

And from the Arbore Church

Sucevita is chronologically the last and greatest monastic ensemble among the painted monasteries in Bukovina, as it has the appearance of a real fortress, with towers, buttresses and watch roads.

t was erected in 1581 by Gheorghe Movila, Bishop of Radauti, and consecrated to the Assumption in 1584. Ruling prince Ieremia Movila, Gheorghe Movila's brother, added to the church two open porches (to the north and to the south); he also built massive houses, thick surrounding walls and defense towers.

The legend has it that an old woman had been working there for thirty years, carrying in her ox wagon stone for the construction of the monastery. This is the reason why a female head is carved on a black stone in the monastery's yard.

The fortress structure of the site had a defensive role; it actually prevented the mural paintings (made in 1595-1596) from serious damaging as it happened with frescoes of other painted monasteries.

Paintings at Sucevita were best preserved both on the outside and on the inside.

Frescoes are painted in purple red and blue against an emerald green background. There is plenty of gold too, taken from the art of miniature. They belong to Romanian masters of the Moldavian school of painting - Ioan the Painter and his brother Sofronie from Suceava. They have a strongly narrative character and many of them represent scenes taken from the daily life of the 16th century Moldavia.

The most outstanding paintings are the Ladder of Virtue, presenting the angels who assist the righteous enter the Paradise, while sinners are punished by a grinning demon, and the Last Judgement, left unfinished because its painter fell down from the scaffoldings and died. The latter one has scenes with the Romanians' traditional enemies, the Turks, getting ready for the Last Judgement, joined by Jews, who were also considered to be pagans. Outside the porch, is to be seen the terrible vision of the Apocalypse, displaying two-headed Beasts and the traditional rivers of fire. On the south wall, there is a remarkable Tree of Jesse, displaying both the human origin of Jesus, under the form of His family tree, and His divine ascendance, as the Prayers to Holy Virgin scene is also painted nearby. Theologically, the Tree of Jesse is a symbol of the continuity between the Old and the New Testaments, as well as of the Logos before and after the arising of Jesus. The Tree in Sucevita is an evolved version, as compared to the same scene at Voronet. The Crowning of the Virgin, a theme which is not common for Byzantine art, is a sample of the Polish influence over Moldavia (due also to the Movila family's close relations to Poland); it can be also related to a syncretic vision bringing together Western and Byzantine forms of art.

Other important paintings at Sucevita are the Siege of Constantinople (1453), and a scene presenting the first two verses of the Genese. The Siege of Constantinople proves the great impact this historical event had upon Eastern civilization and culture; it gives one a notion of how the siege was perceived and artistically rendered more than a hundred years later. The two verses offset the divine presence in the first moments of Existence, when God had begun to create the world.