This is the last Muki tram-locomotive that pulled freight wagons through Timișoara, România. The gauge of the tram tracks in Timișoara is identical to that of the railways. They were designed after the First World War, at the BKVT plant in Budapest, so that factories could receive or send goods using the tram lines. It was displayed in the courtyard of the brewery in the city.
Enlightment might come!
But, a few moments later, the flame was gone!
Radu Stanca: Poet, playwright, director
In Sibiu, on 31 May 1947, the collective of the Sibiu Theatre staged the play “Păcat de tine, Tony” by Puiu Maximilian, starring young Radu Stanca as Dorel Slăvescu. It was then that the man who has become the patron of the Sibiu Theatre joined the local theatre group.
Radu Stanca (1920-1962), acclaimed playwright, poet, essayist, director, and actor, graduated from the “King Ferdinand” School of Letters and Philosophy in Cluj, with a BA thesis on The Problem of Reading. Starting 1943, he was an assistant professor at the Philosophy Department headed by Lucian Blaga. He was a member of the Sibiu Literary Circle and editor of the magazine Curțile dorului. He won the Sburătorul Prize for his play “Dona Juana” and collaborated with numerous publications of the time, including Tribuna, Contemporanul, Viața românească.
On 13 February 1949, Sibiu saw the premiere of “Căsuța din câmpie” by Samuil Marshak, the first play directed by Radu Stanca alongside technical director Boby Tiberiu, scenographer Olga Muțiu, and actors Angela Păcuraru, Mircea Axente, Virginia Stoicescu, Sabina Mușatescu, Constantin Th. Stănescu, Mircea Hîndoreanu, Septimiu Sever, Nora Vasilescu, Anișoara Dornescu, Eugenia Dimitriu, Nicolae Albani, Vasile Bojescu. Radu Stanca’s works, whether his texts or his stagings, revolutionized theatre; an example to this end is his “A Lost Letter” directed in Sibiu as the first performance in black and white.
He worked as a director of the Sibiu Theatre until 1961, when he left for Cluj-Napoca, where he became the first director of the National Theatre.
Throughout his activity in Sibiu, Radu Stanca was an iconic director who staged numerous productions appreciated by the audience, developed and brought to life a well-oiled theatre group, thus becoming a trailblazer for the exceptional evolution in time of the Sibiu Theatre that now bears his name.
Mitropoliei Street in Sibiu / Hermannstadt is a peculiar street which hosts four churches: The „Holy Trinity” Orthodox Cathedral, The Reformed Church, The „Holy Trinity” Roman-Catholic Church (situated between Piata Mare and Piata Mica – Big Square and Small Square) and Saint Mary Lutheran Cathedral (situated in the Huet Square). Although the last two churches have different addresses, they are united by the same line of the Mitropoliei Street.
Piata Mica (Small Square) and Piata Huet (Huet Square) are linked by the shortcut of a passageway. In the photo below you can admire the Lutheran Cathedral seen from that passageway:
But let’s go back to the Mitropoliei Street, the headquarter of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Seat of Transylvania. Its cathedral church was built in 1906 and was intended to be a smaller copy of the Byzantine Imperial Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople. And this, in compensation of the fact that, in order to build the nowadays cathedral, the Romanian Orthodox community had to demolish an older smaller Greek Orthodox church. In return, the two Orthodox communites got a copy of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral from Istanbul, the eternal nostalgia of the Greeks…
Let’s go for a walk in the old city of Sibiu (Hermannstadt), one of the ex-capitals of Transylvania and declared in 2007 European Capital of Culture! Villa Michaelis is a beautiful castle-like building situated near the city centre, in the Josephin neighbourhood. It was built around 1900 in the neogothic style. Nowadays, it can be found at the intersection between Dealului Street and Ion Rațiu Street.
In a niche of one of the building’s walls one can admire the statue of a young woman holding a mirror in her right hand. While some people say it is the representation of Hecate goddess with her magical mirror of secrets, others say it was carved in the likeness of a servant girl with whom the building owner allegedly had a child. As she lived in a house across the street, the mirror in the statue’s hand would reflect a beam of light into her window.
The origin of that statue remains a mystery to this day. I would call her the Transylvanian Juliet, a forever-young woman inspiring poets and story-tellers. If you want to write her a letter and maybe recieve an answer – even a love prediction – from her, you might consider sending an e-mail to the following address: romania.inima.mea@gmail.com
Perhaps an even more fascinating story is that of the fountain located between Villa Michaelis and the building where „Juliet” would have lived. Not surprisingly, in the middle of the fountain there is another statue of a woman giving water to her little boy. It is called „Mother and child” and some art critics believe it depicts the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus, although the sculpture does not have the appearance of a religious statue. Could it be the representation of the same servant girl who gave birth to her master’s child? We don’t know, but it seems that it could be somehow connected to the other statue from Villa Michaelis.
The fountain was built from the initiative of the Magistrate of Sibiu and placed in 1905 in this square. It was placed near the northern slope of the citadel, near the Franciscan monastery. This square was created by withdrawing the right alignment of the street, while the other alignment was pushed towards the interior of the street, thus forcing the street to be diverted, remarks historian Răzvan Pop from Sibiu.
The body of the fountain consists of a flared basin, with the upper base made of stone and applied to the body of the basin. In the middle of this basin stands the statue of a woman dressed in Roman fashion with her child. The plinth of the statue is polygonal, in the shape of a fortress tower, the base of which is larger in volume than the body itself.
The woman is seated on a group of stones, the way the dress falls being the element that gives movement to the sculpture. Her dress is held in place only by a strap. The hairdo is in the same Roman style. She is holding in her left hand a cup from which the water gushes forth. The child is carved nude as a symbol of innocence.
Let’s start this blog with an invitation to a journey in Transylvania, the heart of Romania. You have to take your time, because in this region the lack of speed is characteristic for all things, from people who peacefully ride their bikes to trains who take 3 – 4 hours in order to arrive from one big city to another. Meanwhile, you have plenty of time to admire the landscape, which is composed mainly of hills and mountains, covered by ancient woods. Because ‘Transylvania’ in latin means ‘the country beyond the woods’ (forests). It’s still winter time this part of the year, so feel free to enjoy the snow and gaze at the white colour of the Carpathian Mountains, while drinking some hot ‘palinka’ in order to warm up your soul!
Transylvanity Fair