Madrigal Choir

The National Chamber Choir "Madrigal" of Romania is one of the most celebrated and highly thought of choral ensembles, both in Romania and throughout the world. Their fame is due to their unique singing artistry - an experience testified to by Lord Yehudi Menuhin and Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, among others, in the “Golden Book”, a guest book begun in the 1960’s to accommodate the many international accolades and endorsements the choir has received.


The Madrigal choir was founded on the 11th of April 1963, as a component of the "Ciprian Porumbescu" Music Conservatory (now National University of Music) under the initiative of its director, maestro Marin Constantin - professor in residence, together with a few post-graduate students, all choral music lovers. They had their first concert on the 7th of July 1963, at the Music Theatre in Braşov, and their first international performance as part of the third edition of the International "George Enescu" Festival in 1964.


Conceived as a Renaissance chamber ensemble, Madrigal choir and its director, Marin Constantin, aimed to prepare and popularize the canon of the European Renaissance school in the original languages of the songs. The development and diversification of the repertoire involved the rediscovery of the great treasure of Byzantine and old Romanian music, Christmas Carols, folk influenced music and, in very short time since it was created, Romanian contemporary music and vocal-symphonic works.


In over 40 years, over 3500 concerts have been performed by the choir in Romania and abroad. The National Chamber Choir “Madrigal” of Romania and its director Marin Constantin has had the honored mission of presenting themselves at a high level of artistry, promoting the exceptional value of the Romanian performing school all over the world. Critics throughout the world have honoured the choir with a great number of prizes and medals, the greatest of which is the bestowal of the choir with the Good of the Universal Patrimony of UNESCO and the nomination of its director as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1992. (from the official site)

Sângeorgiu de Mureş Salt Bath

Sângeorgiu de Mureş (Hungarian: Marosszentgyörgy) is a commune in Mureş County, Romania, comprising of 3 villages and situated at 320m altitude, at 3km of Târgu-Mureş. Build over a Daco-Roman rural settlement, the village is documentary certified in 1332, as Sancta Georgia. Here is a 14-th century castle, rebuilt in Baroque style in 1759 and later, in 1809, in Neoclassical and Empire styles; also, here is a natural reserve, "Secular Oaks from Sângeorgiu de Mureş".


The bathing place, Sângeorgiu de Mureş Salt Bath, is well known for the quality of its salt springs, mineral mud and mofettes. The first owner was a local landlord, Csete Bela, who noticed that the pits dug in his land filled rapidly with salt water. In 1880, here was a pool with salt water, the source of this salt water being a surface spring. Sângeorgiu is highlighted as "Salted Gardens" or "Salted Wells" in a document from 1888. In 1912, the first drill had been made, expecting to find in the deepest grounds gas and oil but the surprise was when there was found salt water springs.



The exceptional mineralization of the water is given by its concentration (124 g/l) and its content (Iodine 11,4 mg/l – being the most important element for human life, Bromine, Sodium, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and Nitrogenous) which provides therapeutic facilities. The mofettes are rich in Chlorine, Sodium, Potassium, Iodine, Bromine. There is a great resemblance between Sângeorgiu Salt Baths and the main spring of Szobranc in Switzerland and the special waters from Untere-Quelle in Switzerland. Sângeorgiu de Mureş Salt Bath has a very modern treatment, spa and wellness center and a sports center.

George Enescu Music Fesival

George Enescu International Festival and Competition in Bucharest is organized by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, Religion and National Patrimony, under the high patronage of the President of Romania.


George Enescu (1881–1955) was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher and is considered to be the most important of Romania's musicians. The festival was founded in 1958, three years after Enescu's death by his friend and sometimes collaborator, conductor George Georgescu. Designed to honor Enescu, but also, hoping to gain some international good will for the local regime, the festival benefited from the beginning from the participation of major international classical music artists and musicians of the time (Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrach, Sviatoslav Richter, Herbert von Karajan, Agnes Baltsa, Pascal Roge, Viorica Cortez and many other). During the following years, the festival had an irregular periodicity (every couple of years), until it was stopped (during the 80s), only to be reborn after 1989.


This year's event is being held in four different cities, drawing over 300 international participants. Because of the global economic crisis Romanian cultural sector funding has been reduced. But the Enescu festival, the biggest classical music
festival in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe, is the only cultural event not to be impacted by the cuts. The 19th biennial George Enescu International Festival and Competition, scheduled for August 30 - September 26, 2009, will pay special tribute to Romania’s most famous composer/musician on the 128th anniversary of his birth, in 1881. World’s top orchestras, conductors and chamber ensembles will perform in Romania – some premiering new works - and jurized competitions will be held for piano, violin and voice. Already on the schedule are:

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,
English Chamber Orchestra,
London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,
Sankt Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra,
Royal Concertgebow Orchestra Amsterdam,
Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse,
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks,
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne,
Nash Ensemble London,
Choir and Orchestra of Les Arts Florissants,
Wiener Kammerorchester,
Basel Chamber Orchestra,
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremmen,
Munchener Philharmoniker Kammerorchester,
Theatre de Ballet de Monte Carlo "Cinderella",
Bucharest National Opera House,
"Madrigal" National Choir,
"Moldova" Philharmonic Orchestra Iaş,
"Transilvania" Philharmonic Orchestra Cluj,
Radio Academic Choir "Te Deum Laudamus" Orthodox Men Choir,
Chamber Orchestra of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic.


The list of the participants can be found here. The complete program of the festival can be found here.


"George Enescu was one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians of the twentieth century" according to noted biographer Paul Banks, "a great violinist and composer, a distinguished conductor, an accomplished pianist, able cellist and a famous violin teacher who numbered Christian Ferras, Arthur Grumiaux and Yehudi Menuhin among his pupils. His musical memory was phenomenal, a fact that contributed to the loss of some of his own works which he composed but never wrote down".

Bazna Bath

Bazna (Translyvanian Saxon: Baußen, Bassen; German: Baassen, Brassen, Oberbassen; Hungarian: Bázna, Felsőbajom, Bajom)) is a commune located in Sibiu County, Romania.

Bazna was mentioned for the first time in 1270, year in which the king Stephan the 3rd gave a domain to a nobleman, Bozouch son of Inok, from the Bazna village. Bazna was documentary attested in 1302. The German colonists established on the western side of the village, on the Rorii Valley, near Boian, and later, when they discovered the beauty of Bazna Valley, they moved here and built a village with an impressive fortified church in the center.


The discovery of the natural gases and of the salty springs with iodine drew the attention of the Transylvanian researchers from the 18th century. Rudolf Rothens, in Memorabilae Europae (1749), mentions Bazna by referring to the mineral waters which can be found in this locality. Salty water springs have been studied in 1752, for the first time, by the pharmacist Georg Bette from Sibiu, and then by others, too. The priest Andreas Caspari left a manuscript with his observations dating from 1762-1779. He described more therapeutic springs which he baptized “The Church Bath”, “The Beggars’ Bath”, and “The Sour Fountain”. In 1808 the government from Vienna sent a group of physicians and chemists in Bazna to study the curative effects of the salt and climate.


In 1814, the Evangelic-Lutheran Church took over the mineral lakes, deciding to build a spa, and in 1843 four citizens from Medias founded a company whose purpose was to build a resort in Bazna. Two years later, 637 patients were cured in Bazna. In 1905 the Evangelic community took over the resort and transformed it in a “pearl among the Transylvanian spas”. During the same year, people could find here a drugstore and a therapist. At the same time, people started to produce the famous salt of Bazna. From 1949, the Bazna Baths were administrated by the Ministry of Health, becoming a spa, with a permanent character.

Danube sturgeons

Sturgeon are large (up to 6 m and 1.5 t) long-lived, archaic fish. All 25 species of sturgeon and two species of paddlefish inhabit the coastal waters, rivers and lakes of the Northern Hemisphere. They feed on small animals and plants, and most migrate up-river to breed and spawn. Their late sexual maturity, up to 25 years for beluga sturgeon females, is one of the reasons for their vulnerability to over-fishing. Today, the largest populations of sturgeon are found in the Caspian Sea, with important populations also found in the Danube and Amur River basins.


Six species of sturgeons are native to the Danube River Basin, five are classified as either "Endangered" or "Critically Endangered", and one "Vulnerable" (Acipenser ruthenus) according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2004). In fact, one of the five endangered species, the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), is already extinct in the Danube River Basin. The Danube sturgeons are:
* Beluga (Lat: Huso huso, Romanian: morun) - 6m, 1500kg


* Russian sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, Romanian: nisetru) - 3m, 500kg


* Starry sturgeon or Sevruga (Lat: Acipenser stellatus, Romanian: păstruga) - 2.2m, 54kg


* Fringebarbel sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser nudiventris, Romanian: bogzar) - 2.2m, 80kg


* Atlantic sturgeon (Lat: Acipenser sturio, Romanian: sip, viza galbenă) - 5m, 1000kg


* Sterlet (Lat: Acipenser ruthenus, Romanian: cega) - 1.25m, 16kg

Until the 19th century, giant Beluga sturgeon the size of a small bus migrated on Danube as far as Germany and were important mainstays for many communities. Today, this ancient fish is on the brink of extinction. Dams have cut off the sturgeon's migration routes. Diking and draining of 80% of the Danube's former floodplains has removed important spawning and feeding areas. Overfishing has taken its toll as well. Now projects to improve navigation on the Lower Danube threaten to destroy some of the last sturgeon spawning areas and migration routes. WWF is working with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River and the governments of Romania and Serbia to examine options for making the dams passable to sturgeon and other species, which could extend migration and habitats by 1,000 km up to Slovakia.


Sturgeon fishing and trade in the products is a very profitable business. Compared to other fishery activities it is often viewed as “gold-mining”. Caviar is the unfertilized eggs of sturgeons. For many gourmets, caviar, dubbed "black pearls", is a food delicacy without parallel. The three main traded species of sturgeon produce distinctive caviar: Beluga, Osietra (Russian sturgeon) and Sevruga (stellate sturgeon). The color and size of the caviar are influenced by the species and the stage of maturity of the roe. The most sought after and expensive caviar is from beluga, a gigantic fish that can live for 100 years.

The Palace of Culture in Iaşi

The Palace of Culture (Romanian: Palatul Culturii) is one of the largest buildings of Romania, located in the city of Iaşi, Northeastern Romania. The Palace of Culture in Iaşi is the main attraction point of the Moldavian capital. We can’t even imagine a touristic folder without the image of the famous building that shelters four museums, The Moldavian Museum of History, The Moldavian Museum of Ethnography, The Museum of Art, “Ştefan Procopiu” Museum of Science and Technology, and “Gheorghe Asachi” County Library in the North-East side of the building.


The Palace was partly built on top of the ruins of the medieval princely courts, mentioned in a document of 1434, and partly on top of the foundations of the former (neoclassical) palace, dated to the time of ruling prince Alexandru Moruzzi (1806-1812), rebuilt by ruling prince Mihail Sturza (1841-1843) and finally demolished in 1904. It was from this later building that the Palace inherited the legend of the 365 rooms, as many as the days within one year. Actually, the palace counts 298 rooms and has a total room surface of about 36000 m².


The edifice was built between 1906 and 1925, it is designed in flamboyant neo-Gothic style, and is the most outstanding work of Romanian architect I.D. Berindei. In 1926 the Palace of Culture was opened by Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, the second king of modern Romania. During World War II, the Palace sheltered German troops, and then Soviet troops. Until 1955, the building housed the County Law Court, which had the furniture ordered from “Maple House” in London. Between 1975 and 1977 the wood bridging from the last floor was replaced with a cement one, fixed with steel netting. The new bridging sustained the monument during the earthquake of 1977, but the bridging from the first floor, the walls, the ornaments and the relief works were affected. Unfortunately, the consolidation and renovation works are not finished yet.


The entrance of the palace is through a great donjon tower, with crenels and alcoves dominated by an eagle with open wings. In the tower there is also a carillon clock that has an eight bells assembly that reproduces “Hora Unirii” (Hora of the Union) song every hour. In spite of its archaic-looking design, the Palace was designed so to integrate modern materials and technologies. Thus, the stone blocks were replaced with light and much cheaper materials. Besides, some rooms were decorated using a special material licensed by Henri Coanda, under the name of bois-ciment and imitating the oak wood. Decorative ironmongery elements are also remarkable and they can be admired for instance on the doors of the Voivodes’ Hall. The building was also equipped with high-tech facilities for those times, such as electric lighting, (pneumatic) heating, ventilation system, thermostat, vacuum cleaners, which were all directed from the machinery room, at the underground level. Taking also into account the 14 fires that affected the previous buildings, Berindei treated the wooden structure of the attic with an ignifugeous product called orniton, while for the roof he used a special material, named eternite.


The Moldavian History Museum is located at the ground floor, in the West side, being the continue of the Antiquity Museum founded by Orest Tafrali in 1916. It has four sections, prehistory and ancient history, medieval history, modern history and contemporary history, presenting the main aspects of the development of the communities in the area from the Paleolithic time to the World War II.


The Moldavian Museum of Ethnography was founded in 1943, being located in the West side of the Palace, at the first and the second floor. One can admire here the objects used by the inhabitants of Moldavia in their every day activities: in agriculture, viticulture, raising animals, fishing, hunting, apiculture. One can also see interiors of peasant houses, devices used for pottery, weaving, wood processing, mask collections, traditional costumes. Many of these exhibits have more than 100 years old.


The Museum of Art is at first floor and it continues the oldest pinacoteque in the country that existed along with the first modern Romanian university of 1860. The Museum of Art has 24 rooms for permanent exhibitions, arranged in three galleries (universal art gallery, Romanian modern art gallery and contemporary art gallery) and has in its artistic patrimony over 6 000 works, among which almost 2500 are graphic works and 470 are sculptures.


The Museum of Science and Technology is located on the ground floor of the Palace, in the East side, and is named after the great savant from Iaşi, Ştefan Procopiu. Founded in 1955, the museum has four sections: energetic, telecommunications, mineralogy – crystallography, recording and replaying of sounds. The foundation of a section that comprises a collection of computers is also under discussion.

Besides the four museums, The Palace of Culture presents some other attraction points. One of them is the Gothic Room, where can be admired the mosaic that presents a medieval “bestiarum” (gryphons, bicephalous eagles, lions). There is also the Voivodes' Room, located at first floor, where there are the portraits of Moldavia’s rulers and Romania’s kings, starting with Decebal and Traian, paintings made by Ştefan Dimitrescu and his students. Then there is „Henri Coandă” Room, which was named after the carvings and relief works made by the famous Romanian inventor of a cement invented by him. On the right there is the “Turnul de Strajă” (the Watch Tower), reminiscence of the Royal Court of Iaşi, along with the galleries underneath the court of the palace. On the left there is a collection of capitals and other stone architectonic elements grouped in a lapidarium. The hall is superposed by a glass ceiling room, where initially a greenhouse was arranged. In front of the the palace there is the equestrian statue of Stephen the Great, framed by two Krupp cannons, trophies from the Independence War.

Here you can see some panoramas.

Valea Viilor fortified church

Valea Viilor (German: Wurmloch; Hungarian: Nagybaromlak) is a commune located in Sibiu County, Romania. It is composed of the villages of Valea Viilor and Motiş.



Valea Viilor is first mentioned in 1305 when its owner, Count Apafi, passed away. In a document from this period the village was referred to as terra Baromlach which means "land of the cattle". The German version of the village's name sounds similar but has a different meaning. The German name appears half a century later in a document that acknowledges the church of Wurmloch as belonging to the Superior Council of Schelk (Şeica Mare). The Saxon name roughly translates to "snake hole". As to whether the place was swarming with snakes or full of cattle it is unclear. What is clear is that the land was owned by nobility. However, by 1359 the land was being mentioned as a free commune. Surprisingly, the villagers of Valea Viilor excelled at making wine, giving rise to the Romanian name meaning "Vineyard Valley". The whole area has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.


The fortified church is situated in the center of the village. The first church was most likely a Gothic basilica erected in the early 14th century. Archeological excavations have revealed the existence of another building before the present church. Observable ruins in the floor of the vestry indicate that once was a Romanesque church at Valea Viilor. It is speculated that the original church was approximately 10 meters long, less than half the length of the present church. The present-day Gothic church, built in the 14th century, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The church is characterized by Late-Gothic elements from around 1500. The church hall has a tunnel vault with a Late-Gothic ribbed net. The small nave has a vault supported by seven pairs of pillars that are attached to the side walls. Both the nave and the choir have a complex network of ribs on their vaults. In the construction phase, more levels were added above the choir with arches between the tall buttresses and a fortified level with a hoarding. The Baroque altar from 1779 has two tiers, columns, small columns, saint’s statues, and painted panels. A Eucharist shrine and stall work from the beginning of the 16th century have survived. The existing organ is from 1808. The church had undergone several periods of construction in the beginning of the 19th century.


The church is surrounded by an oval precinct with 7-8 meter high mantle walls. Towers were placed in the east, west, north, and south with the western one being a gate tower. The church and precinct are accessed via a vaulted gangway with portcullis on the western side. On the sides there are four bastions oriented north, south, east, and west. The walls are equipped with battlements and machicolations that are supported by brackets on the outside. There is another hoarding above the hall, with loopholes and arches for machicolations. The west tower, which is also a bell tower, has buttresses at 45 degrees, arches between the buttresses, and a hoarding on wooden cantilevers. The fortress of Valea Viilor is impressive because of the sculptural character of the fortified aspects.