Pomme d'Or

Founded in Paris in 1954 by the National Associations of France and Belgium, FIJET (French: Federation Internationale de Journalistes et Ecrivans de Tourisme, English: The International Association of Professional Travel Writers and Journalists) is the oldest association of professional travel writers and journalists in the world. With a membership that currently exceeds 600 members in over 35 countries on five continents, it is also one of the world's largest professional organization of travel journalists. Each year, at its annual World Congress, FIJET promotes a particular aspect of world tourism. The Congress, which is held in a different country each year, highlights an area of significant international interest in travel and tourism.


"La Pomme d'Or" or "The Golden Apple" (Romanian: Mărul de Aur) is the FIJET equivalent of the Oscar. This award for excellence is presented each year to an organization, country, city, or person in recognition of superior efforts in promoting and raising the level of tourism. The Golden Apple has gained significant recognition over the years and always has a list of prestigious candidates vying for it. Since it was established in 1970, The FIJET Golden Apple Award has been presented to 41 recipients.


For the first time, this year were awarded three Golden Apples, and is the first time the prize is assigned, the same year, for three tourism destinations / personalities of the same country. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Mărginimea Sibiului (the surroundings of Sibiu), considered by Forbes Magazine "the most romantic area of eco-tourism in the world" and Blue Air (the airline company with the most dynamic growth in Eastern Europe) won for Romania the three prestigious trophies. With Moldoviţa in 1975, Romania is in the exclusive club of countries that hold four prizes, as Belgium and Spain.

Alba Carolina fortress

Alba Iulia is situated in the heart of Romania and is the spiritual capital of the country. Alba Iulia is the site of the ancient Apulum, founded by the Romans in the 2nd century A.D., and destroyed by Tatars in 1241. From 1599 to 1601, Alba Iulia was the capital of the united principalities of Walachia, Transylvania and Moldavia. It was the site of the proclamation of Transylvania's unification with Romania (1 December 1918) and of the coronation of King Ferdinand in 1922.


The Alba Carolina fortress was built between 1714 and 1738 and it is considered to be the most representative baroque, Vauban-type star fortress in Romania and one of the largest of this kind in Eastern Europe.


The fortress was designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Morando Visconti, who worked under the supervision of the general Stefan de Steinville and was later completed under General Weiss. The work at the fortification of Alba Iulia has began on the 4th of November 1715, when the foundation of Carol bulwark, dedicated to the emperor Carol VI and situated on the Northern side was made. 20.000 serves built the walls. Between the 18th and 19th centuries the fortress served as the military headquarters of Transylvania and also as a general armament repository. It was once one of the most powerful citadels in southeastern Europe, and served in the line of defense meant to keep out Turkish invaders from Central Europe. The leaders of the peasants’ revolution of 1784-85 were jailed, tried and executed here. Later, in 1848, the citadel was attacked by Hungarian revolutionary forces led by general Bem, but did not fall into their hands. Naturally, at the dawn of the 20th century, the citadel became obsolete, as modern warfare made its appearance on the European scene.


The perimeter of the outside walls is about 12 km. The fortification has seven bastions or bulwarks (Eugene of Savoia, St. Stefan, The Trinity, St. Michael, St. Carol, St. Capistrano and St. Elisabeth) that make it into a star-shaped, Vauban-style fortress. The largest bulwark is the Trinity (116m on 132m). On the whole, the fortress stands out between the most important Baroque architectural ensemble in Romania and Europe.


The walls were made of bricks, quarry stones, or out of the Roman ruins, measuring 3 m at the base and 1.20 m at the top and being sustained by abutments. The fortress is outstanding both for its decorative elements and for the beauty of its gates, unique in European military architecture. The fortress has six gates, three towards the town and the other three towards the western training fields. The gates are richly adorned, decorated with statues and reliefs by sculptors like Johann König, Johann Vischer and Giuseppe Tencalla, and have been a model for the 18th century Transylvanian architecture. The gates are looked upon as extremely valuable samples of early and plastic figurative Baroque. Today, only three gates preserve the original look.

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.