In the South – Eastern part of the Central Europe, with the arch of Carpathians in the middle, limited by the Danube and the Black Sea, there has been for more than two thousand years a people with a rich but tumultuous history – the Romanian people and a country constantly formed on Dacia’s old land surface, carrying for a century and a half the name of Romania. In the South – Eastern part of the Central Europe, with the arch of Carpathians in the middle, limited by the Danube and the Black Sea, there has been for more than two thousand years a people with a rich but tumultuous history – the Romanian people and a country constantly formed on Dacia’s old land surface, carrying for a century and a half the name of Romania.
A country in which one may discover the richest and the oldest proofs of authentic culture, spirituality, traditions and continuity in Europe. A country with old wines as Cramposia, Braghina, Gordanul.
Romania, the place where one can meet the Sphinx in Bucegi, as old as time, offers the opportunity of travelling through one of the biggest and most beautiful natural reservations in Europe, The Retezat National Park or urges you to a walk through the biggest delta of the continent, the mirific Danube Delta.
Romania, the place where the Legend of the Manole Master – the master builder of the Curtea de Arges Monastery sends you forward, in time, to the Endless Column built by Brancusi himself.
And I wonder how many people, do know when they put their thoughts on a sheet of paper that the inventor of the pen is a Romanian, Petrache Poenaru?
Romania, a country with its soul contained in Eminescu’s Doina, whispered on the sounds of the Romanian Rhapsody, composed by George Enescu and drawn in the paintings by Nicolae Grigorescu, Ion Andreescu or Nicolae Tonitza, remains an incomparable land surface.
Romania is the country of the famous Wood Churches in Maramures and of the unique Joyful Cemetery in the world, the one in Sapanta, but also the country of the numerous historical monuments whose uniqueness amazes every visitor.
The Romanian popular creation is known on every continents of the world, by the variety and singularity and in the same time, of the popular ceramics or of the Romanian rugs.
When one says Dimitrie Cantemir, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Nicolae Iorga or Eugen Ionescu, one thinks of Romania, just as one boasts with it when one speaks of Traian Vuia’s first flight with autonomous take – off in the world or the first jet plane in the world or the “Coanda effect”.
Romania, by love and sufferance, millenary lingering, as a miracle, in this home space, always pertaining to the old Europe.
Romfilatelia endeavors that in every postage stamps issue – as in the present one – to add a drop of this inexhaustible and yet not totally discovered spring, of Romanian spirituality and culture.
The 8 postage stamps of the philatelic issue have the same face value of RON 3.00 and illustrate authentic unique treasures with which Romania is world wide known.
The Danube Delta, the unique delta in the world declared reservation of the biosphere, is considered one of the biggest wet areas in the world, as habitation of the water birds, where the pelican – symbol of the Danube Delta – lives here in the biggest colony in Europe.
Magic land of the waters, the Danube Delta is appreciated to be one of the most fascinating natural areas in the entire world.
The most important mountain natural reservation in our country, reservation of the biosphere, The Retezat National Park is added to Romania’s diversity of the priceless natural richness.
Places yet untouched by man, high peaks, lakes, flowers, glaciers, caves, animals in wilderness, wide forests – all gather in a unique monument of nature: The Retezat National Park.
George Enescu (1881-1955), complex musician, has managed to give to the universal music all his feelings, thoughts so that everything has always merged with the echo of his soul. Bucharest, Vienna, Paris, New York, London, Berlin, Chicago, Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Strasbourg – are among the big musical cities in the world where Enescu’s music has resounded.
Scores, suites, symphonies, quartets, rhapsodies, lieds and opera – all of these are creations of the great composer, conductor, violinist, pianist and professor, George Enescu – the everlasting violin of Romania.
Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723) was a remarkable personality of the European culture of the beginning of 18th century.
Ruler of Moldavia, historian, philosopher, geographer, musicologist, orientalist, theologist, cartographer and prose writer, polyglot, through his works imposed himself as world erudite and encyclopedian.
Dimitrie Cantemir, personality with encyclopedic preoccupations, the first Romanian member of the Academy in Berlin (1714), wrote “Descriptio Moldaviae”- the first work of politics, of geography, ethnography and folklore, written upon the request of the Academy in Berlin.
“Principe Serenism” of Russia and counselor of the Tzar Peter I, Dimitrie Cantemir, by his vast work, is considered to be an illustrious savant of the Renaissance.
On one of the stamp is illustrated a type of old Romanian vine, Cramposia, being known the fact that in Romania, the viticulture has an oldness of over two thousand years.
“The old homeland of the Geto – Dacians, Tracia, was a viticultural region, reason for which it was considered as the birth place of the God of Wine Dionysos”, used to say the great historian A.D. Xenopol.
As we know, at the beginning of the 1st century B.C. the viticulture had taken such proportions, once with the creation of the first Dacian centralized and independent state, that king Burebista has carried out some actions of limitation of the cultures grapevine.
On the territory of our country, the viticulture has been favored both by the climate as well as by the conditions of the land and especially by the sun radiation in those areas popular called “vineyards”.
The type of wine Cramposia, very old, is met in the well known vineyard Dragasani. The wine is white, dry, balanced, full of freshness and can compete with any other wine in the world.
Land of culture and civilization, Maramures has chiseled its history in wood through the popular art in Maramures.
Maramures is the place where the traditions, the costumes and the popular art are best kept in Romania.
Like in a return in time, Maramures is a huge outdoors museum.
The Wood churches – true masterpieces of popular art – which are met in almost every village, and the Maramures gate, this wooden “triumph arch” is met at every house.
The tradition of ceramics lingered from the time of the Dacians and has not changed too much from the technique, ornamentation and forms point of view (Sacel, Lapus, Baia Sprie, Valea Izei).
The Three Saint Hierarchs Church in Iasi, unique building in the Romanian architecture, foundation of the ruler Vasile Lupu, The Three Saint Hierarchs Church was initially a part of an ensemble of monasteries (out of which it was kept only the Gothic room, today a museum of medieval art). The Three Saint Hierarchs Church has aroused everyone’s admiration even from its inauguration, in 1639. The motifs which ornament the facade are of Armenian – Georgian influence. The windows are decorated with borders with cornices and baldachins. The decoration elements from the exterior, of an incomparable richness, offer the impression of real stone embroidery.
The Three Saint Hierarchs Church shelters the graves of Vasile Lupu, of the voivode and scholar Dimitrie Cantemir, as well as the remains of the ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
The Black Church in Brasov was built around the year 1380 and known under the name of the Saint Mary Church.
The building has been partially destroyed during the great fire in 1689 as a result of which it received the present name. The Black Church is the greatest building of cult in Gothic style in the South – Eastern Europe, measuring 89 meters length and 38 meters width. The Black Church is famous not only by its dimensions, but also by the fact that in the belfry it is the biggest bell in the Romanian space, a bell of bronze which weights 6 tones. Also, the Black Church holds its big organ with at least 400 tubes, this being one of the biggest organ in South – Eastern Europe. The collection of Oriental carpets of the Black Church is the richest of this type in Romania. Very close to the Black Church is the statue of the humanist Johannes Honterus (1498-1549), the work of the Berliner sculptor H. Magnussen (1898).
For documentary consulting granted at the carrying out of this philatelic issue we wish to thank the Administrations of the Retezat National Park (photo: Cristina Lazaroni) and of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation (photo: Daniel Petrescu), to the Administrations of the “George Enescu” Museum and of the Library of the Romanian Academy (Mr. Emanuel Badescu), to the Parish of the “Saint Three Hierarchs Church”, to the Evangelic Parish of the “Black Church” (photo: Peter Simon) and to VISARTA.
Issue date: 2009-09-16
