At the Village Museum

Being at the Village Museum in Bucharest for the Dragobete photo exhibition, I couldn't miss the opportunity to snap a few pictures around, even if the sky above was so gloomy.

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Chiajna

The ruins of the Chiajna monastery are next to the city of Bucharest, however only now I managed to get there. I knew them since forever, seeing them from the distance, but only now I got there - all the plans for previous visits failed for various reasons.

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Another walk for wiki

After the fruitful photo walk I managed to return to the area for yet another solo picture gathering for Wiki Loves Monuments. This time I ventured on smaller streets with lower car traffic, so I was a bit more efficient, taking more pictures in a comparable time frame. Unfortunately, the time is closing up, so I wont be able to return once more for this year's edition.

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A walk for wiki

Part of my contribution to this year Wiki Loves Monuments (Romanian edition) I made a solo photo walk to gather some pictures representing historical monuments for sharing on Wikipedia. My route was around an old street in Bucharest, Calea Călărașilor, an area with a huge number of buildings from the XIX century which are considered monuments but few people know about them . It was fruitful, I came back with over 150 photos, but a large part of the area is still uncovered, hopefully I may be able to return. Below are a few samples: 3 of what I found the better looking of them and 3 in the most deplorable state.

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Cult of the dead

Moșii de vară, meaning something like "the summer old men" is a pre-Christian tradition happening in Romania and is part of the cult of the dead, it has a "sister" called "Moșii de iarnă" ("the winter old men") and some smaller "Saturdays of the dead". Even the name, Moșii show its old origin, this is one of the name attributed to the old Dacian god Zamolxis. There are multiple stories about it, one says the souls of the dead leave their graves 50 days in advance and walk the land, in this day they have to be lured back in their graves with food offering or else... is not clear what happens, maybe the vampires myth placed randomly here was not that random? Another story says about Moși as being the souls of 9 dead men who are protecting the community.

In the classic Christian tradition, the Orthodox church applied the "embrace and extend" strategy here: it put close to it a big religious holiday, the Pentecost, so now Moșii de vară is a big bullet point in their calendar, along with the other celebration of the cult of the dead they embraced. The food was switched to colivă and fruits (is the fruit season).

Still, the embrace does not look that successful, very few Romanians know the meaning of the Pentecost and even the holiday itself is called by other name, "Rusalii", by the name of some female evil spirits hunting for souls - yet another pre-Christian tradition thrown in the mix.

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Stories from the English Passage

Răzvan found this intriguing place named the English Passage located next to the city center of Bucharest, near Calea Victoriei: all of us, including myself passed in front of it many times. I even think I may have passed trough it once, but noticing only a small part.

The first thing that captured my attention was the sign of an old-fashioned hat maker who's owner has the same name as me, next to a small music store as those you can see in the '80s movies and a watch repair shop. In a corner on the floor you can see a blanket and a couple of books, probably the resting place of an enlightened homeless person.

In line with the other stores there is a small pub, where we meet a local celebrity, probably the most famous person in the block: he is a painter, a legit one - later we saw some of his works on the walls of a restaurant in the next street. He had some beers already, which made him be in a good mood for talks and stories. Wile there, a huckster entered, he was selling socks. Our painter asked if they are "3/4" or just normal, the huckster sowed some, the painter bought a few. Later he looked more carefully at them "Those are not 3/4, I got shafted".

The passage is in fact an inner court, with apartments on all sides and 3 more levels above the ground. On the top is a roof made from colored glass, letting in an unusual light. The doors are a varied mix: some old, some new, some abandoned.

At the upper level some hooks were hanging from the roof, they were totally spooky and made us wonder about their purpose, imagining various scenarios. But they were simply for opening the windows on the roof.

When wandering to the stairs, one of the characters we meet was crazy person-type woman (she looked pretty much like a homeless person, but she had a home there) who tried to scare us away, telling is forbidden to wander on the stairs. She went even to pretend calling the police, she went back to her door and talked loudly (so he can hear) like she would have talked with a policeman at the phone, complaining about strangers. Later we learned: the place was used in the past as a location for a few movies, so the woman just wanted some money to shut-up.
Another interesting person was an old lady, she lived in the building for over 50 years and is very sad for its' current state, after the past glory: built by an anglophile, it was unique in the city, then a refuge for nobility in the early communist days, now is partly abandoned with some rooms abusively taken by gypsies/homeless people.

I don't ever try to guess the origins of the lips signs I saw in various places of the stairs walls

If the story needed a finale, when we left a luxury car was parked on Calea Victoriei, in front of the passage entrance and next to a pile of garbage. This is Bucharest, the next building is a fancy hotel, the other side of the street has sky scrappers.

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Low priced dwellings

Believe or not, as this historical monument plate says, it used to be a "Low Priced Dwellings Society". I expect the name to pretty much be a publicity stunt, but that makes it no less funny.

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Luxury photography

Hunting for my latest batch of photos for the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest, I encountered this building, which is not a historical monument, but still an interesting sight. Ans you can probably see is a former shop, which had a "FOTO LUX" sign, if not obvious, that is Romanian for "Luxury Photography". Think of the past glory of this place...

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On religion and my photos

If there is one thing I try hard to avoid is being a hypocrite, this is why I question myself often. Now is one of those times :)

I deeply and sincerely believe religion is evil but I do photography, contributing to things like Wiki Loves Monuments I take and publish a lot of pictures of churches, monasteries and various other religious things and I also take photos at events like weddings and baptisms, where religion is a very important side. I know churches and monasteries are the bulk of historical monuments here (in medieval times very little culture happened in Romania outside the religion) and I know the society make the religious part that important in life events, but still feel a bit uneasy.

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Why Wiki Loves Monuments?

I take part, and I am also an organizer, in the Romanian Wiki Loves Monuments photography contest, where we try to get people contributing photos of historical monuments to Wikipedia. The things are not all roses, photos below, taken in the old city of Bucharest, the most important touristic area from our capital city, are a proof of why something like it is badly needed. Our history, our culture, our identity, they are going away due to carelessness and/or greed. We can at least preserve their image.

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Let's get out in Bucharest, celebrate with WLM

Those days, 13-16 September 2012, is the celebration of Bucharest, called "Bucharest Days", 553 years of known existence. Is a very good opportunity for us to get out in the street, take photos with some historical monuments and put them in the Wiki Loves Monuments photography contest.

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Cârța reloaded

After a hurried visit a few months ago, I had the opportunity to re-visit the ruins of the Cârță Cistercian monastery, for a deeper research and some Wikipedia photos.
I was impressed to see how trusty and open the people there are: the monastery is locked, so a neighbour just gave me the key so our small group was allowed to roam free inside the ~700 years old historical monument, we had only to give it back when done. I guess we look trusty.

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Wiki, Wiki, Wiki

In the last few days I was silent, with no pics posted here, that's because I was busy with the Wikipedia photography contest, uploading my own pictures (as I am a member of the national jury, my photos won't run for any prize, just enrich Wikipedia and illustrate the historical monuments in Romania).
Most of my picts are about cave churches in the Argeș county, medieval fortified monasteries in the Sibiu county, cave sites in the Buzău county, but there is also some Brâncovenian architecture and some other things (Sighișoara, wooden churches and such).
Hopefully while the campaign last, until the end of the month, I will be able to take and upload a few more, but don't expect the number increase to be dramatic, currently I am at the count of 365 images, which gave my 15 minutes of fame (I briefly was one of the 10 top world uploaders) and raised the Romanian quote close to 1000 pictures (hopefully, we will reach this milestone later today, in less than one week after the competition started).
I did my share and will work more on this until the end, how about you? Come and take part of the fun!
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