Bags out, breakfast done, we’re on the bus and heading into town by 8:30. We take a quick little walk through the city center, looking at the different building styles (I’m not good on all the architectural styles – so these could be Gothic, they could be Renaissance, they could be whatever – one thing for certain, they are incredibly beautiful!) Bracketing the main avenue are the black domed Orthodox church (standing at one end) while the smaller, Buna Vestire Church (modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in miniature) stands at the other. In between, at the head of the central park, standing tall and proud, is the memorial to the unknown soldier, for all those who gave their lives in battle for their country, with a wonderful back drop of the Orthodox Church.
We stop here, just in front of the square facing the Palace of the Prefecture, with it’s towering clock tower and Rebus and Romulus statue gifted to the city from Italy. This is one majestic building, with arches, wrought iron balcony fencing and palladium type windows. Plus that clock tower that towers (excuse the pun) over the little forested park in the front courtyard. It’s a lovely spot that enjoy passing time in while Cristina procures our tickets for the Palace of Culture.
Admittance granted, we wander into the grand entrance hallway of the the 100+ year old building. They use it for different cultural events, with the main theater in front of us (where there is actually someone practicing for a piano concerto on the stage currently), and other smaller halls and rooms on the floors above. The décor is stunning, with huge wooden archways and beautiful stained glass portraits of different Hungarian composers like Franz Litz and Erkel Ferenc, whose portrait Ed says doesn’t look like Erkel at all! We’re about the only ones who get that joke. Oh well.
Up on the 2nd floor we visit the hall of mirrors, which have 2 huge mirrors at each end of the hall and the most gorgeous stained glass windows that tell the stories of the daily life of Hungarian people and also a series of ballads. We aren’t allowed to take photos, which is a real shame because these windows are stunning. But, what can you do? Besides be there and soak up the beauty (then search the Internet for illegal photos others took!). Some of the stories the ballads tell are lovely morals– one representing the Horse as the only true friendship because a girl was seduced by the devil and left to die, and the only one who stayed with her until the end was her horse, who actually buried her. (Now does anyone have any questions about why I love horses?) Another ballad is about a woman who left her children behind for money and jewelry, but then realizes her mistake and returns, but her children wouldn’t forgive her.
Moving onto the Mayor’s Office (the one who built the palace), we see his desk and books but what is more fascinating is a collection of posters and photos that were taken in the early 1900’s showing how the city looked then. It’s really good display that visually depicts the history of the city, which is one of the largest in Transylvania, and has been the most important center of the Hungarian community in the western part of Romania. (That is until Ceausescu started his ethnic “cleansing” and moved all the Hungarians out and forced Romanians from the cities to move here. Not to mention exiling and killing the Jews.)
We finish our visit with a quick overview in the balcony of the theater, then make our way back out onto the street to the bus and our next stop, the Teleki Bolyai Library, founded at the end of the 18th C, and one of the oldest libraries in Romania. It was a really cool building, chock full of old books (some really odd like the Tibetan and English dictionary – I mean really? How weird is that?), but I must admit that I sort of zoned out through the whole presentation. My bad, I know, but I was still back in that hall of mirrors with the stained glass windows we couldn’t photograph!
I don’t recall how much time we spent in the library, but we were back on the bus a little after 10:30 and ready for our first long day on the road. As we were leaving, we were all captivated – well, more like horrified or terrified – by two guys replacing a roof on the building across the way. They are out on the roof, with no support, no rope ties, just standing on the wooden slats where the terracotta tiles are being affixed. It’s totally scary – but obviously, totally normal. They notice us watching and smile and wave – probably thinking how dumb is this whole busload of tourists who find watching roofers interesting!
We leave before any disasters can occur, and head off for our 3 hour ride up into the Carpathian mountains for lunch at Lacu Rosu, the Red Lake.
No comments:
Post a Comment