Those who decide to travel through Romania would probably need to be well-informed, well-advised and highly selective in order to get the most of it, and fully enjoy the experience. Their first question will probably be: "What can Romania actually sell on the tourism market?"
The country can offer a various and harmonious natural heritage, places of beautiful and unspoiled nature in the Carpathian Mountains, along the Black Sea coast, and especially in the Danube Delta, a realm of wildlife which cannot be found elsewhere in Europe. Romanian landscapes seem to have been created by God for those who love nature without reserve.
Then there are those places with a special identity which make up human-made heritage, i.e. historic buildings or art monuments, which bear the distinctive imprint of local history, of the people who have raised them. As a rule, the "consumers" of heritage places, whether in Romania or elsewhere, are those "sensitive" travellers who have an interest in the past, in fine arts or in architecture, which is to say that they have sufficient education to understand the significance of a historical site or monument, to grasp the spirit of the place they visit. They usually associate the heritage place with the constructions of the present, with the local people they meet, and, in a wider sense, with the culture and society of the country they visit.
If the Danube Delta singles Romania out as a first-rate tourist destination with unique natural resources, the question arises whether it is possible for her to compete with other countries in point of heritage tourism too. Especially as she does not seem better "equipped" than other European countries with castles, palaces, cathedrals or fortresses commonly regarded as major attractions in cultural tourism.
So, is there anything in particular that distinguishes Romania from other countries? Or else, what are her strengths or selling points in heritage tourism?
Just like Greece for instance, Romania has got a wealth of churches and monasteries which actually make up the bulk of its cultural venues. All human settlements in Romania down to the most isolated hamlets have their own churches, which together with convents, monasteries and hermitages hold the key to interpreting local history and keep record of the local people's cultural and artistic development. But beyond their spiritual significance, the religious monuments in Romania are unique examples of creative art, i.e. the peasant fortified churches in Transylvania (15th c.), the wooden churches of Maramures (17th-18th centuries), the painted monasteries of Bukovina(16th-17th centuries).
Peasants in the remote Maramures and Oas highland areas, in the villages of the Iza river valley or of the Viseu river valley have kept to their traditional ways of life from times immemorial. Their small but graceful wooden churches have beautiful Byzantine murals and icons on the inside, but paradoxically their slender bell-towers built in the church suggest the Gothic style. Their oak or pine-tree structure makes a Scandinavian traveller, for instance, feel at home. The alchemy produced between these old Orthodox and Greek-Catholic sanctuaries and their shape, pertaining to the genuine architecture styles of western churches, has yet to be discovered.
Going south to Transylvania, the inquisitive traveller will be surprised to learn that a great many of the heritage places he or she visits are but traces of a virtually extinct culture, i.e. the Saxons. These German settlers lived on Transylvania's territory since the 12th century, but due to adverse historic circumstances, i.e. WW II, the communist abuses, fled to Germany in great numbers and left behind whatever they have built for thirty generations now. It is the Saxons who laid the foundations of the seven main medieval towns in Transylvania (Siebenbürgen), i.e. Brasov, Sibiu, Sighisoara (one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe and ranging among UNESCO world heritage sites), Cluj-Napoca, Bistrita, Sebes, Medias with their precinct walls, towers, bastions, bridges, vaults, squares, civilian and public houses, and, of course, churches. And yet their main contribution is not relating to town churches but to a hybrid and particularly effective form of architecture, namely the peasant fortified churches, that would protect the villagers from frequent raids by Tartars or Turks during the Middle Ages.
About 230 peasant fortified churches stand today in Transylvania but they are doomed to crumble down for lack of parishioners and of state funds to restore them. Few of them, however, like Biertan, Prejmer or Harman have recently been restored with assistance from UNESCO or from foundations in Germany. Therefore, visitors are delighted to discover their fortified precincts, their vaulted covered walks, their gate towers and bastions and, more picturesque than anything else, their supply storing cells where villagers could take refuge at times of siege.
Aliens from outside the earth left behind the stone sculptures of the Easter Island and fled to a better world. On a smaller and much different scale, so did the German Saxons of Transylvania.
Crossing the mountains over to Bukovina in pursuit of other UNESCO World Heritage sites, i.e. the monasteries of Voronet, Humor, Moldovita, Sucevita or Arbore, the curious traveller will stop and wonder again: "How could a 0.25 m thick layer of colour, displayed on the outer wall frescoes of these monasteries, resist to rain and snow falls for over 400 years now? What else beside vinegar and egg yolk did that secret combination of colours contain? And whose idea was to unfold an illustrated Bible on the entire wall surface of these monasteries anyway? And to what purpose?"
Given their authenticity, quality and diversity, churches and monasteries in Romania are undeniable areas of excellence for all those seeking a pleasant and rewarding travel experience.
