Apa

Balkania - Our Eternal Return

I think I would never have come to love Balkania so much, had I not met Marina Marinescu in Munich several years back. We had been acquainted since we met for the first time in Athens. Florin Marinescu, the specialist in Byzantine history to whom I was talking one day in

The Faces Of the City

Life Histories in Bucharest – the 20th Centuryexcerpt All the Greeks in the city sought to make me their son-in-law. Demostene Gramatopol, 1910-? My initial intention was to interview both Greeks belonging to the old Greek community in Bucharest, and some of those who

The Bitter Aftertaste Of Finis Saxoniae

excerpt Let's not be beastly to the nemţi[1], indeed. We owe them solid buildings dating back to prosperous times, they founded many a fortified city and settlement of historic importance; in one of our common sayings, absolute fairness is equated to splitting costs

My Rosenau In The Carpathians

I have always wondered why so many of those who happen to be born within the Carpathian arch, in Transylvania, have a sense of coming from a unique, privileged area, why they keep an enduring and unquestioned commitment to it whatever may happen in their lives, whether they

The Czechs And The Slovaks

A Slavic population whose state construction is very recent, the Czechs and Slovaks represent a minority in Romania; they have brought respect for labor and education in our country, as well as a vigorous religious faith.  Short history The Slovaks settled on the current

Personalities Of The Bulgarian Community

No one can argue the fact that the Bulgarians established in the Banat region – a rich, fertile and picturesque area – have been well-known for their capacity to work, tolerance, loyalty and openness in their relations with other co-nationals, regardless of nationality,

Andi Schönfeld

In 1962, Andi Schönfeld was a 16-year old, 1. 70 m tall, discretely freckled Jew with dark brown hair. All in all, he was rather lubberly, but with a crazy zest for life. But that story was one I only found out later. His father had been sentenced to death for espionage

The Forgotten Mosilor (May Fair) Street

Mosilor Street, the modern thoroughfare of a Bucharest that struggles so hard to appear occidentalized and yet doesn't quite manage to: something Balkan, Levantine lingers in the atmosphere of the streets, in spite of the concrete ten-floor blocks, of the road with

The Albanian Bucharest: From Merchant Elites To Cultural Elites

excerpts The gradual development of a cultural Moldo-Walachian elite of Albanian origin, that was able to manifest an awareness of the cultural identity of its origins through certain activities in this respect, an elite devoted to the idea of a modern and independent Albania,

A History Of The Albanian Community In Romania And Its Organization ALAR

President of ALAR Documents speak of an Albanian presence on Romanian land no earlier than 1595, when a report sent to the imperial Councillor Pezzen, by his agent Giovanni de Marini Poli on 14/24 March, highlights the arrival in Cervenavoda of 15,000 Albanians and their

Un Bucarestois A Paris, Un Parisien A Bucarest

Le peintre Theodor Pallady est né en 1871 à Jassy d'une ancienne famille de boyards moldaves, et il est mort à Bucarest en 1956. La soeur de son grand père, Basile Cantacuzino, était mariée à Puvis de Chavannes. Pourtant, l'éducation de Pallady commence

Correspondance

IXRome (Hôtel d'Europe), 11 octobre 1870. Ma chère Sacha, . . . C'est ma première journée de Rome! J'ai passé la nuit dernière en chemin de fer, partageant un coupé à banquettes pour dormir avec une jeune Autrichien que j'ai rencontré à la