Letter from Romania: A 12th-century village endures
| Viscri and Sighi葯oara, Romania
On a chilly January afternoon, a dog trails Cristian Radu as he walks the unpaved roads of听Viscri, Romania. The small Saxon village of whitewashed walls and red-tiled roofs sits below a听medieval fortified church, a UNESCO World Heritage site that tourists invade in warmer听weather. Mr. Radu remembers how, three decades ago, his remote Transylvanian community听was on the verge of collapse.
鈥淭he village started to decay,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was traumatic.鈥�
The 1989 fall of communism in Romania cued an exodus of Transylvanian Saxons 鈥� ethnic听Germans who settled in the region starting in the 12th century. Roma people began to take up听residence in many of the abandoned homes. Mr. Radu and partners have been working to lure听visitors back to Viscri by highlighting its Saxon history.听
Why We Wrote This
With the help of an NGO, a rural community in Transylvania has found that preserving its history brings profit 鈥� and pride.
Only a handful of Saxons听remain in Viscri. The village of听an estimated few hundred residents 鈥� mostly Roma and Romanians 鈥� now thrives on tourism with some 50,000 annual听visitors, according to Mr. Radu, the manager of Experience Transylvania.
The business operates a network of refurbished Saxon guest houses with wooden furnishings, where local听families cook traditional Romanian cuisine for visitors.听Local trades include blacksmithing and knitting, with techniques inherited from the village elders.听Passing horses as he walks, Mr. Radu points out small, blue plaques on the front of many houses. It鈥檚 the logo of a British nongovernmental organization operating in Romania that he and听other locals credit as a driver of Viscri鈥檚 revitalization.听
Named after a famous Romanian poet, the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) was established in London in听1987 to keep Romanian intellectuals in touch with the West amid oppression by the communist听regime. The NGO began its advocacy efforts in Romania in 1989, calling out communist dictator听Nicolae Ceau艧escu鈥檚 plans to demolish thousands of historical villages.听听
Today, Experience Transylvania manages several traditional guesthouses owned by the trust. Over the past two decades, the trust has worked to preserve the region鈥檚 ethnic and cultural heritage听with more than 1,240 projects costing over 鈧�10 million.
Funded by various NGOs听and government grants, including $500,000 from the U.S. Embassy, the projects involve fa莽ade improvements, large-scale conservation projects, youth education efforts, job training for locals, and the planting of more than 2.5 million trees throughout Transylvania.听Francesc Pla, program manager at the Council of Europe鈥檚 Culture and Cultural Heritage听Division, describes the trust as 鈥減otential inspiration for other rural regions of Europe.鈥�
MET director Caroline Fernolend, an ethnic German who grew up in Viscri, traces her听family鈥檚 ancestry here back to 1142. After the fall of communism, she left her accounting career to pursue her dream as a teacher, and spent nine years encouraging Roma to send their children to school. The experience compelled her to do more for her village, where 鈥渨e gained freedom, but we lost the community.鈥澨�
In 2000, her family was one of five to operate guest houses in Viscri. Today, her NGO has spread to 115 communities, working hand in hand with both Roma and Romanians on conservation, education, and training projects. 鈥淲e can see that the听quality of life improves, that the families can send their children to school, that their living听conditions are better, and that they do not have to live abroad to work; they can stay with their听families,鈥� she says at the MET office in the city of听Sighi葯oara.
Marlies Markel recalls Viscri in the 1990s when her family moved there from Germany: no听sewage system, abandoned houses, and few cars. 鈥淚t seemed that the modern times didn鈥檛 want听to touch the villages at the heart of Transylvania,鈥� Ms. Markel says in an email interview. She听credits MET for raising the living standards. 鈥淰iscri transformed into a village where it鈥檚 worth听living.鈥澨�
Mr. Radu points out various MET projects on his walk, including public toilets and a parking lot designed to lessen the impact of vehicular traffic. The trust also established the first ecological wastewater听system in Romania.
鈥淲e started to develop a pride of living in the village,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can preserve heritage, and it is profitable.鈥�
