Romania 2007

Photos by Adam Jones

The following photos were taken on a monthlong trip through Romania in June 2007.

Photo Gallery 19 - Bistrita and Sighet

I.

Bistrita is in northern Transylvania, and figures in Bram Stoker's
novel Dracula. The sign is fairly self-explanatory. What's amusing, as
Lonely Planet reports, is that "There was no such hotel [and restaurant as the
'Golden Crown'] at the time Dracula was published, but one was later built
to make history right and keep the tourist buses coming."

II.

This photo and following: chilling out in Bistrita's
municipal park and swimming pool.

III.

IV.

V.

Sighet (Sighetu Marmatiei) (1)

Photo by Griselda Ramírez

Sighet, hard up against the Ukrainian border in Miramures district,
is one of the most pleasant towns we visited. From the 18th century until the
Second World War, it was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Romania,
constituting 40% of the town's population. After 1940, the Maramures region was
turned over to the fascist Hungarian government. In 1944, the Nazis, who had occupied
Hungary, deported virtually the entire Jewish population of Maramures to Auschwitz.
The great majority died there. Among the deported who survived was a young boy named
Elie Wiesel, who went on to coin the term "Holocaust," to write the classic Night
and many other works, and to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Below is the house where the
Wiesel family lived, now a museum; we stayed right next door at the lovely Casa Iurca de
Calinesti hotel, the chimney of which is visible at top left.

VI.

Hari Markus is leader of the 200-strong Jewish community remaining in Sighet.
He graciously showed us the sole surviving synagogue in the city. Here, he's standing
in the garden of the Jewish Community Center.

VII.

Inside the Sighet synagogue.

VIII.

The Jewish cemetery in Sighet includes gravestones, like this one,
commemorating family members who were deported and murdered at Auschwitz.

IX.

This photo and following: older tombstones in the Jewish cemetery.

X.

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